Naruto Shippuden Review

Posted on July 28, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for one of the most well known anime of all time. This adapts most of the Naruto manga series after all which may be the second most iconic title of all time right after Dragon Ball Z. So the stakes were high and I’ve been watching this show for well over 10 years. Well, it definitely brings back a lot of good memories and it’s adapting a ton of amazing content. Unfortunately I would say that it has the absolute worst pacing and directing I’ve ever seen for a show. At times I would say it’s the kind of show you want to watch on AMV mode because of all the cutaways and stuff that are thrown in but I’ll get into that more later on. Basically though, it is a pretty good show either way.

The show starts by re-introducing us to Naruto who has returned to the Hidden Leaf village after nearly 3 years. He is now ready to help the village out and maybe they can even bring Sasuke back. The village refuses to acknowledge his hard work and they keep him in Genin status but he will prove them wrong. Together with Sakura and Kakashi he goes on his first mission which is to save his old friend Gaara. Gaara has been abducted by the Akatsuki and they aim to extract his tailed beast which will result in the guy’s death. They ultimately want all of the beasts which means that Naruto is in trouble as well but he is still ready to answer the call. Nobody’s going to get in his way!

Of course with 500 episodes you can bet that the plot is going to change a whole lot and this series does cover a very wide variety of arcs. A lot of them are even exclusive to the anime and were not featured in the manga so you should get excited for those….mayyyybe. They can be rather hit or miss but I’ll talk more about the arcs later on. At its core this is a series with a lot of combat action and adventure throughout. You learn valuable lessons about friendship and everything. It’s a series with quite a lot of good values spread throughout the title.

Of course in that time it will also make some slip ups. The series does have its occasional fanservice but it has always been better with this than other titles. It never gets too excessive so for the most part the series stays classy. With such a large amount of episodes, not all of them are perfect but the majority are good. There is of course some animal violence and other pitfalls here but if I was going to recommend an anime to someone, Naruto would be on the higher end since it feels relatively new user friendly despite the length.

Now despite all of this, why do I take shots at the pacing? Well lets look at a few random fights. Take Naruto and friends against Kaguya. The fight starts up and looks good…then we’re interrupted for several episodes for her really drawn out flashback. Okay, we’re back to the present for a few more punches. Then..back to Obito’s backstory. The fight gets interrupted so much. Then after the initial round with Madara we enter a filler season that lasts over 20 episodes and feels like it goes on forever. You’re just waiting for the show to return each time. It would help if the fillers were better but most of them weren’t all that great.

This happens consistently over and over. When the series doesn’t switch to a different plot point, it will usually instead have a scene get super dragged out. This especially happened in some of the earlier arcs like when Sai showed up. We have him and Naruto clashing kunai for such a long period of time that it makes Naruto look extremely wimpy. Instead of dominating the fight or even winning, it ends up being evenly matched which makes no sense. There are lots of zoom ins and reactions as the characters prepare to fight, etc.

Usually One Piece is the title people talk about in terms of something being drawn out but honestly I never had the same level of issues with that title. I would say it comes down to directing. Even when it’s drawn out, you don’t feel it quite as much as in Naruto. In Naruto it’s like everything just stalls and the added scenes don’t try to disguise themselves. So you’re just waiting for something to happen. A ton of episodes would get absolutely brutal with this. It’s why I say the series is lucky that it’s adapting a 9 star title because that hard carries the whole series. Without that, with the way everything is so delayed and such it would have a really hard time staying afloat.

Ultimately what helps to counter this is that the series does have a ton of nostalgia. I could turn it on to a random episode right now and I would have a good time. It does bring back memories and I do feel like they tried. The results may not have always been stellar but it’s not like the show was just phoning it in. The budget behind the show seemed reasonable. For example the animation is solid. There are some episodes that look absolutely top tier and to this day there are some fights that people say should be in the conversation for greatest of all time. Even for the fights that weren’t given the top of the line budget, I would say they looked good. This is a title that had strong fundamentals all the way through.

Then you have the soundtrack which really is excellent. There are a ton of great tracks all throughout the series and some new tunes that don’t even show up until the final saga. The fact that the show was still adding new tunes left and right like this was definitely impressive. I enjoy more tracks in the show than I can even count so you can bet that these definitely help to amp up the source material as well. Good music always goes a long way.

