Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Review

Posted on June 26, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a sci-fi film that isn’t afraid to get rather crazy. It starts off with a really crazy dolphin song and that sets the tone for what’s to come. That’s a good thing though because Sci-Fi shouldn’t be afraid to go all out. It’s one of the things that can make the genre really fun and all. That said, I wouldn’t say this one always succeeds in the humor and everything so it can be a bit hit or miss.

The film starts off with Arthur protesting the demolition of his house. His friend Ford shows up though and explains that it doesn’t matter because the Earth is going to blow up. He’s an alien too after all. He helps Arthur escape into space where they’re tortured, meet different clans, and now have to…try and save the universe? Can that be right? What can some random Earthling do? Time to find out!

Arthur’s definitely not the best character though. He’s a little too desperate and slow on the uptake. Considering that he met an alien early on and is then told a crazy story you’d think he would be ready. Instead he is still worried about his car for a while even when the planet is about to be destroyed. Also, his almost girlfriend Tricia dumps him for an alien but he hasn’t been able to fully get past his feelings?

He only knew her for 5 minutes with a drink and she was already talking about travelling across the globe. It’s clear that she wasn’t serious about him so he should have just moved on quick too. Meeting someone while you’re both drunk at a party is definitely not going to put you in a good position for success in a romance if we’re being honest here.

It doesn’t even feel like Tricia likes Zaphod all that much and is really in it for the space travel. She always liked travelling on Earth after all and in space you’ve got billions of times more space here. I wouldn’t say the whole thing reflects great on her either but hey she’s following her dream and not just floating through everything the way Arthur is.

Zaphod is fun though, he has a good time with the whole plot. I do like how he is wearing a suit that looks like him and just keeps on popping up. That’s a great example of a gimmick that stays funny throughout the movie. Yeah he has his serious moments by the end and all but he’s at his best when he’s just messing around the whole time.

Marvin is a depressed robot who is with the crew the whole time but his gimmick gets old a little fast. There’s not a whole lot you can do with that gimmick after a while. He gets to help out and does his best but ehhhhhhh, you don’t really need him. It does give us a chance to see a character who is even sadder than Arthur though.

He’s a good example of the film itself though which starts out a lot stronger than it finishes. Because he does have a good array of fun lines at first where that jaded spirit of his really works well. Ford was a better side character in the end. He was really helpful the whole time and without him the characters would have been doomed.

One of the main plots that comes up later on is about the ultimate question and ultimate answer. So in one of the film’s crazy exposition moments it turns out that the universe finally found out the ultimate answer to life itself thanks to a super computer. The problem is that it was just a number, 42. They now need another computer to answer that but there’s a whole lot of time that you need for this and only one computer can handle this.

It’s a pretty solid subversion since usually the whole film would be about finding the answer to life but instead we are given that from the start. I also like the idea of the answer itself being ultimately pointless. Cmon that’s gotta get a smile out of you at least. The journey is like the answer though, the question itself is not all that important. It’s just the plot device to get the characters onto a bunch of planets and to meet lots of different aliens.

In some ways it feels a lot like Stat Trek. It’s more about the exploration than big battles or anything like that. Throw in some dry humor that tends to work well for this type of story and the film does have a solid approach. When it comes time for the more serious plots though…not as solid. I already talked a bit about the romance but it’s really sub par here. Arthur’s just too desperate and even if Tricia was just hanging out with this guy to an extent, it sure seemed like they were in a real relationship. The guy would smack her on the backside and everything so yeah Arthur needed to have the willpower to walk away. It makes the ending more on the underwhelming side. There’s also a quick rushed romance for Zaphod that just comes out of the blue.

That’s not the kind of thing that would really hurt the film’s score or anything but yeah that could have been handled better. The movie does have really good special effects once action is happening though. The laser guns look good, Marvin’s robot design is super good as well. It looks really lifelike and you’ve also got the change gun that transforms items seamlessly. The dolphin song may have been rather bad but I choose to believe that was intentional as a gag so hey it is what it is.

Overall, I’d say this was a good film. I think the humor works more than it doesn’t. What keeps it from being higher is something that generally tends to happen to some comedic films. The second half starts to drag on a little bit, the film overstays its welcome and could have shaved off like 20 minutes or so. They did get to reach a lot of planets as a result so I get why they wanted the film to be long, but it just lost a bit of steam at times. A film like this can only last as long as the novelty factor and after a while the craziness of everything doesn’t really phase you. I would still recommend checking this out if you like sci-fi and comedic/parody type films. This one has a lot of fun poking fun at everything which makes the humor really accessible I’d say. Everyone should find at least some of the gags funny I’d expect.

Overall 6/10

Delicious in Dungeon Review

Posted on June 23, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to look at the anime version for Delicious in Dungeon. I reviewed the manga recently and I wouldn’t exactly say it got the highest score. The problem this title runs into is really backed into the premise itself. The characters are eating anything that moves as they continue to sample what the dungeon has to offer. The stakes are high so you understand why they are doing this but it doesn’t help them rise up as characters at all. The show has some fun moments and action scenes but on the whole this one definitely ends up being more of a skip. It’s unable to hold its own with the big shots.

The show starts off with Laios and his party fighting some monsters. In this world there exists a dungeon that is absolutely massive. It continues to grow every day and so people travel inside for different reasons. For some they are just looking to make a quick buck and get out of there. Others enjoy the thrill of it and finally you have some who want to defeat the monster at the end of the dungeon and see what happens. Legends say that you would then become the King of the dungeon and will be able to manipulate it at will. Well, during their adventure, Falin is eaten by the red dragon and taken away. The party splits but Laios wants to rescue his sister so even without any food or provisions he heads in there with the rest of the characters. Can they win?

The animation is fairly solid here. I don’t love the art style at times but it is trying to emulate the manga so I understand the direction. The character designs are on point though and the movement is good. For some of the big fights they really go all out like with the Red Dragon. It’s just not a battle series first and foremost so I would say the animation tends to take a backseat there. In terms of soundtrack there weren’t any themes that really wow’d me. It sounds okay but is definitely below the curve for anime.

How much you enjoy the show will probably come down to how interesting you find the meals. For most cooking anime part of the fun is in replicating the recipes and having fun with that. You obviously can’t do that with most of these dishes since they’re made up of monsters that don’t exist. I suppose you could probably just substitute chicken in the recipes and see how it goes. That could be fun to try at some point but either way I feel like a big part of the appeal goes down there. It also feels like a series with a lot of corrupting going on. For example Marcille isn’t big on eating monsters and resists for as long as she can but by the end she is forced to go along with them. Otherwise she would just starve.

It would have been nice to have had one of the characters stay strong on this the whole time as a contrast or someone to tell Laios to back it up and stop being weird about everything. Instead he just gets more and more intense about everything and really just wants to eat everything. If you redid the series but it was about them eating every plant around instead then that would work a lot better. Not all monsters count as animal violence here but a lot of times they do go after some fairly realistic ones. Also, in general things like eating the dragon after beating it feel a bit off. It’s good not to let anything go to waste if you end up taking out a monster but of course the real trick would be to not destroy the monster in the first place if you could help it.

At least make the dishes look more appealing. A lot of them just don’t look good to eat in general. As for the humor, it can be more on the hit or miss side. Any of the jokes about how insane and shady Laios is tend to be more on the fail side. I’m just not all that interested in the guy and I think he takes things a step too far. Likewise the jokes about how gross the food is don’t really work…because the food does look gross. So it’s barely even a joke at that point so much as just pointing out observations.

What this really comes down to though is characters. Often times I would say a joke isn’t funny in a vaccuum so much as it’s funny because you like the characters. Like a 2/10 joke could become a 6/10 joke if you have the right character saying it. Since I’m not generally a big fan of the characters, it means that the jokes don’t reach their full potential. It’s not necessarily a writing issue although on a macro issue I suppose you could say it is the writer’s job to make the characters better.

It’s pretty interesting writing about the characters here after finishing the manga but of course the anime only covers some of the events so the characters are a bit different since their character arcs haven’t finished yet. I already went over Laios before so I won’t go further into his character. He’s just not very responsible and has terrible priorities the whole time.

