Tag Archives: Drama

Journey Back To Christmas Review

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It’s time for a classic Hallmark Christmas movie! They always tend to do good work with these titles and I’m happy to say that this one is no exception. It even involves time travel which is absolutely a massive W. I always like to see that in any film since it adds some interesting concepts. Now the romance may not have been particularly strong in this one but the rest of the adventure is still solid overall.

The movie starts by introducing us to Hanna who has had a rough time of things since her husband was sent off to the war and is presumed to have been killed in action. Hanna has watched everyone go to these wars and feels like she has not really been able to contribute as much. She does get to save a dog who got lost in the cold though and does her best to help keep a kid stay cheerful even when he’s in a rough condition. Well, a time travelling comet shows up and brings her decades in the future to 2016. Now Hanna sees that her actions did lead the way to a whole lot of good changes. Is she stranded in the future?

Hanna’s a fun lead but I do have to say that she was a little slow on the uptake when it came to realizing that she had time traveled. Usually you get one or two freebies from me but after that you need to lock in. She was still running through stores and wondering where her house was after there should have been enough time to see that things were different. Even if she figured time travel was impossible, then she needs to consider that this is some kind of government experiment or aliens are around.

In any of those events, it would be in her best interest to act normally and play her moves carefully. Ah well, at least she was still a nice person and did her best to help the others with their own issues. She brought a good amount of cheer to the neighborhood and showed everyone what an old fashioned Christmas was like. We didn’t get the usual amount of Hallmark baking moments in this Christmas movie but we did get some caroling.

The main guy here is Jake and he’s not the most professional guy here. I did like the fact that he didn’t want to arrest Hanna straightaway the way the rest of the police wanted him to. He pointed out that she wasn’t dangerous and they could figure this out. Nothing wrong with that but where he faltered is when he actually fell for Hanna. You really can’t be getting involved with the suspects and it also meant that there was no way to root for him to get along with Sarah afterwards. It would make the whole thing a true rebound.

Jake tried to tell everyone that he was just being polite and that’s how the film should have played it out. Instead you have the jealous childhood friend doing her best to get Hanna out of the picture and it ends up making her look really petty which make the ship even harder to root for. That’s why the only good romance here was between Hanna and her husband since that one had a lot of development and you wanted the happy ending. The other plot didn’t really need to be included to be honest.

As always with the Hallmark films, this one has good pacing and quality writing. It’s why you can overlook a lot of things because you’re just having a lot of fun here. Even the main antagonist is fun as she keeps trying to encourage the cops to take Hanna away. She’s just being petty for no real good reason and acts like a real life grinch. Her husband tries to mind his business while he enjoys his dinner but it’s clear that she takes the flavor out of it. Some of these supporting characters don’t have much to do like the kid who finally learns to put the phone down but it’s to make the town feel very large so it’s probably worth it.

It’s also fortunate for Hanna that she wasn’t warped 100 years into the future. There are still a few people from her era who are still alive like Tobias who helps to add a lot of credibility to her claim. He was the kid that she helped from a while back so it’s also another way for her to see what a difference she made in so many lives. Without him, I like to think that the perfume would have still helped a lot because it was a discontinued model but I think it still wouldn’t have been quite as convincing.

So in the end my only negative would essentially be that Hanna was a bit too oblivious to all the context around her. It’s a small issue though and one you can look over. I wouldn’t have minded a proper confrontation with the one lady who was trying to stir up trouble as well but it would only work if you gave Hanna a different personality. She just wasn’t the combative type here. Maybe if you scrapped the backup romance plot, that would have left more time for a full character arc like that.

Overall, This won’t go down as one of the all time Hallmark titles but I had a good bit of fun with it. They could have done more with the time travel but the film was fairly short and I suppose they didn’t want to complicate things too much. If you like the formula then you should check this one out. It’s a reminder that every action has consequences even if you don’t get to see them in your lifetime. Hanna did a lot of good even if she would have never know it if not for the time travel. The ending itself is also very wholesome when she goes back to the past so I can appreciate that. A perfect film for Christmas season.

Overall 7/10

The Angel of Pennsylvania Avenue

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It’s time for a wholesome story about a few kids deciding to see the President. It reminds you that this isn’t an easy task and yet it can be accomplished if you have a lot of resilience and are resourceful. This makes for an uplifting film even if it is all handled rather seriously. There aren’t a lot of overt laughs to be had here but the film doesn’t falter and the pacing is pretty good. I wasn’t aware of the events that the film was based off of either.

The movie takes place during the Great Depression and jobs are scarce. Everyone was looking forward to a good Christmas but the father announces that he will have to travel across states for a job opportunity. His wife is pregnant and they already have 3 kids so money is absolutely becoming an issue now. He tells them to stay strong and it’ll all work out but unfortunately that is easier said than done. He is framed for assaulting someone while trying to get the job and is taken to jail. Unfortunately this may end up being a death sentence if the victim dies and so the oldest kid decides that she will visit the president to put a stop to this. Her younger siblings want to come as well and naturally once the three of them vanish, the Mom has to go after them as well.

Now this is one of those things that probably couldn’t happen in the current day. There are way more safeguards in place and travelling across states is incredibly tricky. They would really need more money and I also don’t think the bluffs they used in this film would actually work. People are going to have their guards up if they see kids running around all by themselves and for good reason. So the kids would likely be stopped pretty early on in their journey.

As it is, they got quite a lot of help in this one like with another kid helping them hide while in the train and the conductors trusting their word when the kids say that their mom is already on the train. The kids get big props for making it this far although it would have probably been a bit easier for the oldest kid if she was on her own. The younger ones were a lot quicker to give up and also generally be disheartened at times. It makes sense since they are so young but it’s why they should have really stayed home. Their stubbornness could have really back fired.

Meanwhile the Mom did her best considering that she was still pregnant. She had to essentially go on an adventure of her own and in the days before cell phone and technology, this was a real shot in the dark. She had to hope that the kids were still on track for their destination and there are plenty of ways that they could have missed each other. That whole trip would have been super stressful.

The movie does show that there were quite a lot of helpful people every step of the way. Whether it was nice people helping through hitchhiking or just providing direction, everyone helped out a bit. There were one or two bad apples in there like the drunk driver so the world wouldn’t feel overly perfect but it was definitely filled with many more positives than negatives which is always reassuring. So on the whole the movie is sounding pretty promising so why do I not have it super high?

Well at times the movie just feels like it’s not making a whole lot of traction. I don’t think the pacing was great at it could take a while for plot progression at times. I also think that since the main characters were the kids, that limited the film’s potential at times. The kids did their best but it’s not like they’re going to have a lot of witty banter. The younger kids would be giving up like I mentioned before but even the eldest wasn’t always good at staying in control. She was baited into a fight rather easily which isn’t bad. There are good times to get into a fight for sure and this could even be one of them but then she needs to own it. She acted confused on why her mother was upset when it should have been pretty clear even from her perspective.