All right now lets dive into the story. So of course the first arc is about rescuing Gaara and it’s a fun way to kick things off. Deidara and Sasori get most of the screentime from the villains side of things. Yeah Itachi and Kisame show up but they’re more of a distraction than anything else. Don’t expect them to be getting any big character development just yet. Seeing Kakashi and Sakura fight was nice since it had been a while since we saw them. To date this might even be Sakura’s best fight as she really handles herself well against Sasori. Definitely a fun matchup while Kakashi doesn’t get to do as much this time. Deidara is a tough matchup for him since he’s always in the sky.

The stakes were high right off the bat and really the only complaint you would have here is that Naruto didn’t really get to look as strong as you might have expected. He’s the 9 Tailed Jinjuriki and after years of training with Jiraiya, he should be a true power hitter right? Well, surprisingly that just wasn’t really the case. He never felt quite as unstoppable as he should have which definitely left me puzzled. In a fair fight I see him losing to both Sasori and Deidara at this point in time which is absolutely crazy.

Naruto makes for a superb main character and the more I watch the show the more I appreciate him. I still have the battle crazy leads like Goku and Ichigo above him but Naruto is well above the average lead. He’s a surprisingly mature character by the end of his journey and he really learned his lessons instead of staying static. A lot of other leads could really look to him for guidance on this. He gives a lot of speeches and also knows when to stop talking and just start fighting. It’s this balance that makes him one of the greats.

Sakura also gets to look really good in Shippuden. Gone are the days where she would have to run away or duck a fight. Now she can fight alongside Naruto and the others. Her strength is really impressive and she gets some really fun fights in the series. Having the ability to heal her own wounds as well is definitely a massive plus on top of all that.

Kakashi is the ever reliable leader as well and definitely looks good here. The whole running out of chakra thing may be a bit of a running gag but jokes aside, he does take care of business. Without him they would have been absolutely doomed more than once. He may not always win, but you can definitely count on him to show up when the chips are down. He is a Sharingan user after all and that is still one of the absolute best weapons in the series.

Might Guy’s always been a fun rival to Kakashi and you can make the case that he was actually significantly stronger than him for most of the series. The 8 inner gates are really no joke and it was great to finally get to see him use them by the end of the series. He jokes around a lot but at the end of the day he is a sensei and one of the stronger fighters in the leaf village. Without him the heroes would really be in trouble.

Tenten doesn’t get a lot to do in the series but she is always ready to be the voice of reason. I appreciated seeing her show up from time to time but I wish she could have gotten stronger. Rock Lee is the more disappointing character here because he had such great showings in the first series. Taking on fighters like Gaara and Kimimaro is still legendary but you can’t really point to any signature fights in part 2. The same goes for Neji who by all accounts is much stronger but he isn’t really given anyone to fight outside of fillers. I suppose again that does make the case for why filler can be really handy. This way you can give fights to the characters who ended up being skipped over.

Chiyo only showed up for the one arc at the beginning but she did well. She made the most out of her screentime and ended up being a really memorable character. Even nowadays people know her well. She really outshined Kankuro who used to be the best puppet user but got surpassed by an incredibly large margin. He never really gets many scenes to make up for this. In comparison Temari also doesn’t do much but is at least relevant for the final parts of the series thanks to her dynamic with Shikamaru.

Gaara has a lot of screentime here so he does well. I do miss the fiery spirit he used to have back when he was an antagonist but he definitely got a ton of character development so I can’t deny that. His sand abilities are absolutely lethal at this point and he became the ruler of a whole country which is no joke. He gets to meet up with Sasuke and is generally one of the most loyal allies to the leaf.

As for the Akatsuki, I always liked Deidara quite a bit. His flair for the dramatic is handled really well. He’s an entertaining character who will keep you on your feet the whole time. His birds are also incredibly dangerous, the fact that he can use them to give fighters like Sasuke and Gaara a tough fight is super impressive. He’s the kind of guy who never gives up until the end so I can definitely respect that.