Marcille has always been one of the more likable characters. I feel like she is the only one super serious about recuing Falin. Laios may be her brother but he constantly gets distracted by monsters and his hobby of eating. Look, I love eating too but it’s important to have some priorities and not just be flaky where you go after anything right? That’s my biggest problem with Laios but again let me not drill on this guy for too long. So Marcille is completely out of her comfort zone with this. She doesn’t particularly love the dungeon and she certainly doesn’t want to eat any strange monsters.

However, she puts up with everything in order to rescue Falin. This is the sign of a true friend. Marcille bails them out of a lot of difficult situations with her magic and really comes in clutch. Without her the rest of the characters would have been doomed in a big way. She is definitely the most powerful member of the group and she has the revive spell. So without her if you died in the dungeon then you would be stuck for a while. You don’t technically die permanently due to a spell within the dungeon that keeps your soul from leaving but either way it’s fair to say that you probably don’t want to die at all or be stuck there for 3 months waiting for another adventurer to find you.

In a way that has to be the scariest part of dying in the dungeon. Depending on how you die, it’s possible that nobody would ever find you. For sure that’s why you want to go in a group at the very least because being by yourself feels like it would be borderline a death wish at that point. I guess you’d really be banking on your skills to get immediately rich and run away but it’s not worth it.

Shuro is one of the most annoying characters. He claims to be in love with Falin but then the guy is going to rat her out for being a monster right away? My biggest problem with the guy is that his devotion is just not strong enough. Simply put, I don’t feel that he would have my back in a confrontation and that’s a big issue. How can I trust a guy like that? So he just ends up being extremely unlikable and you know you’re bad when you make Laios look like the reasonable one in a conversation.

I’m not a big fan of Namari leaving the party either but at least she handled things well. It was clearly a “Nothing personal” kind of vibe with her. She’s still on good terms with everyone and isn’t making threats or getting in the way. So I can definitely respect her and she is really handy in the fights. It would be nice for her to appear more but she’s just living her own life at this point and I won’t knock her for that.

Back to the main cast, Chilchuck is next on the list here and he’s also reasonable. He’s not so much in it for Falin as he is for the money and he keeps his contracts. The guy is also a nicer person than he lets on so you have to recognize that a lot of this is just the mask that he puts on. When the going gets tough, you can actually count on him which is important because you can’t say that for some of the other characters. He may not be a fighter but his locksmith skills are certainly useful when you’re in a dungeon like this.

Senshi is the resident cook running around the dungeon and he seems to have a mysterious past. Still, the heroes need to trust whoever they can at this point so right now that means rolling with him. He is useful in a fight as well and keeps the group united so he was a superb addition to the team. Without him it’s very possible that the rest of the group would have been taken out by now. He just has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. I don’t quite like him as much as Marcille but he’s a fairly reasonable guy at the end of the day who does his best.

Then we have Izutsumi who joins up later. She got hit with a curse that made her part cat which is pretty rough to work with. She is trying to find a way around that but the spell was made very carefully so there haven’t been any real leads thus far. Her best bet is sticking with the main crew though so that’s really what she does. She’s the best hand to hand fighter of the group so it’s nice to finally have a close quarters specialist.

As Falin is the main goal in the show she doesn’t appear a ton but when she does show up, she’s fun enough. I don’t care for her too much in the flashbacks as she can be a little too timid. She’s not quite as weird as Laios is but seems to have kept in some of his traits. She’s at her best when she’s more confident and crushing anyone in her way. Falin is a prodigy of magic after all who might even be able to hold her own against Marcille. She just needs to embrace her own abilities.

Finally there is Kabru who is a tactical genius. He’s always creating plans and trying to think things through. I feel like he definitely helps to keep the characters guessing. This guy is a lot of fun and after he got his own episode, I wish he could have gotten more. He’s just way more charismatic as the leader and feels like a more fleshed out character. This is somebody you could absolutely roll with as the main character. Just keep him in there and he would definitely elevate the whole cast without question. There is just no question about it. He is playing a bigger role as the season ends so I look forward to seeing more of him.

By the time season 1 ends there have definitely been quite a few reveals and a big plot shift. The series is preparing to get serious with the big storyline and I can definitely appreciate that. The new Elf characters that showed up also have a lot of potential so I look forward to seeing what they do here. They’ll certainly shake things up which I can really appreciate. For all of these reasons, season 2 seems primed to be the best and surpass season 1 but after reading the manga I can tell you that the opposite is more likely to be true. We’ll see though, the anime can always mix things up.

Overall, Delicious in Dungeon is a show with a very unique premise. It definitely takes the whole cycle of life and eating to survive themes to the max. A show like that just ultimately won’t be for me though. I tend to feel bad for the monsters here who really didn’t ask for this and the character cast is more on the weak side. So that does tend to hurt the humor a bit as well. You should be reasonably entertained for the most part but if you want a show with more intense dungeon exploring then it’s time to check out the show about the reincarnated slime instead. Although there hasn’t been much exploring in a long time there so it might not be the top option.

Overall 4/10

Robin Hood Review

Posted on June 16, 2024 by dreager1

Robin Hood is one of those franchises that I’ve never really been into. The concept of a hero who steals from the rich to give to the poor is a fun one. It’s like a vigilante who is redistributing the wealth as he sees fit. Fortunately the rich people are usually super corrupt and awful or else there would be a lot of moral issues with this. That being said, the animated film has a lot more fun with the concept than the other movies. It’s easily the definitive Robin Hood film if you ask me.

The film starts off by introducing us to Robin Hood who has outsmarted the authorities yet again. He’s been doing this for years and is an expert at escaping although the cops are slowly getting a little better. Robin Hood intends to keep up this life for a while but he ends up falling for Lady Marian and wants to impress her now. What better way than messing with the corrupt royalty and embarrassing them at every turn? The dangerous part of this is the higher up he goes in the food chain, the more forces they will arm up to stop him. Has he just stirred up a hornet’s nest?

Right off the bat I thought the animation was really good. Everything looks sharp and super vibrant from the quick character motions to the backdrops. There is a lot of attention to detail here. There also isn’t a lot of songs for a musical type film but I did like one of the villain’s songs. That was definitely good. On a technical level this film holds up extremely well. It’s why I like this kind of animation style because it never goes away or gets stale. Instead in 20 years it will still look as good.

Then we have the writing which has a lot of clever dialogue the whole time. The banter between all of the characters is really solid. The only one that is a bit try hard is the main villain who is super incompetent and that’s his entire gimmick. He gets suckered all the time while his poor snake ally is constantly trying to help him out. I would have liked the Prince to have been ever so slightly more competent. I get the dynamic they were going for here but it’s not the most entertaining one because it is so lopsided. Give Robin Hood a little more competition against a foe who is more skilled and then we can really be talking.

The Sheriff was a great villain though. He has a masterful scene where he really takes it to Robin Hood. So Robin is disguised as a panhandler and is asking for money. So the sheriff expertly tosses a gold coin into his cup at the perfect angle to also cause his second gold coin to fall out of the cup. So as a result the sheriff has both coins while Robin Hood has none. Hood had his own plan and gets his immediate revenge but I thought that was brilliant. It was the most memorable scene to me after I had finished the film. You just don’t forget a moment like that. I wish he had been the main villain of the whole thing.

John just couldn’t compete. I liked his snake partner though even if he was mostly just taking Ls the whole time. Robin Hood’s partner John was fun enough. I don’t think he ever becomes quite as entertaining as Robin Hood was but he’s still nice enough. It’s always important to have at least one friend on your journeys or you will really feel very alone. As for the heroine Marian, she was nice enough. I may say that the romance in the film was a bit cheesy at times but at least it wasn’t all that rushed. A lot of time passes by over the course of the film and it helps this romance to beat the average one. I still wouldn’t call it the gold standard of anything but it doesn’t bring the movie down.

I would say the most effective part of the film is just that it’s a lot of fun. A lot of times in a Robin Hood movie the main issue is that it can be a bit boring. Sometimes they will also fall into the trap of animal violence but the mot common issue is that it’s just not very interesting and that’s a really bad position to be in. When you’re boring then it is very hard to save the film. This one dodged that immediately with the really solid humor. Most of the jokes really land here.