I also think this is an example of a film that’s a bit dry. Without any big humor scenes or explosive climaxes, there isn’t a whole lot to keep you at the edge of your seat. I think it would have been nice to have had more meanwhile scenes with the father in jail. Maybe showing him try to plead his case or coming up with a plan. I imagine it might have been difficult to do too much here considering the movie was based on a true chain of events but it would have been interesting because I think his plot would have been fun. He was a good guy just trying to look out for his family and then things went sideways. He’d be really desperate at that point so there is a lot you could do there.

Overall, This was a good movie. Even though it is light hearted, the serious nature of the film does prevent it from having too much replay value. The pacing isn’t very fast and like I mentioned before there aren’t a lot of laughs. You will enjoy the good quality of the movie but I feel like there won’t be a whole lot of reason to watch it again beyond that. So this is one of those titles where you are in it for the initial enjoyment and that will have to be enough. If this sounds like it is up your alley then you should check it out.

The Legend of Zorro Review

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When you watch a Zorro film, ordinarily you’re expecting the hero to look pretty good. Unfortunately that is not the case here as Zorro has his worst film appearance yet. The film itself isn’t bad but yeah it’s going to be a bit hard to get around that and the romance is absolutely abysmal here. Definitely one of the worst romances you will have seen in quite a while here. None of the characters look even remotely decent by the end of it.

The story starts with Zorro taking names and saving the day as per usual. Unfortunately his wife Elena is not happy with how much time Zorro spends away from the family. So they end up divorcing and Zorro gets super depressed. Fast forward to some time later and Elena has quickly rebounded with the wealthy Armand. She can now live a life of luxury with a man who will devote all of his time to her. Zorro is very jealous about this but it’s hard to defeat this guy. Zorro has become a bit of a drunk and Armand seems to be good at everything. Hopefully Armand turns out to be evil or something…or Zorro might be doomed.

I should also mention that Zorro and Elena had a kid which makes the divorce that much worse. The kid gets quite a bit of screentime and tends to be rather annoying. You have to try and watch his scenes as though the film is a complete comedy like his opening action scene where he defeats his teacher in a fencing battle. He straight up takes down a full adult and it’s meant to be real impressive. It’s more of a groanworthy scene. The fact that the kid can fight automatically makes him better than the average kid but he didn’t really need to be here.

Outside of the opening action scene which is admittedly very solid, don’t expect much from Zorro either here. The whole middle part of the film is him making a fool out of himself. Getting dunked on by Armand, allowing himself to be the butt of the joke like in the maid scene, and generally just looking very petty. He didn’t really give Elena any good reasons to go back to him. We finally get some fun Zorro action in the climax and even Elena gets a fight but it feels really late for that.

Part of the problem here is that the film has a number of plot twists to unveil but you immediately know that none of them are going to salvage Zorro’s character. Even if he doesn’t exactly know how things escalated with him and Elen so much, he should have been the bigger man and done some digging. Confront her and get to the bottom of the issue/find out if the problem is really that he is Zorro. As for Elena, the twists don’t help her at all. Lets just say it involves blackmail and then she has plans of her own but none of them really excuse her deciding to just leave Zorro in the dark.

In a perfect world they could have been teaming up the whole time. There would need to be significant changes to the plan of course but it could have worked and made both of them look good. Instead they just look really bad and Armand ends up looking a lot better. There’s a particularly embarrassing scene where Zorro is hiding behind some vegetables and thinks he has an opening so he walks over to Elena. Naturally he was not subtle and Armand caught him.

You’re going to be cringing really hard on Zorro’s behalf here. It’s crazy character assassination and I don’t think I need to go into detail on why this makes the romance really bad. Zorro and Elena’s bond was apparently weaker than you ever could have imagined for this whole story to take place. I also think to an extent the whole romance drama was added because the main plot wasn’t going to be enough to hold people’s attention. You have some drama over the states and the civil war approaching but it’s all rather boring. The villains are fairly generic and the plot just doesn’t have much life to it.

So I don’t blame the movie for putting the romance as the main focus but it absolutely could have given the characters some more dignity in the process. The film’s fight scenes are good enough where you feel like the movie should have leaned into that a whole lot more. With all of the big fight scenes this could have been an absolutely great film. Maybe actually build up to Zorro being too obsessive with sopping criminals to make Elena’s problem appear to be more valid. It’s always going to be a tough sell because he is saving lives throughout but it can be done. Maybe he starts to go too far or something.

As for the villains, well you’ve got a classic heel with Armand here. Whether he ends up being evil or not, play him up as the big antagonist. Someone who is a total jerk and taking everything that Zorro wants but without giving Zorro a way to take him down. He keeps his hands clean on the surface which makes Zorro more and more frustrated. The building blocks were all there to make this a really fun film. Then just write the kid out and you’re really all set.

Overall, The Legend of Zorro is a film that is fun to watch but you can definitely tell that it should have been a lot better. At times it does aim a little too young and goes with the easy jokes. The pacing is good though and the movie does feel like it really flies by. So you can see that there was a lot of effort put into this one, the priorities just weren’t always where they should have been. I’d still recommend checking the movie out but if you really like Zorro as a character…be warned that his appearance here is a bit diferent.

Overall 6/10

Megaman Star Force Tribe Review

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It’s been a long while since I got to check out a Star Force title so it was nice to be able to read this one. The oneshot has a pretty interesting angle to it but the story is ultimately too short to take full advantage. It’s a pretty good title but it definitely left a lot of meat on the bone and at times the tone shifts could be a bit jarring. If you thought some characters went easy on Eren for massacring millions of people in Attack on Titan, get ready for how the Mega crew handle this crisis!

The story begins with a flashback as the narrator explains how there was once a tribe of Megamen. They all lived in peace and harmony until Bly showed up. He massacred all of them and so the tribe was no more. None of the Mega Men could stand up against him and why did he destroy them all? To prove his own power! Yes, Bly simply wants a worthy challenge and will destroy everyone in his way. In the present we find out that one Mega Man survived, his name is Berserk and he intends to avenge his fallen comrades. Consumed by vengeance, he marches on to Bly’s castle.

This would actually be the perfect story for one of those old school 2D beat em ups. Berserk really isn’t holding back and the way he is drawn makes the guy look constantly psychotic. It’s pretty fun to have a main character like that and since his character’s revenge is portrayed as really justified, you don’t have to have any reservations about rooting for him. Stopping Bly is important because the guy will never stop murdering his opponents to achieve true power.

Alas, this probably seemed a bit too dark to the editors so very quickly we run into a “Last Kryptonian”/”Last Saiyan” kind of angle. Turned out other Mega Men survived the purge. One of them works for Bly now. He’s not mind controlled or anything, he just figures there is no way to fight back….or he might have a plan. Either way, Berserk has to prove himself and show why he was always the most powerful. I like the little detail that each Mega Man is based on a different form from within the Star Force games. The main 3 are naturally the 3 main forms from the second video game.

Where the tone problems come from is how the characters will goof off during battle. Now you may say this is just a normal Shonen thing but it’s just a bit overdone here. Think about super exaggerated facial expressions and things like that. It can be jarring with how suddenly it happens and this also impacts the story. For example, we actually get a comedic moment with Bly towards the end and then everyone’s joking around as if he didn’t just murder a ton of people. It should just be way too personal for all of that.