Sasori isn’t nearly as ambitious of a character but he is still a strong fighter who should not be underestimated. His poison daggers are tough to deal with since he has so many clones. I ended up liking his abilities more than the character itself but he’s decent. At the very least I will ay that he’s iconic, due in part to being in the first arc that everybody has ingrained into their heads.

Then the next arc has the big return of Sasuke which was hype! We’re introduced as Sai who tries to be Sasuke’s replacement but lets just say that he is absolutely not built for this. He’s not even close and falls far short of those high standards. Sasuke actually has been training over the last 3 years so the gap between him and Naruto was absolutely massive. It’s crazy that he could have finished them all off if he wanted to. The arc is fairly short but we got the big Naruto vs Orochimaru battle so that was pretty fun. Orochimaru was ultimately just soo slippery to really be put down for good. He was seriously just having fun in that match. You get the feeling that he would have crushed Naruto if he was really trying.

Sai is a character I never warmed up to. For sure he went through a lot and going through the Root program is crazy but he’s not my kind of character. He never gets all that emotional and his ability to draw anything is not a very offensive type power. It can be used well but for the most part you can never picture him scaling with the top tiers. Taking Naruto to a draw was absolutely a huge fluke and one that I would never expect to see again. He just got supremely lucky there.

Yamato is someone I’ve warmed up to a bit. I think he had a super rocky start but as the series went on he would get more and more emotional. He actually became someone who would defend Naruto so that was nice to see. He tends to be on the wrong side of almost every issue though so he’s not perfect. I will need to see a lot more improvement out of him.

Orochimaru has a lot to do here as you can probably guess. The guy is getting close to needing to switch bodies after all. He probably could have planned things out a bit better but he was dealing with an Uchiha prodigy so that’s not easy. His durability is still very impressive to me. The guy never really goes down. He definitely gets off way too easily in the series though. This guy is psychotic and a mass murderer. He should be in jail at the very least. That part kind of annoys me but ultimately he does deserve his spot as one of the most memorable characters in the series.

Kabuto still works well as the right hand man. He gets a surprising amount of power near the end which was definitely a very impressive power up. By the end he is one of the strongest fighters and while we knew he would be strong, I was still impressed. He is a really fun wild card. I don’t love the character but he absolutely made the final arc better. Without him bringing all of the old characters back it just wouldn’t have been intense.

Sasuke is one of the biggest characters in the series so naturally there is a whole lot to talk about with him. He goes on a journey into the darkness where he sinks further and further as the series goes on. Just when you think he might be getting heroic, something would happen that would send him back. It’s a really tough cycle to be sure but at the end of the day, it’s a mission that he was ready for. He has his share of points and that’s why the battle of ideologies between him and Naruto was really good. He wanted Revolution while Naruto was effectively fighting for the status quo. Both sides have pros and cons to them.

Their rivalry is still one of the best of all times for any series. It’s just super impressive by all accounts. Sasuke is also my favorite character in the series. There are none who are even close. His character is just so deep and you could talk about him for an entire article. He survived one of the toughest experiences imaginable and he didn’t let it break him. If nothing else, you definitely have to look at that amount of fortitude and be impressed. It was really something. Then throw in some of the best attacks and theme musics and it’s a wrap!

The first of the really big filler arcs involves Sora. He’s a kid who is constantly upset and yelling so get ready for that. What I liked about the arc was they constantly played the anger theme which works well for battles but that’s about it. It’s a relatively uninspired arc and one that goes on for too long. There were some cool ideas too like a widespread 3 Tailed Jinjuriki battle but that was not enough to save this one in the end. You can easily tell which arcs are filler or not based on the quality which is kind of crazy. Well maybe not too crazy since in theory the original author knows his characters best but you’d still expect it to be a little closer.

In the following big arc, we get to focus on two more Akatsuki members. Hidan and Kakuzu show up and destroy Asuma so now the Leaf have to avenge him. It’s one of the only times we see a real switch in the team rosters so that was pretty fun. Kakashi vs Kakuzu is a really underrated fight that had a lot of great choreography the whole time. I also liked Hidan vs Shikamaru even though I felt like the hero didn’t stand a chance in that matchup. Then Naruto has his big return which is always super hype. He really got a lot of the best return moments across the series. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised though, such is a hero’s job right?