I would say that the animation helps to back up the jokes because the really expressive style just works really well. It still would not be enough on its own but when you add everything up then it is really a winning formula. I still won’t be all that hyped if there’s an announcement for a new Robin Hood film but if the announcement is that this one in particular is getting a sequel then I would be on board with that. That would have some real potential and the premise lends itself well to sequels. There’s no reason you would ever really have to stop making Robin Hood movies. You could even have Lady Marian join in as a partner/sidekick on his future missions.

Overall, Robin Hood is a pretty good film and I would recommend checking it out. The pacing is on point and the whole movie really flies by. I suppose it helps that the film is really short in general so it’s not like it was going to drag on either way. The film is well crafted and a lot of effort was clearly put into it. It really does its best to try and convince you that Robin Hood is actually a good franchise. If all of the films were like this one then I suppose is would be a really good one.

Overall 7/10

Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons Review

Posted on June 5, 2024 by dreager1

I’ve always been a massive Godzilla fan ready to see who he will vanquish next. I tend to really prefer the stories of him defeating other Kaiju but the stories involving the government can work well enough. Unfortunately this one goes all in on him just stomping around and not doing much of anything since the story is a story within a story. For the first time I would say that this is a Godzilla comic that I …didn’t like.

The story starts off with a pirate about to be executed. He knows that he has to do something quickly and so he informs the guards that he knows of a conspiracy that even involves the queen of England. This is considered blasphemy because he is in England so they get ready to take him down but then a high ranking government agent shows up. He explains that they have to listen to this and the prisoner will regret it if the story is fake. So the pirate begins his yarn about a giant Kaiju known as Godzilla and other monsters that walk the lands. He has actually gotten to see them and lived to tell the tale. Pretty spooky eh?

Lots of problems here right off the bat of course. For starters, the entire comic follows this story format. It’s not even in the style of a true flashback where I can just forget about the current plot and enjoy the story. No, it’s constantly told through through narration so it’s never actually happening live. This is a framing device that I really don’t like. It means there really isn’t a story. The comic is about someone talking about stuff to a few people and that’s it. So nothing happens live, the fights aren’t fully there and it just ends up being rather boring.

At least whenever Godzilla is on screen I enjoyed seeing him roar and stuff but I really could not care less about the pirates stuff. There’s some in fights with different gangs and everything….but is that the best that they can do? It’s just so very dull and since you figure the pirate is an unreliable narrator at best, you don’t know how much you can even try to get engaged with all of this. I want to say I can see where the author was going with this but it was definitely not the right direction and ended up backfiring big time.

There is only one interesting part of this comic and it’s the very last page. It works pretty well as a twist and cliffhanger. This is a plot thread that I would actually like to dive into because there is a lot of potential here. It means no more flashbacks though. I want to see what is happening in real time like a classic comic. If that can be pulled off then we can work in a lot of espionage and political drama in a sequel. Seriously I don’t think that would be hard and the sky’s really the limit from there. That would be so incredibly hype! But of course lets not get our hopes up for now. Rather than banking on the sequel to be good after this, I would rather place my hopes in a brand new Godzilla comic with a new setting and everything.

In general pirates don’t add much to the Godzilla lore. In fact, I don’t see them as a selling point at all. It’s not like they can hope to fight the King of the Monsters, instead they would just get absolutely crushed. It’s not going to be all that entertaining to just see Godzilla step on them over and over and over again. That’s not a true cinematic experience. Instead what we need is to see Godzilla absolutely devastate every opponent in his path. That would be something to write home about without a doubt.

But yeah there’s not much more to say here. At the end of the day the story is just really boring and that’s the biggest taboo you can have for a comic. Even seeing the cameos from the other Kaiju couldn’t really save it. This barely feels like a Godzilla comic so much as it’s a pirate story that happens to feature him. I was definitely disappointed here and the artwork isn’t anything to write home about either. The art is okay so I’m not going to say that it’s awful or anything but it doesn’t touch a lot of the other stories. What I can say is that the comic ends very quickly at least even with all of the dialogue.

Overall, Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons really made history because it’s the first time that I’m giving a downright negative score to the Kaiju. In general I haven’t given many comics a negative score either so it’s super rare. This one just made every kind of mistake possible. Seriously it’s just not fun and that’s a massive L to take at any point here. I want to have a good time and for that I need a story and some fights. It has to actually be happening though and not someone telling me how hype the whole thing was. So yeah…..this was not the way to go.

Overall 4/10

Ranking of Kings Review

Posted on May 11, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to take a look at an anime that really became a big deal for a while there. I remember seeing the fights posted a lot as examples of great fights with a lot of fluid animation and I knew some people who were huge Boji fans. It’s definitely a fun fantasy title. One where I was not as sympathetic with some of the characters as the show was hoping I would be but it’s definitely a fun title all the way.

The show introduces us to Prince Boji who is the heir to the throne but he is very weak. Historically weak you can say. Despite his father being the strongest man in the world, Boji has not inherited any of that. In fact you could say that he is one of the weakest fighters in the land. Boji is also deaf and as a result he hasn’t noticed just how much disdain everyone has for him. When his father dies, the queen quickly enacts a vote to make his step brother Daida the king instead. Boji heads off with Kage, a shadow creature he befriended to at least learn some new skills and see the world. What he doesn’t yet realize is that Daida has plans of his own and may not be leading the country down the right path. Will Boji be able to stand up and defend the kingdom that is rightfully his?

It’s a tough position for Boji to be in as soon as the throne is given to Daida. If Boji was super popular among the masses then of course he could just jump back in and stage a revolt but the fact is that most people have sided with Daida. It makes sense to have him as a King when he is so much more skilled and possesses greater power. Boji’s idealism can only take him so far after all. It’s not exactly fair but that’s just how life goes sometimes. Even if he does get strong enough to take down Daida and all of the royal subjects, he would be destroying his own kingdom at that point. So Boji has to find a peaceful solution to all of this.

I should also mention that there are many Kings in the world here. As the title suggests, there is a whole ranking system and there is something odd about it. Something strange always happens involving the number 1 ranked King. Supposedly you are given everything you desire but that sounds a little too good to be true right? Well, it’s something Boji may have to worry about down the road so it’s something to keep in mind. Season 1 covers a whole lot of ground but you can already tell that there are many more stories to be told within this kingdom.

This is also one of those series that has a ton of plot twists around every corner. From your journey in the first episode to the last one you can expect a bunch of the fights to be recontextualized over and over again. The hero and villain of the conflict end up changing as well and so you really can’t trust anyone. It feels like Boji is betrayed in every episode after a while and even if some of those betrayals may not stick, it would give you trust issues. The show does try hard to make most of the characters sympathetic by the end but like I mentioned, it doesn’t really work for most of them. It seems like they could have given Boji an easier time if they handled things differently.

The animation is pretty good so the show lives up to its reputation there. It may not be world shattering in the way that you might hear it mentioned but it does look good. It’s going for very simple character designs which allow for a lot of movement in the fights. It doesn’t have a lot of bright energy type effects but the choreography is always good. You can be sure to see a lot of really good battles here. I’m not as big a fan of the artstyle though. I feel like it makes for more pale colors in general so it won’t stand out as much as say a show from the 90s that does have strong colors. So that part can be a mixed bag. The soundtrack isn’t quite able to keep up though as none of the tunes really stand out. I also wasn’t particularly a fan of either opening but you can’t win them all.

Shows can never resist a giant final boss near the end so you can expect a big battle but the animation still does a good job of showing off the dodging abilities of Boji. The villains have some demon dogs that they use in battle at times which are definitely the weakest of the fights because you feel bad for them the whole time. They’re not quite real dogs but the show definitely straddles the line just a bit there. Not as bad as it could be of course but I could do without those minions all the way through.

Part of the whole premise here of course is how Boji can’t really fight so the question is, will the show go all in on that and have him win with agility or will he just become super OP and broken? Well, I’d say the show does a pretty good job of focusing on his speed. Boji aims for weak points and nerve type blows to win matches in one shot even without physical power. So that was handled well and of course he still does end up being one of the stronger fighters in the end. I actually appreciated how the show focused on giving him a bad matchup constantly. He should be able to handle most of the fighters here so the show gives him the one guy that can just keep healing or the one with enough physical strength to ignore his hits. That was clever.