Additionally, the manga gets clearly rushed as we are given a traditional plot of 8 bosses who are protecting each floor. Then suddenly Bly shows up and one shots 4 of them because he just couldn’t wait any longer. Yeah I can always enjoy a good subversion but this felt more like the series had to suddenly end. We don’t even get to see the Tribe King form all that much as a result. It does get a lot of respect as being the most powerful form though so that was nice to see.

I also thought Bly was generally a really solid villain as you’d expect. He’s very powerful and is absolutely no nonsense when it comes to battle. He doesn’t get a ton of screentime due to the length of the series but each of his scenes are pretty good. The only other villain with a good amount of screentime is the evil magician but he’s more played for laughs. The guy isn’t a great fighter and has to rely on cheap tricks to stay in the game. He’s not much of a challenge to Berserk.

Berserk makes for a pretty good main character. I liked that he was so determined and wasn’t going to give up, even if it meant being outnumbered and having to go up against a ton of fighters. He was absolutely not going to hold back. He also didn’t fall for the whole “You can’t attack your allies!” strategy that the magician pulled and just snapped some sense into the other Mega Man. You can’t afford to be defeated in this kind of situation and it’s why I’m always annoyed when any hero fall for that. There’s a time and a place for mercy and this isn’t it.

While I enjoyed the intensity of the art, it was a bit rough at times. Almost like it was trying too hard to look intense and at times it just backfired instead. It was still clear enough so I enjoyed it but it’s a far cry from the NT Warrior or Gigamix titles. Megaman Starforce always felt like it got a bit of the shaft next to the other Mega series so either way I was glad to see another manga for it. It technically got more content than I give it credit for with 2 anime, 3 games, and multiple manga but it still felt like there was more that could have happened here.

Overall, Mega Man Star Force Tribe was a pretty good manga. There is only so much you can do in one volume after all. I liked the idea of a whole tribe filled with Mega Man but it does raise some questions on how they could all be defeated so easily. Were most of them just super weak or something? Even by the end, while it’s clear that Bly is stronger than any individual Mega Man, it wasn’t so much of a gap that you could picture him eating a ton of them. I guess you had the element of surprise and all but that’s an area where a longer series would have been able to flesh things out more. One volume titles always tend to be a bit of a tease but it’s fun to theory craft how things could have gone on your own. If you’re a Mega Man fan then I definitely recommend checking this one out!

Overall 7/10

Old Yeller Review

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Old Yeller is one of those films where you immediately know that it’s not going to be very good. Nothing about it particularly stands out for good reasons but there are sure a lot of bad ones. When a dog is a prominent character in a film, odds are that the movie will not be able to hold itself back from having bad things happen to it. That’s just the way that these things go.

The movie starts with a man leaving his family behind as he has a job to do and so his older son Travis vows to protect the family. The problem is that he is out of his depth from the start as he constantly panics and blames everyone else for his shortcomings. He goes as far as to threaten the local stray, Old Yeller. Travis never appears as a reasonable character for a large chunk of the film and even lays an intentional trap to try and shoot Yeller. This kid’s not above throwing rocks at the dog either. All in all, a sad excuse for a main character. You’re absolutely waiting for him to get humbled the whole time and admit that he never had a good plan.

As the film goes on you never get to be a fan of him. He’s rude and immature for the duration of the film. Meanwhile his younger brother Arliss isn’t as bad although he is so young that he does manage to get into a lot of trouble on multiple occasions. He’s just not old enough to know what’s going on and has a habit of disobeying authority which doesn’t help. You’ll be cringing at several of his scenes.

Meanwhile their mom Katie does her best to keep a hands off approach but sometimes you feel like she should be doing a bit more. She calls out Travis when he keeps making mistakes in the intro but perhaps it was her time to take charge by this point. She also has to play nice with the annoying neighbors who come to visit. I won’t be as harsh in this instance because it’s probably the smart play while they’re all alone. It’ll just make you annoying at Arliss again for making them have to cook dinner.

Some would say that the kids in this film are realistic but all that counts is how annoying they are here. Yeller does good, he’s probably the only high quality character in the film. He fights hard at all times and really dominates. The only time he’s on the losing side of things is when the pesky humans get in the way. So that’s not really something that would be his fault.

The supporting characters were not all that good either. In particular, Yeller’s old owner stands out. You would have expected him to have been ready to fight for Yeller the whole way through. Why would you let some kids keep him? That just doesn’t make any sense and makes the guy not look like a good owner. Yeah some kids would be sad about it but you’d be even sadder to lose your dog. It’s really no contest.

Of course the biggest issue the film has is the animal violence. You probably guessed that by this point though. There is quite a bit of it as animals are hunted left and right while of course stuff happens with Yeller. The film has no shortage of making sure you don’t have a whole lot of fun with this one and this absolutely sealed the deal for the film. It’s not like I find the old west to be a great backdrop in the first place. So it’s not like the film had any backup there. In the end the deck was absolutely stacked against it.

I don’t even think a remake would be able to do a whole lot of good here. Ultimately what would hold that one back is that even if they change the ending, I’m sure there will be a lot of turmoil with the dog and they will probably want to keep the other animal stuff present as well. Lets face it, this is the ultimate lose-lose kind of situation. It’s why generally my advice to filmmakers is not to include animals in their movies at all. Yeah sometimes you will get a harmless one but those are exceptionally rare.

I suppose a remake could at least make the kid less annoying though. Maybe age him up so he’s already an adult and doesn’t have to be trying so hard with little results this time around. Maybe it’ll be more of an invasion film where he’s attacked by Indians or something. Now if there’s one positive I can say for the film, it’s that the runtime isn’t super long. If this film were 2 hours then it would have definitely been really rough. It would have been dragged on forever, so I give the film credit for showing some restraint there.

Overall, Old Yeller is not a film that I would recommend to anyone. It fails the basic lesson of all films which is that they’re supposed to be fun. A film that does not provide any entertainment value is one that was doomed from the start. This is definitely a film with 0 replay value and you will want to stay far away from it. If you need to watch a quality film with dogs, I’d say to grab a random Air Bud film. Those usually have a tendency to be pretty solid all the way around.

Overall 1/10

The Place Promised in our Early Days Review

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It’s time for a dramatic anime film with a lot of feelings going around with the main characters. Unfortunately the film also has a really interesting political plot going on. The only reason I phrase that as a negative is you’ll become a lot more interested in that part which is really just to set the stage for the main adventure. You won’t get any real closure or details on that part which is a bit of a shame.

The movie starts by introducing us to Hiroki and Takuya. They are best friends and have been working together to build a jet. They want to visit the large tower that separates the country of Japan. This is pretty dangerous and against the law though so they have to do this on the sneak. They’re each a genius in their own righ, Takuya is an expert on code while Hiroki is more on the hardware side but they’re both very proficient on both ends. They have a mutual friend named Sayui who wants to tag along as well but one day she vanishes. Both of the boys don’t really know if they want to complete their plane after that and drift away. Years pass and multiple parallel dimensions begin to emerge. Is it time to bring the plane back in?