Hidan is one of the most enjoyable Akatsuki members. He’s always laughing and messing around while destroying everyone. The guy is unhinged and that works really well for his character. Trust me, he’s just a blast and to this day I’m waiting for Jashin to show up. Hidan got his immortality from someone after all. This could really work like in a sequel series or something.

Kakuzu by contrast is much quieter and more of a serious fighter. He wants to complete the mission and that’s it. He’s not really thinking about anything else. His trait of having more than 1 heart is definitely super handy though and the guy can fight in hand to hand. He’s a very well balanced member of the Akatsuki and definitely would have been a tough fight for most of the heroes. I also liked the idea of someone who is immortal being teamed with someone who has multiple lives. I think the second layer to that is how Kakuzu would always murder all of his partners back in the day but there’s no chance of that now.

Ino and Choji are sort of along for the ride in this series. They don’t really get to do much of anything and don’t really have the skills to stay relevant either. They get their moments but don’t expect too much out of them. Asuma get some really solid moments before he goes out though. I always liked his chakra blades, they seem super practical as a weapon. Ultimately he just needed to be stronger to hang in there more but the guy fought well.

Shikamaru gets a super big role in the series. He is still the man with a plan no matter what happens. He may not have the strongest attacks but he can get people to the right spots. I liked him for most of the series although I’m not as big on the character once he starts working for the Hokage. It felt to me like he basically sold out by that point and began getting more and more corrupted. I know that someone has to watch the dark side but above all else you need to trust your Hokage and I don’t feel like Shikamaru did. At times he felt like he knew best which is a dangerous assumption.

The 3 Tails Guren gets a mini filler arc and it wasn’t half bad. I remember the main annoying thing being the heroes being slow to act while the villains would monologue over and over again. Sometimes you just have to break the anime rules and land a hit real quick. I think this arc would probably work better if released as a mini series outside of the main anime. That said, I know filler was necessary to keep the show on the air without further destroying the pacing so it is always worth it. While I may not be the most positive about these things, it’s not like it was terrible or anything.

After this we finally start getting to the big Sasuke arc. He first forms a team with a bunch of new quirky characters and then heads off to go and take down Itachi. It’s a fairly short arc in the grand scheme of things but it was a fun one. I enjoyed seeing the rematch after all this time and it was easily one of the best fights in the series. I also think Sasuke’s group Taka isn’t even that bad. They’re not all stars by any stretch of the imagination but they actually had some decent banter the whole time and contrast with Sasuke pretty well. Sasuke also got a super great theme in this arc which was really good stuff. I loved it whenever that theme would appear.

Itachi is definitely a massive characters. No worries if the backstory confuses you because you’re going to be seeing it a lot. To be direct on this, he is a villain and no matter how many times we see the flashback, he was definitely in the wrong there. He was murdering women and children in his massacre and should have worked with the Hokage to find another way. No matter how you slice it, he took the villainous path. Still, he makes for a solid wild card who really can change the whole direction of the battlefield. He’s one of the most interesting characters in the series and one of the most powerful. The fact that he couldn’t be controlled even by the mass reanimation jutsu was definitely a big point in his favor. He really had backup plans on top of backup plans.

Kisame is not quite as powerful. Despite being partners, I would say they probably had the biggest gap in ability between them. You always got the feeling that Kisame could be destroyed at any moment if Itachi willed it. That’s how powerful he was. Kisame’s true form was still impressive though and he definitely did a lot of damage. As a fast yet powerful fighter, it would be difficult for most heroes to stop him. That’s how it should be too, each member of the Akatsuki should be someone that it either takes an entire team to bring down, or some of the absolute top tier fighters. Anything less just would not match the hype that this villain group got when they showed up.

For example none of the junior fighters like Suigetsu should stand a chance here. I like his confidence and the guy is ready to pick a fight but he’s in a completely different league. A much smaller league if you will. Even the idea of him trying to take on Kisame is funny. I don’t know what Suigetsu would do without Sasuke. His water powers are handy though, he just lacks the physical stats to really make the most of them.