Okay now lets talk about the characters a bit. First up we have Boji and I will admit that I didn’t really like this guy. As a main character he went too far into the naive aspect. The fact that people would trick him into giving up his clothes over and over again is a pretty terrible look. You definitely feel really bad for him and the show does succeed in making him sympathetic but for the most part I would say that he’s not really main character material. He definitely handles his business when he has to but most of the side characters just end up being better than him in the end.

For example his partner Kage is a lot more interesting. Kage’s backstory is also a lot more emotional. The guy really went through a lot and is also in more danger than Boji on a consistent business. He pretty much has to watch his back at all times because if he doesn’t then it’s all over. His abilities are also pretty interesting with how he can change his shape and really turn any part of himself into a weapon. That’s always a versatile power and while he doesn’t scale as high as the other characters, he is definitely a great friend the whole time.

Then you have Daida who is a solid antagonist. He’s the kind of villain who doesn’t want to take any shortcuts and does a lot of heavy lifting on his own. At one point the villains want him to do something and he refuses which was good since it shows that he has his own honor code. Ultimately he was overpowered and forced to do it anyway but I like that he can stand up to anyone. He’s also reasonably strong even if he’s not super powerful. Either way he is still explicitly an antagonist but he’s one with a good personality who is fun to have on screen.

Hiling is next up and she’s one of those characters with a lot of plot twists but yeah I think she could have handled everything way better. My problem with a character like this is that the plan involves many possible scenarios where Boji and his friends are straight up murdered. At that point the intentions don’t really matter much. So she gets better as the show gets on and I know that she tried hard but I wasn’t fully on board with any of this. She doesn’t really get the thumbs up from me.

She’s still way better than Bosse though who has to be the most annoying character. So of course he is Boji’s father and directly responsible for everything going on. He put Boji in a terrible spot by making him King without giving any other directions and just left him to his own devices. For the rest of his screentime Bosse tends to be a very passive character who won’t lift a finger even when his wife or kids are about to die. This is where he really becomes unforgiveable. The conflict if supposed to be that he’s not sure which side to choose and so he opts not to do anything but of course that is actually choosing a side. Like if villains invade your house and you’re not sure who to help, you’re helping the invaders by not actively defending your spot.

It is even worse because Bosse is easily the strongest character in the entire verse. So his not helping is just such an insult to everyone involved and even right up through to the end he is making the wrong choices. So the guy is definitely annoying and I consider him to be a complete villain all the way through. It’s the only thing that makes sense and even with that he’s not great. I respect his power but that’s about the only thing I respect in the guy. He single handily made everyone’s lives much harder than they had to be.

Even the literal Demon who shows up doesn’t cause as much damage. That guy is a very interesting character though in large part because most of the series feels fairly down to Earth. (Outside of Bosse’s flashback with fighting gods and everything but the point of his origin is how crazy overpowered he is) Sure people have powers and you have an immortal running around but he is easily the most supernatural character of the bunch and shows up rather nonchalantly. I’m definitely expecting the lore to be explored way more coming up but for now he is definitely a very interesting villain.

Miranjo gets a pretty massive role here. Her origin is definitely sad and she went through a lot so it was good that she could bond with Bosse. The problem is more about how she handles this in the present and her plans. There always comes a time where your good intentions just turn into straight villainy and this is one of those times. You can’t root for her or anything because her plans are so extreme. If anything I still blame Bosse more for not actually talking things out with her though. That would have been the right way to approach this instead of being generally useless the whole time.

The way her plot ends is questionable at best though. As a romance the ending doesn’t work at all because of the age gap and the characters barely really knowing each other. Sure they talked a lot as human to mirror but most of that was for deception so it barely counts. If it’s to be more of a nice thing to finally give her protection then I dare say the heroes should have just given her sanctuary and been strong enough to make sure it was followed. This show’s not big on romance either way so it’s not like we’ll likely get many scenes about it but if this is meant to be taken seriously then it’s definitely a weak one already.

After that we have Ouken who is another big villain. He shows just how dangerous regeneration and immortality can be. Also how scary it could be in a sense since you have to live forever no matter what happens. We see Bosse crush him into a ball multiple times and you can’t help but feel like that would actually work really well even though it would be like a torture for Ouken. Being immortal is a massive price to pay and the show’s view is that it’s not worth it which I definitely agree with. Once you become immortal then it is all over. Ouken’s first major fight with the Mad King was definitely a solid way to be introduced though. In general the series did a good job with the seemingly one shot villains who are doomed from the start but still get a solid run of things. It was also a good way to keep some of the heroes busy.

Desha is a fun villain. He’s easily one of the strongest fighters in the world and lives up to the hype. He’s definitely got a heroic spirit to him as well with how reasonable he can be when working with Boji. The guy also risks a whole lot to help Ouken. Desha doesn’t appear a ton throughout the series but he definitely helps when it counts. I hope he will still have a good role in future arcs. His brother Despa isn’t quite as interesting although his lightning ability is handy at least. I appreciated the fact that he could at least fight a bit as opposed to being completely powerless.

Apeas is one of the big 4 warriors and unfortunately I did not really like him by the end. His whole thing is about being super loyal but I would argue that some characters take it too far to the point of not being loyal. It may sound like a contradiction but ultimately it comes down to you being loyal to a person or to a concept. Depending on your answer is how I determine if you are actually loyal or not. His pure combat skills can’t be denied though. He has a lot of physical strength but I’d argue he is surpassed within the same group anyway. Definitely someone you want to be careful about having as an enemy regardless though.

Bebin is another one of the big fighters and he’s solid. He’s a sneaky fighter who always has a few crafty tricks at the ready. So if you’re not careful then you will definitely end up being in trouble. He also has a ton of plot twists running around but one thing you can always trust about him are his snakes. The large one in particular is a good friend to Boji and always looks good. Ultimately Bebin is good but like the queen I feel like his plans are way too risky to the point of almost being like luck at times. I wouldn’t want him to be the one watching over me.

Dorshe is easily the most likable out of the main 4 and I would also argue that he is the strongest. His feats are the best and he really handled himself very well even when he was outnumbered. He’s a fun guy to have around and someone who is truly loyal and doesn’t just act the part. Trust me when I say that makes an absolutely huge difference. There’s not a whole lot to say about him beyond that but that’s not a negative. He’s a simple character who was brought up with the right attitude and as a result he does really well for himself. I can definitely respect that.

Hokuro is someone I’m not as big a fan of. The guy is just way too weak the whole time so even when he’s by your side, it’s not like it’s a really big help necessarily. He calls out Domas and everything but it has less weight since he can’t do much about it. Domas has to be one of the worst characters though. The guy is an absolute traitor no matter how you slice it and there was no way back for him. Right from that moment I knew he could never rebound. Some characters just go too far and have to pay the price.

Either way the big 4 are power creeped rather quickly. By the end of the show there isn’t a whole lot that they are able to do. Ouken is a villain who’s a bit of an exception to the overall power levels because of his immortality but either way he absolutely crushed them. They just didn’t stand a chance against him. By the end of the series it feels like the kingdom is in pretty good shape but of course with the supernatural lore around it will be very easy to write up a group of villains who can really threaten them. So there are a lot of ways that you can take this one.

I also hope that Boji can be a little bolder and more full of life in a sequel. In a lot of ways he is the weak point of the show because he’s just not very interesting as a main character. His fighting style is different but not the most interesting visually. So lets just upgrade him a bit and that should help the show as a whole. From there, just keep on giving us some good fights and maybe introduce a few more characters. A lot of the heroes currently around already have a ton of baggage from the whole choosing sides thing here.

Overall, Ranking of Kings is a good show. I think it’s lacking just enough to keep me from calling it pretty good but it’s worth the watch all the way. You’ll particularly have a good time if you enjoy the old time setting of kings and royalty. Right now most of the characters and organizations are all shady so we’ll see how that goes in the future. I still say that Boji should not trust anyone even with this whole adventure arc out of the way. It feels like the end game will be dealing with the demons and the mystery of being the #1 King but because of that I don’t think it would necessarily be the next arc.