So I mentioned how the tower has split Japan in two. Well, you’re not going to get a lot more about how this affected the region. We see that half of the country belongs to the U.S. and half of it is for Japan but that’s really the extent of what we know. The tower is being used for experiments to harness energies and matter from other dimensions on but why are they doing this and how did they get such a big headstart? Apparently that half of the country is close to 50 years ahead of our main characters.

I could have followed a whole movie about this as the characters have to wonder if they should even be using this power or if it is perhaps a little too much for any of them to be dealing with. There’s a whole lot of potential right here but instead we go back to the main story. So in a sense, the main story may be better than what it felt like since I couldn’t help but compare it to the larger scale of what was going on. It was just really interesting and why make an alternate history film if you aren’t going to go into it? You could have easily done the whole jetplane plot with a normal timeline if you ask me.

For the main characters, Takuya starts out as a good lead but really begins to falter down the line. He makes the classic blunder of beginning to trust the government a little too much and letting it cloud his judgment. At one point he finds out that someone is being kept asleep in order to protect the planet. Yes, it’s a noble goal if you look at it from a utilitarian point of view but obviously it’s not good for the person who is trapped. This person is even conscious and stuck the whole time although Takuya couldn’t know that.

He goes as far as to nearly sabotage efforts to save this character and really just fell down a whole lot compared to what he used to be like. As a kid he was serious but still had a good head on his shoulders. His technical abilities may have improved but his emotions sure didn’t. I get that he was under a lot of stress but this should be a no brainer. The fate of the world based on some massive assumptions, or saving an innocent person who’s been trapped? The latter has to always win.

So I give Hiroki more of the credit here. He definitely took Sayuri’s disappearance hard and vanished for a while but while he was depressed, he continued to move forward. Once he learned that he had a chance to save the day, he didn’t hesitate and went right back to the project. He was a very earnest guy and is what you’d expect from your average main character. He does what is needed as soon as possible.

As for Sayuri, she was a fun enough character. She always had fun hanging out with the boys and the 3 of them made for good friends. It was nice to see them all getting along without anybody getting jealous or anything like that. It seemed like she initially liked Takuya and even eventually liked Hiroki instead but it’s played in a much more subtle way and didn’t blow up into some annoying romance drama. Trust me that would have been super annoying. Instead, the film lets them all act mature about this.

Sayuri definitely had the hardest trial out of the 3 main characters since she was stuck all by herself in a really desolate place. The way the time worked, she at least didn’t need to eat or anything like that but the loneliness alone is still a killer. So she did well to stay as positive as she did when others would have definitely cracked by the end.

The cast remains pretty small even to the end. There’s a researcher who liked Takuya and of course you had one of the big resistance guys who was always flirting with girls and getting parts for the guys, but that’s about it. The focus here is really on the small, intimate story that is going on despite the huge events taking place in the background. I’m all for focusing on a few characters but the story gets distracted a little too much for me to rank this one higher.

All the parallel worlds business didn’t seem to have much of a point here except to include Sayuri’s plot into the story. It’s an interesting concept but since the film doesn’t have a ton of time to focus on it, it feels like it’s just extra weight. The fact that some guy actually invented how to read into these worlds and come up with new tech is certainly impressive….even if it leaves you with more questions.

The animation is pretty solid here. I don’t think it’s the best work that I’ve seen from this group but it works well enough. It’s not like there are a ton of action scenes that would really let the film show off its stuff or anything like that. The soundtrack is also a bit more on the forgettable side. No song that will really stay in your head or anything like that but the ost works well enough in the moment.

Overall, The adventure was fun enough but you just don’t care about the kids too much. It takes a little while for their plot to really start going and by then you would rather learn more about the government or more about the parallel worlds. The last thing in your head is abuot the kids and to be honest it’s pretty hard to picture them completing the mission anyway. Their jet would have had a tough enough time when they were first building it, but years later? It would just be too out of date by that point. Still, it’s a wholesome story about never giving up and has a soild enough ending even if it does dabble into one thing that I’m never a big fan of. The sacrifice one character makes just erases too much character development for me. So if you’re up for a quick anime adventure you can check this one out, but there are strongr anime movies out there.

Overall 6/10

Loki: Season 2 Review

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It’s time to close out the Loki saga over here. Season 1 was pretty fun with a lot of interesting concepts and the TVA actually worked rather well as a centerpiece. This season spends a lot more time, buying time, if that makes sense. As a result it does tend to be a little less exciting and I felt like the season didn’t really hit its stride until the final episode. You almost could have jumped right into that. It’s still a good season and you should definitely check it out if you watched the first one. Just be prepared for some of the slower pacing you’ll have seen in a while.

The last season ended with Loki failing to stop Sylvie from murdering Kang which started a whole chain reaction that changed the TVA. Now nobody even remembers Loki and he’s time spazzing all over the place. He needs to find a way to stop warping through time at random intervals, get everyone to remember the true timeline, and get things back on track. To do this, he will definitely need Mobius on his side and together they will have to convince Sylvie as well. This definitely won’t be easy.

The season is only 6 episodes but technically there isn’t actually a ton to cover. That’s why it does feel like the show tries to start buying time later on which can feel a bit obnoxious. This brings us to the worst character in the series, Timely. This guy takes forever to finish a single sentence and is always super nervous. It’s hard to take him serious even though he’s supposed to be a super genius. He gets the important things wrong anyway after all. I guess maybe it’s better to think of him as a red herring. Not the most flattering way to think about him, but ultimately that’s what he is reduced to.

The show also has to nerf Loki quite a lot in order to extend the chases. For example at one point you have Loki and Mobius trying to track down a defector named Brad. This should be easy. It’s 2 on 1, Brad’s just a normal human, and they have the element of surprise. Even with that, Brad manages to shake them for a good chunk of the episode. Keep in mind that Loki is still a powerful god with magical abilities. Stopping Brad even without hurting him should be absolutely easy. It should in fact be absolutely trivial.

Throughout the show Loki feels like he’s just a human with basic magic powers which feels off. He gets humiliated by Sylvie every time they fight and the rest of the characters don’t treat him like a powerful threat. It’s a classic case of Loki getting weaker the instant he became a protagonist. In one episode Brad just disrespects the guy for a long time. Loki gets the last laugh but you’re hoping he would just knock the guy out after a while.

This season is really aiming to complete his character arc of redemption though. So you could say in a sense that the fact that Loki feels more muzzled is intentional. It does lead up to him looking really good in the final episode which not surprisingly was my favorite one. Loki really got to cut loose there and while I would argue that he made the wrong decision, it was one that was very understandable. He did what he thought he had to. A certain anime named Madoka had the main character make the same choice and ultimately it’s up to everyone else to decide if they accept this or if they will help find another way. Unfortunately I don’t think Loki has any friends who are going to be selfless enough to try and help him here.

So power levels aside, Loki was a fun character here. I enjoyed his dialogue quite a bit and as always he had a great dynamic with Mobius. Mobius is the other standout character here and if anything I wish that his role could have been bigger. Anytime he’s on screen, you know the role is going to be really good. He’s great as being condescending and then sarcastic as the need arises. He’s perfect in the jaded, middle aged dude role. You really believe him when he just seems bored of everything at this point. He has mastered being detached from reality.

As a result you don’t really care about his serious plot of wondering about what his life could have been like. I think he’s at his best when none of that matters to him. If we had to get a new season without Loki, I actually think Mobius could hold his own show. The rest of the supporting characters would have to step it up a little bit though since he was way more charismatic than any of them. None of the others could even come close to his ability.

Ouroboros is one of the characters who gets a lot to do here. He’s one of those tech geniuses who isn’t great as social interactions but gets the job done. He isn’t bad but his array of jokes are a bit limited. He’s really got one gimmick and it will be spammed a lot. So not a bad character, but probably not someone who will make you raise an eyebrow. Ravonna gets a much smaller role than you would expect but she’s okay. My main issue with her would be that she didn’t have much of a grand plan.

It felt like she was easy to manipulate and the way she went out was rather anticlimactic. Ideally she will return with some kind of a power up, but if she never appears again, I will always remember her as being a little overconfident. Miss Minutes was a lot more compelling. She was good at hacking everything and getting in the way of the heroes. If anything you could say that she got off rather easy here. People are too trusting of A.I. and so she could definitely do more in the future. She’s one of those insane villains who can be fun to have around.

Then we have Brad who is a fairly reasonable villain. He’s very cocky and not one of the stronger characters here. What I mean by that is he will very easily be broken by anyone. Loki gets him to crack first, then Miss Minutes cracks him next, and by the end he gets mind controlled. Brad really can’t catch a break, nor does he deserve one. He’s a classic example of a guy who just does whatever he wants and ignores the consequences. Someone who is a good agent but not someone you can count on. The show handles his character well.

As for Sylvie, she was a bit too weak willed for me. She made her big decision in season 1 and at this point I feel like she just needs to stick to it. There’s nothing here that should be particularly surprising to her. She had to know what would happen by removing the cosmic lynchpin and just made the decision that aligned with her morals. I’ll get into this more later on but I would argue that it was actually the right move anyway. Loki was on the wrong side for most of this season and by the end he stumbles onto a new path but otherwise Sylvie would have been right.

So Sylvie falters a bit too easily. She is still a fun villain to have around but the heroes let her be too smug the whole time. They should probably at least try to arrest her in the meantime. I also don’t buy Loki losing to her every time when they fight a bunch in this season. Eventually he ought to find a way to win. We can assume that he did and we don’t get to see those futures but I would have liked the show to have made that clear. Otherwise it’s close to an unchangeable point in time which I always find dubious at best. Sylvie made a nice little life for herself on Earth and should have been satisfied with it.

Then we have He Who Remains, who is a solid villain. I liked him a lot more than in season 1 but the guy is still way too suicidal to be an impressive villain. The fact that he can defeat almost anyone but chooses to die just makes him a bit lame. I get that he’s been around forever and after some thousands of years anyone would want a break but then he should go out on his own terms. Go to a planet that’s about to explode and go with a bang. Don’t just let someone stab you to death. I liked that Loki called him out on it.

The mini theme song is pretty fun as always. I like the eerie music that plays when the Loki logo is being spelled out. It sets the tone nicely for the adventure although it would be nice to have more of a real theme song. The soundtrack doesn’t have many other tunes but this is still enough to be memorable. The visuals are also good, the effects are on point and the battles look good. There isn’t a ton of action here but what we do get is good.

Okay so one of the big debates here was on whether the TVA should prune timelines or not. Kang believes that this is necessary as you have to stop the timelines from splitting or it will introduce more Kangs who will eventually destroy the multiverse. There would just be too many of them to stop. Meanwhile Sylvie believes that doing this is immoral as you are destroying countless universes daily in order to ensure that there is only one sacred timeline. Since a new timeline comes into being for every decision that every person makes, it is quite literally infinite.

Of course it is prioritized to deal with ones that will have a Kang spawning and the TVA exists outside of time so it’s not like they’ll ever be late but it is something that will never end. I tend to be on Sylvie’s case here. The TVA is playing judge, jury, and executioner at the moment. They slaughter more people on a daily basis than anyone else in history. No matter how you slice it, that’s a really bad look. Their overall goals and visions may be ambitious but overall they don’t void this point. If the Kangs do start a war, then you will have to fight them and hope that good prevails.

Due to the way that time travel works, maybe they’d all be dead already if the war was going to come and so they shouldn’t worry about it either. Assigning themselves as the heads of time is certainly an abuse of power. You also have to trust that Kang was telling the truth. So yes I am firmly on Sylvie’s side. Even if saving everyone means they will eventually die, it’s your duty to save as many as possible. In the final episode we get a quick twist that allows Loki to bypass the whole debate but nobody could have predicted that so it doesn’t make Sylvie wrong in hindsight.

The final episode has a lot of Groundhog Day type moments and cool time loop discussions so that’s another reason why the episode ended on a super high note for me. I like the idea of time essentially being used as a rubber band for Loki to check things out and try many kinds of techniques. Ultimately we even get a thousand years+ timeskip so he’s lived more than almost any other character in existence. It’s hard to even wrap your head around that. It’s certainly impressive that he didn’t go crazy from doing all of that. He has definitely matured over the years and hopefully the franchise remembers that he is now a super genius for anything else that he appears in. Also that he can time travel at will and controls the multiverse. That should come in handy for many things…

So if I could make any changes here, it would be to speed up the events of the first 5 episodes into about 2. You can easily do this without stretching everything out. Then you have around 2 episodes for Loki doing a ton of time travelling and exploring ways to solve the situation. Finally you end as normal. I can’t stress enough how much more interesting it was to have Loki on the field than to be talking with Victor and the others about nothing. Maybe find a way for Mobius to go with Loki so we could still have good dialogue and banter the whole time.

Overall, Loki Season 2 has its share of fun moments and I do enjoy the debates on what the right move is. The focus on time travel and its many implications are also a lot of fun. While Loki may not have been on the right side for most of it, it doesn’t take away from the adventure. This show is going for a very cerebral approach and it works more than it doesn’t. It’ll be interesting to see how he loses in the Secret Wars film. However it happens, I’m expecting that I’ll be smirking as I won’t buy any of it but that’s what happens when you make the main character this powerful. Loki should be literally unbeatable now, unless he secretly wants to be defeated or something like that.

Overall 6/10

Summer Ghost Review

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It’s time for another one of those shorter anime films. Summer Ghost is a pretty solid title although the short length does mean that we don’t get to see a whole lot of each individual character. Instead they all just get a small intro and we jump into the main plot. A longer story probably could have helped to elevate the emotional punch for each of the characters but it is still a good story.

The movie starts with Tomoya, Aoi, and Ryo heading to an abandoned area to light up some fireworks. Their main plan is to summon a ghost named Ayane to see if ghosts are actually real. The plan works and they meet her. Aoi and Ryo are satisfied but Tomoya continues to visit her because he wants to learn more about ghosts. Can it be that they have a more enjoyable time than he does in the real world? During this adventure he must contend with what it means to truly be alive.