Overall 6/10

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Review

Posted on April 28, 2024 by dreager1

Frieren was a show that definitely got a ton of hype when it was coming out. It’s a fantasy adventure that is a bit different from your average title. It takes place after the hero’s party already saved the world so it’s more of an epilogue with different events that are still going on to bring on the danger. All in all, it’s a rather satisfying show that has a good balance of heart warming/emotional moments as well as some really good action scenes. When the show decides to turn up, it really goes all out with the animation.

The show starts by introducing us to Frieren who was a legendary sorcerer who accompanied the hero Himmel on his quest to destroy the Demon King. They succeeded and the world was saved. They all went off on their own way. We pick the series up 50 years later as Frieren decides to redo the journey one more time to see how the world has changed. Along the way she does does Heiter a favor and decides to train a young girl named Fern. The two of them then meet a warrior in training named Stark. It looks like Frieren has assembled another hero’s party of sorts. There may not be a demon king to vanquish this time around but perhaps they can help Frieren learn what it really means to have emotion.

Frieren’s main conflict here is that as an Elf, she will live for hundreds and hundreds of years. Everyone she meets will inevitably die before her such as he hero’s party that she worked with previously. Some races last long like hers but the Elves definitely take the cake on overall longevity. Elves tend to be very logical and lack emotions as a byproduct of their long lives so while Frieren’s party seemed to have an amazing time, she couldn’t fully appreciate the moments at the time. So in the present, Fern and Stark’s constant banter help Frieren to learn these emotions. You can also give credit to the various supporting characters around.

So in a lot of ways this is about Frieren’s transformation from an emotionless leader into someone who has become more human. I’d say that’s the emotional core of the series and it works well. Frieren even sounds emotionless for most of the show but will sometimes show off a bit of humor and other emotions. Her dry wit works rather well as a contrast here. Above all, it’s also nice to have someone as powerful as her in the lineup. She’s easily the strongest hero alive on the planet right now. She may not be quite as heroic as Himmel but his tendencies have really started to rub off on her so she finds herself being more and more heroic with each day.

Her long years of experience have also helped to spread her reputation around. It’s always nice to see everyone treating her with awe and reverence the whole time. As someone who helped defeat the Demon King, that makes a lot of sense. I’d say this show handles that “Post Game” era better than most other titles that I’ve seen. People didn’t just suddenly forget what happened or anything like that. They’re all still hyper aware of the situation and that’s a good thing. She’s a great lead character, no doubt about it.

Then we have Fern who serves as the prodigy of the group. She is way younger than Frieren and yet she has already become a super talented mage. I don’t see her passing Frieren even by the end of the series but even so, she is a force to be reckoned with. She had to grow up quickly in order to take care of Frieren as well since the lead isn’t always the most responsible for day to day chores. In other ways Fern does show how she’s still a kid though like with her constant arguments with Stark. She really gives him a hard time over every little thing. He never takes anything personal and is a good kid. In a way it’s the only time Fern is able to act like a child which is probably part of why she does it. That, and Stark just gets on her nerves more than anyone else.

As for Stark, he’s the close range fighter of the group. With the other two main characters being long range mages, it is definitely super handy to have a close range specialist at the ready. He lets his guard down a bit and for now I don’t consider him to be in the same league as Fern and Frieren but he is a really fun character who does add to the dynamic. Stark provides a lot of the best gags in the show and he’s also just someone that gives you confidence in the group. He’s straight forward and gets along with people really easily. In that way he feels the most heroic out of the group. Actually, I’d say he straight up is the most heroic. Stark will defend anyone that he can.

The show’s foundation is really solid which opens up pathways to quite a lot of things. The show could have gone down a full slice of life route and it would still be pretty good because the main trio has such a good dynamic. The show also isn’t afraid to just slow down and let the main characters have a fun day off. We get one episode that is pretty much all about Stark’s birthday and Fern trying her best to have a good attitude about the whole thing. There are several other episodes in the show that don’t actually have any fighting involved. This is one of those shows where fights aren’t necessarily guaranteed and that’s definitely not a bad thing. Of course you know I love fights but this series can hold its own in any genre.

So the fact that we have a number of good fights is really a great bonus on top. Each half of the show has at least one major fight that looks great. Like I mentioned earlier, the animation is really solid here. You have a lot of strong/vibrant colors that really stand out at all times. The second half especially has a lot of memorable moments but you won’t have complains with any episode. Meanwhile the soundtrack can be more subdued but one big positive is that each opening is excellent. I really liked the first opening in particular which has a very unique sound design to it.

The first big villain in the show is a demon named Qual who was pretty fun. Basically this guy used to be a really huge deal but in this universe it is hard to stay as a top tier threat. The reason for this is due to the way the magic system works. Basically, the more familiar you are with a certain kind of magic, the easier it is to block. So what happens here is since Qual has been sealed for 50 years, everyone had time to study his magic. Because of that, his ultimate attack is now just a basic attack for the modern day mage. I give Qual credit for quickly adapting to this but ultimately that wasn’t enough to turn the tables. It was a fun way to introduce the viewer to some of the world’s rules while also giving us a fun villain.

The first main arc involves Frieren and friends heading into a town that is trying to make peace with some demons. I appreciated how Frieren said this was a bunch of nonsense from the start and would never work. A demon will always be evil after all and she has a super valid point there. The humans looked rather gullible and they should have let Frieren do her thing. Unfortunately they would have been doomed either way without her but with her then they had a chance. Frieren’s attitude towards destroying all of the demons is a nice change of pace. She definitely won’t be falling for any traps.

The demons all had their own character and personalities too. None of them were throwaways. Well, I guess the closest would be Draht who made the mistake of challenging Frieren to a 1 on 1 fight. She made short work out of him and has quite a few raw moments like that during the show. It’s always really impressive. Aura is one of the big shots here as she is incredibly powerful and gets a good fight with Frieren. The actual ending may be a little anti climactic but the show does its best with the animation and sound design to still keep it hype all the way. Ultimately there was just a big difference in skill level which is what was the main factor here. Aura didn’t really make a mistake so much as she just wasn’t strong enough to win.

Lugner was a solid villain who had a ton of confidence the whole time. I liked his smug disposition and it was certainly deserved considering how powerful he was. The average fighter really didn’t stand a chance against him and his battle with Fern was a lot of fun. This direction of the demons all being rather smug but possessing a dignified air about them is really good. It makes them feel classy even if they are evil the whole time. Finally you have Linie who just likes a good fight. Her ability to copy fighting styles is definitely really handy. I didn’t find her to be quite as impressive as some of the other demons but she can still hold her own in a big fight. If she wasn’t so overconfident she would have done even better.

For the most part that’s it for the demons for now. There are other powerful monsters who have appeared but we’ll need to wait until season 2 for the next big threats. The fact that there are still so many powerful demons out there should have the humans really nervous the whole time but I guess the world is so big that most people are still safe. A lot of people are actually rather nonchalant the whole time despite never knowing when a demon will show up. I suppose that’s just how the world is set up though, you can’t just be living your life in fear right?

Now lets talk about the old hero group and some other characters before we jump into the final big saga of the show. As the legendary hero, Himmel is a pretty fun guy. He’s super heroic and a great hero to have around but it’s not like he’s perfect either. His main weakness is that he can be kind of vain. He loves posing and showing off as the hero. Later on it’s explained that he does this in a way to preserve the legacy of a hero and give people something to believe in but it’s hard to say just how serious that was. For now I’d still assume that he just likes to show off a whole lot and there’s nothing really wrong with it. At most I’m just not sold on his power just yet. He doesn’t actually seem all that impressive in the flashbacks so I’m waiting until we finally see a flashback of how the demon king fight went down.

Eisen is a good supporting character. He is actually strong and can endure just about any blow. His durability is really the selling point here as he can stay in the fight until he delivers the decisive blow. At that point then it is all over for his opponent. Heiter is easily the weakest of the group. He’s a priest who is always drunk and messing around. That’s his whole gimmick but it’s not a good one as he is always getting in the way and this does limit his overall potential. Yeah it’s not portrayed that way exactly and he isn’t treated as a liability but you’d think he would be a little more focused with the stakes being this high. I just couldn’t get behind this character.