The element that keeps all 3 of the main characters together is how close they are to death. Ryo in a physical way, Tomoya in a spiritual way as his soul is dying, and Aoi who is being bullied so hard that she is thinking about ending both sides of herself. Meeting Ayane and each other is what will help them all conquer their inner demons. So this is really a film about not giving up and certainly about not checking out of life early. This is where the short length starts to creep in though as we just don’t have a whole lot of time for their backstories. I would say Aoi probably gets the shortest end of the stick here. You still do understand the context and everything here but the film has to move really fast.

It’s always good to see films with an anti suicide message thrown in with how many people are depressed nowadays. Some circumstances certainly feel like they can be hard to escape and you need a fresh perspective to even begin to escape that. For Ryo, it might be the toughest since he is literally dying. There is nothing that he can do to stop the effects and so within a year he will be gone. He really just has to do his best to come to terms with it. For part of the movie it seems like he has already done so, but it’s more of a facade while by the end he is actually okay.

There’s not much you can really say to someone like that as you don’t know how you will react until it happens. In some ways I would still consider it the easiest fate of the 3 since you at least know that the end is near. You have time to knock items off your bucket list and all, many would wish they had some kind of advanced notice like hat. Of course he’s so young that he still wasn’t able to accomplish as much as he would have liked to have done. I appreciated how he was careful to still support the other two though. He was my favorite of the three main characters.

Then for Aoi, naturally being bullied isn’t easy and it’s something that happens constantly around the world. We don’t see enough of her story to know what steps she tried to get around it or more details but the point here is that it was quite bad and she had no real escape. Ultimately her message is just about sticking up for herself which is always useful but in a way you would have liked some more tangible steps to making her situation better. We just have to hope that it all worked out.

As for Tomoya, his is the trickiest issue. He just doesn’t feel like he is alive and that life is essentially pointless. It’s why he is tempted by the realm of the dead since they seem to have a more carefree life. Ayane isn’t particularly helpful in proving otherwise since she puts on a cheerful front and flies around a lot. At least she did flat out say that dying isn’t a good idea so I’ll give her some points there.

Ultimately Tomoya just needed to find a reason for life. If your life doesn’t have a purpose, you definitely need to find one right away because of course things will feel empty otherwise. You need that in order to move forward. He definitely could have spoken up for himself more in terms of schoolwork and telling the others about his journeys with the ghost. He is definitely too withdrawn for his own good. I didn’t think he stuck out as much as the other two characters and was a bit bland for the lead.

As for Ayane, she definitely had the toughest journey of the group since she literally died and in a rather painful/scary way. It was good that she got to have closure thanks to these characters. Her mother may not have had a smooth closure on screen but we can assume that everything got properly reported afterwards so that’ll come in time. A little epilogue would have been nice to confirm this though and maybe even find a way to trace the crime back to the driver and get him arrested. That may not have been the focus of the film but it would have been a great way to end things with a lot of well earned justice.

The animation is fairly good. I liked the use of the shadows and it helped to make the characters stand out. It’s definitely not quite as impressive as some of the other anime films that I’ve seen but it is certainly good enough to hold its own. The soundtrack is a lot more on the bland side though. Nothing particularly noteworthy at all and so you will end up forgetting about the tunes very quickly. The film really ends up having to stand on its own with the story and writing.

Overall, Summer Ghost is a solid film. While the messaging it solid, I don’t think the movie ever gets quite as emotional as it was hoping to be. You just don’t know the characters well enough for that and while they grew up with some rather difficult circumstances, we don’t see enough to really determine just how bad they were. Aoi’s was the worst out of the 3 and even then we do have to make some assumptions on our side as the viewer. If you’re up for a good film about exploring what it means to live, then this is still a solid one to check out.

Overall 6/10

Vampire Knight: Memories Review

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Vampire Knight was never one of my favorite manga titles. Trust me, it just wasn’t all that good but at least it wasn’t boring. Memories is basically what you get if you decide to take a rather underwhelming cast, remove all of the interesting characters, and then do a ton of world building and politics. The end result is that you don’t really care what is going on. Throw in a bunch of time jumps all over the place and it makes the whole thing feel even worse. Yuki’s inaction also means that the romance is absolutely terrible and all over the place. You will not be feeling satisfied by the time you finish this series.

The series jumps across a bunch of time periods but for the most part it’s in the future. Kaname was sealed and his heart was lost so he was in suspended animation for 1000 years. When he awakens, he now has complete amnesia and so his two daughters gradually tell him more and more about what went on. Additionally he also starts to get some memories of his own. Whatever happened to Yuki, the queen of the vampires? They had kids together but Kaname never got to spend time with them before and at this point they’ve been around for ages. Of course when you’re immortal it all gets to be rather relative. The world appears to have gone the way Yuki hoped, with coexistence between humans and vampires. Perhaps this is a good future.

A lot of the themes within the series have one main connection which is that vampires and humans will always have a tough time connecting. For example there’s a guy named Hanabusa who ends up liking one of the heroines but of course she never ages while he does. At first it looks like things could work out well enough but then in 20 years it’s a different situation. The way the vampires look at relationships also ends up being really different as a result.

In effect, they’ll humor the humans and have fun with them but it’s just not the same. How can you have true love when a human will only last around 80 years and you still have 4000 years to go? The whole relationship will just be the blink of an eye. That kind of time also does a whole lot of damage to their very emotions. To a point it gets impossible to read the vampires and that’s also why a lot of humans fear them. How do you interact with a being that has existed for hundreds of years before you and who will continue to exist afterwards? There is also the power difference as they can crush you with a single motion.

Fortunately Yuki and the human principal did a whole lot to reduce tensions between the two. Unfortunately things still happen as humans have underground fighting arenas and terrorism attacks that continue to happen. Vampires are strong but not unbeatable so there are casualties from time to time. It can be tough to always have to hold back and take the high road when you can feel the bloodlust coming in from the other side. The vampires do well on this but the humans will definitely try your patience.

In theory the plot that is supposed to tug on your emotional heartstrings is the plot with Kaname. He has to come to terms with the fact that Yuki had to live without him for a long while and so of course that meant turning to Zero. The only problem is that he doesn’t really care. He was always okay with Zero taking a secondary spot because while the guy lived much longer than a normal human, he still wasn’t going to be as immortal as a pureblood vampire. This idea of sharing Yuki was just ridiculous though. It makes all 3 characters look really bad.

Kaname got a really raw deal to be sure. The whole thing absolutely sucked for him as he missed out on the best parts of his life. He may have helped achieve peace and make a better future but the sacrifice was definitely far too great. You just can’t find much solace in that at all. The guy feels like an empty husk of a character as well compared to the original series. Although it feels like every vampire is like this here so perhaps it is just the inevitable end. There’s just something depressing about being a vampire here.

Likewise for Yuki, she definitely looks bad here as well. She really needed to pick a guy. Kaname or Zero but leading them both on and having fun was never an option. The hard truth is that even if you’re going to be alive for over 1000 years, you can only pick one person. There cannot be any rebounds. That’s not going to be a good idea in the long run and I’m certainly not going to be able to support it. It was nice to get the occasional action scene for her but this was super rare.

Meanwhile the same negatives apply to Zero as well. When you’re happy being second fiddle then you don’t have a whole lot of self respect. Even if he got to be with Yuki for a while when Kaname was gone, she still had kids with him. Zero was always the backup guy and was completely out of luck. In a vampire series, it’s rare for the human to actually get picked and this one was no exception. Zero always had some cool powers and skills with the gun but in this series he looked pretty bad.

There’s something to be said about how the vampires always end up getting tempted into the taboo as well. One of them falls for her sibling, another falls for her father, etc. I think a lot of it has to do with the immortality part as it completely messes with their emotional regulation and feelings of right and wrong. It just doesn’t make for a very compelling plot and means that all of the characters will be annoying at best and completely unlikable at worst. There isn’t much of a happy middle to be found here. You still want them to survive and defeat the terrorists but it does limit how much you could like any of the characters.

Also as a vampire series you can still expect there to be a lot of blood draining as always. In this series it may as well be a kiss with how the characters really get into it. The vampires are never able to fully control their urges and most of the time the humans are egging them on as well. Now there is a full toxic relationship. No other way to get around that.

As far as the artwork goes, it’s not terrible. I would put it under average though. It’s got a very old school Shojo look which means that a lot of the characters are easily to mess up. The pages can get cluttered really quickly as well and any action scene quickly becomes near unreadable. As long as you read through the series slowly you will be fine, but it’s certainly not very streamlined. The series actually made it over 50 chapters so you’ve got a good amount of content here. Factor in how each chapter will take you a little while and you’re totally set.

If you do enjoy the series, I doubt it will feel too short. Memories covers a lot of events within that time-frame. While the flashbacks and flash forwards mainly drove me out of the story, I imagine they will have the opposite effect on a mega fan. There is a lot of world building here after all. It’s the kind of series that would probably end up being a whole lot better in anime form which tends to make scenes more dynamic. That can fix some of the boring elements but it will have time fixing the poor characters.

Now his review has seemed pretty negative….but I’m about to double down. This is the kind of Shojo that people assume they are all like. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Shojo back in the day but I’ve read a lot of good ones since then. They can be a lot of fun with well written romances and a lot of light hearted moments. I will admit that a romantic drama will always be hard to pull off but a romantic comedy can usually be a lot of fun. The first problem is that this series decided to go full on drama and the second problem is that none of the romances are properly built up.

Yes this goes back to the main characters being vampires again but the series could have still had a good romance if it really wanted to. I don’t think this had to be an impossible endeavor at all. Ai for example could have been a good new main character if the series hadn’t given her odd romantic subplots and also kept switching to other characters. It’s why most series pick an actual main character and then develop supporting ones.

Going for an ensemble cast is going to be more of a risk if you aren’t ready for it and I can tell you that this series was absolutely not ready for the challenge. Also, there can’t be any stakes for the various stories that take place in the past because we know the main characters are okay in the present. Not that this is an action thriller story or anything like that but there are still some attacks and thriller elements so why spoil the ending right in chapter 1? The amount of questionable choices here will have your mind spinning the whole time.

Finally, I would say what keeps this series from being an interesting intellectual thriller like Liar Game or Kingdom Hearts is that there are no interesting concepts to debate. For example the vampire stuff I talked about earlier. Their lack of emotions and how they view romance is tragic but also completely negative. There isn’t really a debate on how this could be a good thing or a way to solve the problem. It’s why this series can be as complex as it wants, it still won’t generate any real discussion. I wish the series had focused more on a war between humans and vampires because at least that is always a fun thing to talk about.

The closest we get to that is a few characters asking if the current dynamic is really a good thing but it never ends up being a central focus. It would change the whole series but this one should have dropped the romance tag entirely and just focused on the politics. If it did that and had a human MC and a vampire, then we could have filled the series with ethical debates which would have been infinitely more interesting. You would have to make the humans be less overtly evil though as that defeats any remote chance of making this an actual debate. It’s just not going to work when it’s so one sided.


Overall, Vampire Knight: Memories is a pretty bad series. Vampires have never been my thing so throwing in a spinoff to a series I was already not a fan of? That was not going to be a recipe for success. It lasted a lot longer than I expected it to be but it never ended up being all that good. On occasion you would get a good chapter like Yuki infiltrating a terrorist stronghold to fight them or Zero getting an action scene but most of the series is just pure melodrama. If the series had been completely chronological then it probably would have been better but even then I admit that it probably would not have been great. I expect that there still would have been issues left and right. If you’re a mega fan of the original Vampire Knight then you should check this one out, but otherwise you will definitely want to skip this one. The only disclaimer I’ll give on the series behalf is that with a story like this, it can sometimes be better read as a marathon. If you do that maybe you’ll find the series to be more enjoyable but at the same time a great story is great no matter how you read it.

Overall 2/10

Lonely Castle in the Mirror Review

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I can’t say I was familiar with this story back in the day so now I finally get to see what it’s all about. With 5 volumes it is a fairly short adventure but a good one nonetheless. It’s really about a group of characters who all have their own struggles and it is just long enough to see what they are all dealing with. Although not quite long enough to go into details here as they have to blast through the last volume really quickly.

The story starts by introducing us to Kokoro who was badly bullied in school to the point where she has become too traumatized to even leave her home. Her parents have done everything they could in order to support her but the fears are only getting worse. They hope that giving Kokoro space will help out and they are considering other schools. Part of the problem is that Kokoro won’t come clean to them about what really happened. Well, one day a mirror in her room glows and stepping through it takes her to a castle with 6 other kids.

A little girl named the Wolf Queen announces that somewhere within the castle is a key and whoever obtains it will be able to make a wish. This wish will come true but afterwards everyone will lose their memories of this whole situation and the castle will vanish. Each of the kids have some issues at home and so they all agree to not use the key even if they find it until the very end. It will stay open for the whole school year until March. At the same time, will the others actually stick to the plan or will they look for this in secret?

A key that can grant any wish is very tempting after all. It can really turn your life around without a doubt and each of these kids can use it. The castle is also not particularly large so it shouldn’t be too hard to find the key. I would say this is the only part that does require you to suspend disbelief to an extent because when we find out what the location was….it ended up being incredibly easy to find. I would argue it should have been found on one of the first days. I suppose almost any spot would have been hard to picture the characters not finding.

The characters all being able to finally have someone to confide in is definitely a solid way to address the pain they’ve all gone through. Where the series really succeeds is in showing you very convincingly how bad the characters had it. I certainly wouldn’t say it was completely equal or anything like that but they all had a tough time in different ways. The stakes were also rather high in a lot of cases so you can see why they might be willing to risk their lives.

Yes, one thing I neglected to mention is that if you stay in the castle past 5:00PM, then you will be eaten by wolves. Additionally, they will eat anyone else who was in the castle at any point during that day. So all it takes is for one kid to mess up and then they will all be dead. At the same time, if you may die by going back to the real world, then of course you may as well stay and fight. The Castle makes for a solid retreat for the characters but of course not being able to stay there is a rough weakness in itself.

The art isn’t all that good so the story does have to survive on the writing all the way through. It’s just not very detailed and at times almost feels a bit abstract. The more intense scenes like the Wolves showing up tend to get a whole lot of detail but the average scene isn’t quite able to match up to that. It does make the volumes take a bit longer to read since the art isn’t super clear.