Then we have Flamme who was Frieren’s mentor but as far as mentors go she can be a little boring. She doesn’t like violence and wants to spread peace which is all well and good but that’s about the extent of her character. We don’t actually know a lot about her beyond that which isn’t much. More flashbacks could certainly help her character though. Then we have Kraft who is another elf like Frieren. This guy is actually all by himself which seems like it would be really lonely. I’m not sure how he handles it but he actually seems rather good natured so I give him a lot of credit there. It has to be lonely after a while but he definitely doesn’t show it.

Finally you have Sein who temporarily joins the group but I can’t say that he added much to the dynamic so I was okay with him being written out later on. He has some magic abilities of his own and is a good healer but he gets distracted easily and is a big flirt. That’s such a big stereotype and not one of the fun ones so keeping him out is good with me. It seems like he’ll probably return at some point but that could be far into the future so nothing to worry about for now.

Now we get to the point of the big magic exam. At least one member of the party needs to reach the next rank in order to proceed so Fern and Frieren enter the test while Stark finally gets some alone time. The exam has several phases involving teamwork which forces a lot of these crazy mages to team up. Only a few people will end up passing the magic exam so the heroes can’t let their guard down for a second. From capturing birds to travelling into a dungeon and then passing a verbal quiz, every test has the potential to be the end of the road. If this were a straight forward fighting tournament then it would be an easy win but as it stands, there are enough different factors where there are no real guarantees here.

The exams is really an opportunity for a ton of fights and lots of cool moments all around so that was definitely a lot of fun. It’s the best arc of the show for now as we’re also introduced to a number of fun characters. It’s probably the biggest jump in actual characters yet in the series as just about every contestant feels like a person who could show up again in the future. I’d definitely be cool with that since they weren’t bad.

The best new character has to be Ubel. She’s a bit of a riddle right now as she is a serial killer and has a tough aura but she does end up sparing quite a few people. She doesn’t appear to be nearly as bloodthirsty as she lets on. So is this all an act or is she just playing nice for now? It’s just really hard to say either way but she is super entertaining. Her magic abilities are also really handy such as her paralysis and ability to copy your moves if she is able to understand you. Not just anyone can pull that off.

I also like Wirbel who is very similar. He’s murdered many people in the past and is widely regarded as another murderer but in the show he ends up being very reasonable. Murder appears to be a last resort for him. His skills are the real deal and while he doesn’t back down from a fight, he isn’t actively looking to take everyone down. I definitely look forward to seeing a lot more of him in the coming days.

Denken is the oldest contestant in the group. He likes doing things by the book and he makes up for a lack of raw power with absolute experience. He has a plan for everything although plans can only go so far. He doesn’t do great against Frieren in part because when the gap in strength is high enough, no amount of tactics are able to bypass that. He learned this the hard way but it was a good lesson. He has his moments and isn’t bad although he gets overshadowed by mot of the other candidates.

Richter is sort of the opposite here. He’s a lot younger and tends to be more impatient. He does have plans of his own but they do revolve around steamrolling his opponents with pure power which doesn’t always go well. He makes for a good antagonist but he’s not someone I would trust. He would absolutely turn against you for the right incentive. Land is more of a cautious fighter. He tries to keep a wall between him and everyone else at all times but will step in to protect his ally when needed. Ubel definitely dominates him in every interaction and a main reason for that is how Land is a bit of a softie. I like the guy though, he may constantly be lying to himself but the fact that he steps up when needed is a good thing. He’s someone you actually can count on to do his best at all times and to prioritize your safety.

Then you have Lawine and Kanne who are best friends even if they fight a lot. Their abilities complement each other well and they learn a lot while under Frieren’s leadership. I expected them to join Frieren again for the second challenge so it was surprising when they stayed back. I guess it can be awkward when the old friend group shows up but that was their big chance. Individually they’re only okay but as a duo they’re a lot of fun. I always enjoy the friendship banter with all of the insults flying around.

The proctor Sense is okay, but I’m not a big fan of her. I do think that allowing her clone into the exam was a little underhanded especially since she isn’t fighting on the hero’s side. For now I’m not too impressed with her in a power sense either. Certainly the opposite of Serie who finally shows up as the actual strongest fighter in the world. I have Frieren as the strongest hero because Serie is no hero but at this point in time you have no doubt that Serie would win in a fight between them. She’s spent her life in the pursuit of magic and has taken the offensive capabilities of it a lot more seriously than Frieren has. Serie can be openly bias when she is being a proctor but you have to love that confidence.

There are a lot of other characters, particularly in the magic arc but those are the main ones. You’ve got a really good assortment of supporting fighters here and there is already a lot of ground work for a ton of future seasons. There are tons of demons out in the world and the journey to get back to the end point of the adventure should take 10 years according to Frieren. That’s an incredibly long time so yeah this series could be around for a very long time and I’m absolutely cool with that.

Overall, Frieren is a great show and definitely lives up to the hype. It’s a really exciting show during the plot moments and it is a really thought provoking title during the slice of life episodes. The fact that it can succeed so well in two vastly different genres is a testament to the writing in the show. You should definitely watch this if you are looking for a fun adventure title. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Overall 8/10

Seven Little Sons of the Dragon Review

Posted on April 6, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a anthology. You know those can get a little dicey at times because it’s just hard to come up with a bunch of good short stories. Worst case you have a really good one and it ends too quickly and then you’re still mad about this being an anthology. So there are a lot of ways that this can go wrong but not a ton of ways that it can go right. That’s the real problem here when you really think about it. Fortunately this one was pretty good.

The first story introduces us to a world where a big dragon has been parked between two kingdoms for a very long time. They used to be bitter enemies who would murder each other but nobody can leave the kingdom or they are eaten. As a result everyone is slowly getting ready to die of hunger. Fortunately there is one guy who is able to freely cross between countries with small supplies. So he does his best to help get supplies from the other kingdom to his. What he learns is that the other kingdom isn’t evil, they’re really just like his people. Unfortunately the grudge between kingdoms has been going on for so long that nobody is really backing down.

So it’s a fun intro about how sometimes battles and grudges have been going on for so long that they’re basically pointless. Ultimately they are able to find peace once the dragon leaves and so this big trial was a blessing in disguise. It’s a fairly low key story that had a good ending. I was really worried that something would happen to the dragon at the end so I’m glad that he was okay.

The second story is also solid. Basically humans and mermaids are not supposed to interact. Mermaids may look totally human but officially they are classified as animals so you’re supposed to leave them alone. That’s hard for the main character to do though, especially when he sees one mermaid who is always having a lot of trouble. So they get close despite warnings from his friend and the mermaid nearly drowns him. So the lead realizes that he needs to learn a lot more about mermaids

I wasn’t expecting the mermaid to try and drown the guy but it was a good way to show that they really couldn’t understand each other at that point in time. No matter how much the kid thought they were friends on equal ground, it just hadn’t happened yet. The mermaid was just trying to be friendly and show him the sea but couldn’t understand that he couldn’t breath. It’s not likely that he will come up with a sci-fi gadget to make them understand each other but doing research to help bridge the gap between the two species definitely sounded like a good idea.

Next up was probably the most low key story of the batch. A little girl wants to do well on a test so she is hoping that one of the gods will help her. In this world, every kind of object has some kind of god watching over it or that embodies the object. So she raises a god in her fish tank and she eventually gets it to full strength only to find out that it can’t actually help her with tests. So the whole thing was futile and the story set this up well. There are gods for everything here so why would a fish god be able to help with studying?

It’s almost so basic that you have to do a double take because it makes a ton of sense in hindsight. So it’s a pleasant story but there isn’t really anything to ponder compared to the first two stories. Like it just ends and you move on to the next story. You don’t even really think about what just happened all that much. By no means does it make this a bad story or anything, it’s just not all that eventful and that happens sometimes.

After that we have a much more serious story. Basically in this world some people are born as werewolves and so when the full moon strikes, a separate personality shows up. This has often been seen as super dangerous and so the main guy’s mother was scared at first but did her best to learn about the condition. She is now the top expert in the world which is really impressive. Her son sometimes feels that she profits too much out of this though and wonders if she has his best interests at heart. That’s really where the drama comes in here and so I would say that it doesn’t reflect super well on him.

It would definitely be awful to not be in control of yourself any time a Moon comes up. Or to not even remember what you did at that point since the other soul has all of the memories. That said, he should have discussed the situation with his Mom rather than just holding it in and being sad the whole time. The moral of talking things out is a good one and I liked the premise. It’s fairly original.

After that was my least favorite story of the bunch though. So there’s this painter who is so good that anything he draws becomes alive. He’s sort of retired now but there is a fake knock off making drawings of his own. So the old guy has to get out there and settle this. Along the way he is protected by a rather sloppy counterfeit of one of his own paintings and a lot of other distorted ones.

There is naturally a twist on who is drawing these but it was hard to get all that invested this time. The whole drawing plot just wasn’t very interesting. The ending is certainly wholesome but also still pretty sad. Especially when you consider that the paintings basically do have feelings. In a way having the ability to make your paintings become real is probably not something you would want to have. It would make you really double guess every single thing that you draw.

After that we have one of the more fun ones with a mysterious lady offering to help a group of soldiers get across a mountain towards a vicious monster. What they don’t know is that she’s bumping them all off one by one. There’s definitely a bigger sense of danger here than in any of the other stories. The lady is really deadly and just overall scary the whole time. Clearly not someone that you ever want to mess with. I liked the premise here although I would have changed up the ending a bit.

I felt like the soldier got off a bit too easily. Now none of this is directly his fault so I’m cool with him surviving but I found the whole thing to be a little cheesy especially considering the resolve of the assassin. You probably could write an interesting dynamic there if you wanted this to be an ongoing but as a one shot it ends up feeling rather rushed. This finally goes to the potential issue anthologies run into where the story concept/premise is just too much for such a small window of time. I thought it was the most interesting of the bunch though.

However, the final story is my favorite. It’s about a family where everyone has different powers. The main character feels bad because she feels like her power is the worst. She can change your clothes into pajamas. Not much compared to mind reading, telekinesis, teleporting, etc. Well it might come in handy this time as a detective shows up and the house turns into an elaborate murder mystery.

The whole thing is a big tribute to Detective Conan and it works really well. The mystery is fun and you really see how all of the misunderstandings start to work. The ending’s a bit of an unbelievable gag and I felt like the author was trying really hard to make the pajamas power cool. It didn’t work….but I appreciate the effort. In general I just really liked the vibes the family had and the setup was good. This is definitely a story that could have been an ongoing.

The art is fairly decent here. I don’t think the artist is one of the higher tier ones in the business but this is still professional through and through. I definitely have no issues here. The volume is easy to read and so you’ll be blasting through. Most of the stories are pretty good as I mentioned earlier so you’ll have a fun time here.

Overall, The stories are pretty well balanced. They all bring something different to the table without being repetitive and I liked just about all of them. The author has good range as the stories really have a lot of variety. Even the painting one which is the worst one by default isn’t bad. I just found it to be borderline boring at times but still not one that I would flat out give the thumbs down to. I can definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a fun collection of stories. While none of them are great to the point where they will wow you, none of them are bad either. At the end of the day that makes for a good collection.

Overall 7/10

The Company of Wolves Review

Posted on February 26, 2024 by dreager1

This review is of the TV-14 version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version of the film would be more negative

Oh noooo it’s time for a film about wolves. Let me tell you something, these films tend to be rather lackluster at best but this one really takes the cake. It was just so bad on every level. From the plot to the violence to the characters, it was all so bad that I had tears in my eyes. You will want to avoid the movie at all costs. Get out of there as soon as possible, it is definitely not the way to go.

So the movie starts with a girl getting ready to go to sleep. She goes to sleep and everything starts moving and getting all trippy but we go back in time for another girl’s sister gets eaten by wolves and then the grandmother of the first girl tells her a story about how men with unibrows are evil. From there we lose the plot further as we have tons of stories inside of other stories with wolves murdering everybody and it just goes to show that you are not safe anywhere. It butchers the little red riding hood story so hard on every level.

Lets start jumping into the negatives here. First we have the obligatory animal violence. The wolves like to eat just about anything of course and so that does include a poor cattle that was simply minding his own business. The scene is surprisingly graphic but it gets less surprising as the time goes by. Why? Because the whole film is thriving on shock value. The transformation scenes are easily some of the most graphic that I have seen. It’s pretty crazy seeing the guy just bleed himself into a wolf. That was super crazy but more grotesque than scary. Then in another one you have a wolf coming out of the guy as if the human skin was just a suit. This one was creative though so I will say that the special effects were really good this time.

Reminds me of when Reverse Flash jumped out of some guy’s body in the CW show. That was weird and spooky without being grotesque so props there. It’s just that the props I give the movie are always very far and few in between. For every decent moment like that there are a ton where you will be shaking your head. Lets go back to the romance angle for a minute. So we’ve got this villager kid who likes the main heroine and he’s always going after her but his persistence makes him feel more like an antagonist than a good character most of the time. He basically steals a kiss at one point and she has to shove him away and he doesn’t get the hint.

They play up the fact that he’s naive but as the saying goes, no means no. He needs to accept the rejection and keep it moving. It does lead to a quick fight between the fathers which was fun but yeah that character was awful. Then in the segment with the grandmother, you’d think the girl would have more of a reaction to her grandmother being eaten. She doesn’t react as you would expect her to which will make you grown as well. That’s not a small offense, that’s literally murdering a member of your family. Pretty crazy you know?

The grandmother is so mean to everyone that it can be a bit funny. She’s constantly intentionally scaring the kid with all of these violent stories and generally being a bit of a jerk about it. My only problem here was that when it came time to actually prove her abilities, she got folded immediately. Yeah she’s old but where’s her gun or at least some kind of a dagger? She was completely unprepared despite being the expert and that was disappointing. Felt like the whole plot was rather useless as a result. At least that’s the way I see it.

Now it is clear what message the film is going for. Don’t let anybody take you away from the straight and narrow path. Don’t trust anyone since all strangers can be evil. The grandmother throws this message in constantly and you can assume the wolves are basically a metaphor. The problem is that a big message can’t save a film and it’s really just an excuse to have all of these stories. At the end of the day it doesn’t help to make them be any more connected and the film is a real bore as a result. You know that the humans can’t do much here. Yeah they can shoot one but usually it will have bit someone else who can transform.l

The humans will always be on the backfoot here and due to the anthology format, it’s not like they can get a final win anyway. All in all, this film definitely did not do anything to make me all that impressed with it. Instead it just did the opposite. I don’t think that it would have been much higher if it was all one story but probably would have been better than a 0 at least. Maybe we could have stayed in the modern day which is an infinitely better backdrop than the olden days here. The olden days with werewolves is a super bad combo.

Overall, This film was pretty bad. At no point in the film was it cooking up a good story or developing any good characters. Everyone here is on the annoying side, the romance is dreadful, and the violence is definitely over the top. I didn’t really get what the point of the whole thing was. Surely they could have thought up a better script than this right? I think the movie got a little too ambitious with all of the stories inside of a story. Having it all be chronological would have helped but even then, anthologies are always the worst kind of format. You should really have more confidence in telling a complete story.

Overall 0/10

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Visions of Coleus Review

Posted on January 21, 2024 by dreager1

The Slime series always has a fairly tough balancing act to follow. On one hand it needs to provide you with a lot of action and hype but on the other hand Rimuru has already surpassed almost every character in the verse so it can be tough to have a satisfying opponent. Ultimately this spinoff adventure just rolls with it. Nobody is ever actually a threat to Rimuru and at no point are you really worried about the side characters so it just ends up being a fun side adventure that is pretty much stress free. I’d say it ends up working out pretty well though. The series really excels in this niche.

The adventure starts off with Rimuru being sent on a mission to go and resolve a dispute between two princes that is threatening to tear the country asunder. He doesn’t really care about this mission all that much but is ultimately talked into it. Basically each prince thinks that the other is acting unreasonably and Princess Zenobia has ended up being poisoned. There are suspects on both sides and the King seems to have lost all reason so he won’t be any help here. The whole situation is more than a little fishy so Rimuru will need to play detective. Curing Zenobia is the easy part but finding out who is the true culprit could be slightly more difficult. Can he find this out in time to keep the country from fighting?