I also appreciated that some of the adults were allowed to be really helpful. Sometimes in these things the adults are all clueless or unavailable but here you had a mixed arrangement. Kokoro’s parents were on the ball from the start after all and only got iced out because of Kokoro herself. Otherwise they would have been able to have gotten involved a lot sooner to help out and make a difference. The main teacher from the hearts school was also good and trying to make things work. She never gave up. The other teacher wasn’t as good and easily manipulatable, but I also don’t think he was downright terrible. He was just out of his depth.

Of course then you also have some really bad adults who are active antagonists. It can come from parents who neglect their children or more directly from a predator in one of the character’s trials. Those get quite bad of course and you also have the bullies on the kids side. It definitely shows how much trouble is right around the corner and the characters aren’t really able to help each other out no matter how much they try. While the mirror united them, it also ends up making them more alone than ever before.

Now lets talk about the main characters. First up is Kokoro and as the main character we definitely see more of her journey than anyone else. Basically the bullies put her as a target and even went to her home to further threaten her. Kokoro felt that her life was in mortal danger at that point and just got lucky that the doors were locked or they would have gone in and murdered her. Kokoro’s only friend at the time did not step in to help at any point and so a large gap between them widened. As a result Kokoro was completely isolated and worried that ever leaving the house would be fatal.

I don’t feel like Kokoro was even exaggerating this. When bullies are in a group they will naturally get a lot more confident and bold. They will do things that they wouldn’t have even contemplated when they were all alone. In the heat of the moment, it would have gotten really bad. I do wish she had told her parents though. That would have moved things along a lot sooner and they would have no reason to think she was lying. Of course that isn’t easy, coming clean never is. It’s just rough that Kokoro basically had to just stay home and take it for so long. It’s not the biggest or smallest challenge among the main 7 but it was a considerable one.

Kokoro did well in trying to stay strong throughout this. It’s also clear that because of all the isolation, she isn’t quite able to act as naturally around others as the other kids. She tends to overthink it when there are problems and gets really awkward while the other kids just make up and keep it moving. This does ultimately help her to finally be at peace and gain her inner strength. It leads up well to the climax and so she was a solid character.

Subaru isn’t one of my favorite characters but basically he begins to act out because nobody really gave him any attention. He was neglected by his family the whole time through and only had bad influences around him. This definitely caused him to grow up rather jaded compared to the others. It means that for most of the series he isn’t the most sympathetic character to the others but it’s not like he’s a bad person either. Subaru still does help out when it counts, he just has more guards up than the others. I’d say he had it a bit easier than some of the others but not having any bonds certainly does hurt.

Akiko easily has the toughest backstory and I’d say it’s not close. It’s why she is afraid to even go back home each time. She has to deal with an abusive step father who is constantly trying to get to her and her boyfriend ditched her when it counted. She needs to find a way to leave the house but doesn’t really have any path out of there. She easily tries the hardest to get the key because it is really a matter of life or death. It’s hard to scale trials as everyone has their own troubles and would each handle them differently.

Still, it’s fair to say that Akiko’s troubles were the most time sensitive and so I couldn’t even blame her for wanting to stay past curfew at the castle. At least with a wolf you’d figure it would be a quick end and potentially the whole situation would be over a lot quicker. She wasn’t always the nicest kid in the castle but she’s dealt with a lot so it made sense. I’d also say she would try to mend the bridge with the others as quickly as possible.

Fuka’s difficulties come from the powerful expectations her mom had for her. She was counting on Fuka to become an incredible pianist and while the kid tried her best, she would keep on hitting a wall. That’s already tough enough on its own but then there is also the economic factor. Her family doesn’t have much money and they are going deeper into debt with her mom slowly cracking under the pressure. Quitting now would make it seem like the last few years were a waste but at the same time continuing to go further into it will just add on more losses. She is also dealing with a global pandemic.

Then we have Masamune who is a big gamer. He loves playing RPGs and is generally easy to hang out with. The problem is that he tries a bit too hard to fit in and so he tends to spread little white lies to boost himself up. He overplayed his hand and it got bad which led to a lot of bullying. Compared to the others it doesn’t seem nearly as bad as most but of course when you’re in a rough situation, it’s really not going to give you any solace to hear that others have it worse. You just want to be in a good situation.

He was definitely one of the best kids though. Masamune rarely stirred up trouble and would try to help the others out as much as he could. He was a nice kid and so you could really appreciate that. If he could just find a way to not slip in little lies here and there, then he would really be al set. It can be easy for them to become second nature if you don’t keep your guard up.

Haruka is my least favorite kid by far. Yes, he definitely had it rough by getting bullied a lot but it really didn’t make sense how he would always be crushing on all the girls. The story tries to show that he’s just really honest with his feelings but it makes him come across as flaky. It was good that he stopped lending money and stuck up for himself even if it made things tough. I think we could have used some more context on exactly how this would lead him to getting beat up though. I get maybe once but after that you’d think it would be over.

If the story had removed the flirty element then he would have just been a much better character. If you ask me, that’s what they should have done as otherwise he would have been very sympathetic. It’s not a character trait that needed to be in there at all. Finally we have Rion. Rion seems to have it all together compared to the others as he is outgoing and very friendly. So why would he be in this castle of troubles? Well, we find out that his sister died and his mother couldn’t really handle this and essentially began to resent seeing Rion so healthy. So she pushed him out to move all the way to Hawaii.

Rion wasn’t bullied or anything but effectively being told that your own parents don’t want to see you is pretty rough. It’s definitely not something that the parents can really come back from and the husband definitely takes some blame here for not doing anything about it. He really should have helped Rion when it counted. So I would still say Rion’s struggles are fairly high on the list even if there was no physical component to it. That would create serious emotional scars.

Of course we also have the Wolf Queen and there are a lot of twists about her or at least involving her presence in the story. The series does a good job of setting things up. You’ll probably at least guess the connection between all of the characters as the series left a bunch of clues on that. Guessing her true identity would be a lot harder even if you might suspect things later on in the series. Either way she was a solid character. Her rules may have been harsh but she did give them all a home. She also helped Akiko when she was in a real jam even though there was no obligation to do so.

On the whole the series is balancing being well natured and good fun for a lot of the journey with all of the struggles making this more of a tragedy at other points. You’ll certainly feel bad for the characters, particularly because they’re so young. The series definitely makes sure of that. Even with the ending as certain things may have been wiped away, but they still happened. It is a rough ending for some of the characters without a doubt and the body counts gets higher than you would expect. I wasn’t expecting the climax to go as hard as it did.

Overall Lonely Castle in the Mirror is a good story about overcoming your troubles and not giving up. Even when it feels like you are all alone and there is no hope, there will be a way to persevere. Of course it’s much easier said than done. Try to find a way to let someone know if you are nearly at the point of giving it all up. Put your faith in God to resist the trials and when things are being pushed too far, calling the cops and other authorities is something you need to be able to do. If you do nothing and let the bad things happen to you, like excessive bullying or being attacked, you will eventually reach your limit. It definitely makes for a heavy series and while this one won’t have a ton of replay value or be the happiest story you’ve read, it was written well. Probably could have just used one more volume to space out all of the characters and their origins a bit more though.

Overall 6/10