Well if he was only a detective then it might be a little tough but he’s so powerful that he basically cheats. At one point he has his minions just fight off one of the prince’s advancing forces to buy a little time. For a split second it seems like his fighters are having a bit of trouble so I was glad that it turned out that they were holding back. I’m cool with humans matching them in terms of pure swordplay but in overall ability? Nah that would have been a stretch.

Not to say that there are no powerful villains here though. We do have some vampires/demons running around whose abilities are the real deal. While Rimuru would still deal with them quickly enough, it makes sense that the minions could have a tough time. In the end Rimuru looks pretty good here. He can be a bit hit or miss for me as I liked him a lot in season 2 but not as much in season 1. It’s safe to say that he has come a long way as the series went on and by this point he’s a consistently likable character.

The film couldn’t resist the urge to throw in some more original characters though so one of his allies here is a guy named Paolo. Paolo is super weak but means well. The guy is genuine in wanting to use his skills and I guess comparing him to Rimuru isn’t fair but it would be nice if the guy thought about things more before jumping into action. The series does spare some time to have Rimuru give him advice which helps out in the end. It was a pretty nice little bit of character development and it’s always nice when a film/miniseries can squeeze in a stand alone character arc like this.

The highlight of the special is definitely the quick fight between two demon lords who still haven’t done much in the present. As soon as the issue of vampires came up you could bet that this fight was going to be coming sooner than later. At least with one of them, the other demon lord strikes me as more of a troll who just likes to cause a scene. It does add even more connections to the big budget movie though. They share so many plot elements that it feels like they just wanted to do the same adventure twice. Hey that’s cool with me of course but then Diablo should have gotten a fight here again too. The guy earned it.

Rimuru’s disguise is also one of the best that I’ve seen for a lead in terms of being able to trick everyone so it’s ironic that it basically doesn’t work from the start. The one time a disguise can be perfect because the main character is a shape shifter is ruined because one of the characters can see souls. Ah well, I guess that kind of thing just happens.

Zenobia was a pretty good princess all things considered. She had plans of her own and did a good job of not cracking under pressure. She took some fairly massive risks like letting the villains drug her as she pretended to be asleep but the fact that she had actual abilities was cool. The two princes also weren’t bad. I don’t think you will remember them a whole lot after a while though because they’re a bit generic. One was tempted by the dark side and the other is your classic tough guy.

As this special is part mystery you can expect quite a few plot twists though and those work out well. It should go without saying that the animation is pretty good here. There isn’t as much time for the animators to flex here but the brief fights that we do get are good. The characters are always on model and the special effects are on point. The soundtrack is pretty good but mainly just stuff from the TV show. I guess they wouldn’t want to make a whole new ost for something short like this.

Overall, Basically you will definitely enjoy this title if you already like the Slime series. If you are new to the franchise this would definitely be quite the way to start it. It’s stand alone enough where you’ll understand all the main story beats and the rest you can pick up from context clues. Like I said it’s fairly low stakes and just a good chance to see the characters solving a problem and having fun. It works as more background as we see Rimuru develop into a solid king that everyone respects. So that’s fun and it’s always cool to see everyone’s reaction when they find out what a big shot the guy is. Rimuru is certainly unassuming all the time. I’m definitely ready for season 3 to come out already with more adventures for the gang. Whether they are serious action adventures or just a quick breather like this one, they’re always fun.

Overall 7/10

Highlander Review

Posted on November 26, 2023 by dreager1

This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

Okay it’s time to look at a film that has a very interesting plot but unfortunately it is completely wasted by having a lot of screen time take place in the past and also getting lost in the grittiness of it all. This should have been a really fun action movie with a whole lot of excitement going on and instead it was all squandered. What a shame.

The film starts off with Connor dueling an immortal in a parking lot. There’s a lot of destruction but in the end Connor wins and absorbs the guy’s life essence. The cops arrest Connor but he gets out due to their being a lack of evidence. So what’s going on here? Well basically there are a bunch of immortals running around so there is finally a tournament to bump them all off. The only way for an immortal to die is to be destroyed (So they’re not really immortal tbh unless you’re just thinking lifespan and in a way that is what some people think of but to me you’re not truly an immortal unless you are unable to die) so everyone is going to fight until there is only one immortal left standing. The final battle appears to be fated to be Connor vs Kurgan as they have a deep history.

Okay so the first massive mistake the film makes is constantly jumping between the present and the past. In general as a rule of thumb you do not want to do this. If you absolutely have to do it though, try to get all of the scenes out of the way early so we can get on with it. Instead this just keeps on going over and over and over again right through to the end. You’re sick and tired of seeing the past each time. It also has to be one of the most generic immortal storylines you’ll see as everyone betrays the guy because it’s immortal.

I’m always impressed at just how awful humanity is in all of these moments. So you’ve decided to anger a guy who won’t die from normal injuries and just hope that he doesn’t slaughter everyone? They’re super lucky that he doesn’t want to hurt any of them because this was quickly turning into a villain origin story. Then Connor meets a lady and has a romance but of course he won’t grow old while she does so she ends up dying. The film has some extra grit by allowing the villain to get his hands on her while Connor isn’t around which is definitely the worst scene of the film.

It’s off screen fortunately but that really didn’t need to be in the film. We already have so many reasons to dislike Kurgan, this is just piling on at this point. Man I have so many problems with the flashback stuff. Ultimately it’s just not interesting and it’s beating down a point that you could have easily understood from context clues. The only scenes of real importance here is when Ramirez shows up to train Connor and even that could have been off screen. You knew Ramirez was doomed the whole time anyway. The mentor is always doomed in these things. At least he put up a really good fight though.

Ramirez was a decent guy and I give him credit for trying to show Connor the ropes. He really did make the guy a whole lot stronger and also informed him of everything going on. If not Connor would have been at a really disadvantage which is why the whole tournament’s not very fair anyway. If you don’t know someone to give you the info dump then you’re just going to get absolutely wasted when the fighting starts anyway since you won’t even be expecting to have to fight for your life until it’s too late. Not very balanced eh?

Connor is a reasonable main character but not great or anything. He’s all business when it comes to the fights and has experience being an immortal. So that’s all good but you do think he would be a little better at handling himself socially in that respect. For example when the cops showed up at the beginning Connor really didn’t even try to explain himself all that much. At least he could have come up with some kind of crazy story. He’s rich so he might have been able to get away with it a lot easier.

The main villain Kurgan is barely a character so much as he’s just someone that needs to be taken down. He’s pure evil and his only real motivation is to murder everyone. Not exactly a deep character. He’s a strong one to be sure but you’re just waiting for him to go down. I think the film could have made him more interesting and in general I wish we could have seen more of the combatants. For the most part they all just show up to get destroyed as quickly as possible.

Brenda is also a character who doesn’t do a whole lot considering how often she appears. She wants to find clues to Connor and how he got such an old sword. She even resorts to asking him out to trap him while she has her tape recorder on but he sees through the traps rather quickly. I suppose she does have one key moment where she saves him during the fight but that’s not really enough for her to turn the corner and be more interesting.

Highlander is the definition of a film that was way too ambitious and so you end up feeling like it left a ton of meat on the bone. I wanted to learn more about the immortals, see more of the action, and just enjoy the tournament. Instead we’re stuck learning about Connor’s past over and over again and the fights play a backseat role. The actual fights are really good when they occur but they absolutely should have been the main focus and it should not even have been close. When your main characters are all immortals you really can’t go wrong.

Overall, Highlander is a film with a lot of potential but it didn’t focus on the most interesting elements of the premise. It should have been more about the fun immortal fights and everything instead of zipping around in the past. We didn’t need to see all of that to be honest and the past scenes hurt the film tremendously. It tries too hard to be edgy instead of focusing on the fun fights and in the end it definitely did not meet expectations. I would say to just skip this one and watch a different action film like Mortal Kombat instead. Now that one really focuses on the tournament rather than on all of the side stuff and it makes for a better overall experience.

Overall 3/10

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