I like him more than Jugo though. Jugo is just a bit too quiet and serious. We already have enough of those characters so he doesn’t really end up adding much to the dynamic at all. I needed characters who could provide banter. I’m not a big fan of Karin either but at least she definitely delivers on that front. When she is around you can bet that there will be a good amount of tough talk at all times. She was all business all the time except when Sasuke was involved. In that case she would break down immediately which really held her back. That gag got old fast.

Then was the big arc that may still be the most iconic in all of Shippuden, the big Pain saga. Pain finally launches his invasion on the hidden leaf and immediately destroys a whole ton of people. The body count is super high and Naruto is basically the only one who can stand against him. It’s always a fun what if to imagine if Sasuke was in town at the time. I thin he would have done really well to put it mildly. Aside from all of the awesome fighting which is of course great, we also get the conclusion to the debate on the cycle of violence. It’s a really well written sequence of scenes with both characters making a true case and then we see how it plays out. Ultimately it’s not like the cycle will ever end, but you can at least hope for the best.

Pain is of course one of the big villains of the series and he’s great all around. From the character design to his skills, this guy was the real deal. Seeing him basically take on an entire village was crazy and to date he has some of the most memorable moments in the series. You never forgot any of Pain’s big moments because that’s how influential the guy was. Each of his different bodies had more and more abilities as well. It was hard to keep track of them all, much less counter each form. That would be near impossible. Definitely a great pick as the leader of the Akatsuki.

While she isn’t mentioned as much, Konan is definitely right up there as well. Her paper abilities are super handy and she almost took down Obito early on. To think that could have seriously changed the trajectory of the series. She may appear to be meek compared to some of the other fighters but once she is in the battle she definitely goes all out. This is also a decent point to mention Jiraiya. Unfortunately I have to say that I’m still not a big fan of the guy. He had a heroic death and all but he had too many character flaws in the end. Those definitely cost him big time.

We get a random flashback arc about the old days here. I suppose people were probably getting nostalgic so it’s not a bad idea but it does sort of wreck the flow a bit. You want to get to the next big adventures after all and this is the only thing left standing in your way. It has to be removed as soon as possible. The arc isn’t super long but it’s still fairly long so you definitely have to wait for a while.

After that we have the Kage Summit, another small arc but a real doozy. Sasuke decides to take on all of the Kages and he actually has them on the defensive. That is absolutely crazy when you think about it. His fight with Danzo was also awesome and this is really the arc where he goes full on villain. Before now he wouldn’t murder innocents or anything like that but now everyone is fair game. He has really changed a whole lot from the Sasuke that we once knew. We also got the big Team 7 reunion which was cool even if it maybe wasn’t quite as big as you might have expected. There is a cool fan animation that heavily extends the fight with Kakashi and Sasuke while one of the Ultimate Ninja Storm games officially extended Naruto’s fight with him. Regardless, it’s a top tier arc.

Danzo is one of those guys who was running around causing trouble for ages so it was nice to finally see him get taken down. Honestly he got away with way too much the whole time. The fact that the Lead Village would look the other way is rather disgraceful if we’re being honest. If Sasuke didn’t take him down I don’t know what would have happened and that’s annoying because it never should have come down to that. It doesn’t make any sense. His skills are the real deal so I will give him that though. The guy has masterful tactics and it makes sense how he could reach the level of Hokage.

The Raikage is another Kage who really earns his station. He is always ready to fight and doesn’t hide behind minions. His speed and power are both off the charts which makes him a top fighter. I like his personality and he is the kind of guy who is always ready to take charge. I may not have agreed with some of his decisions but he was usually on the right side. In fact, he had to be convinced to put Naruto on the shelf when originally he was planning on deploying him to the front lines. That would have been the best plan to take advantage of his abilities.

The Mitsukage gets less to do but she is around. Her lava abilities aren’t bad but I think her main problem is that the technique doesn’t feel as special. You can’t compare it to instant regen, new lives, or invincibility. Her power is just lava and I know that is lethal but it feels like a normal ninjutsu. I wish we could have seen more out of her. Then we have the Tsuchikage who has the cube style. His particle attacks are definitely super impressive so to balance him out, the guy has chronic back pain. Honestly that gag could get annoying sometimes but I get why they needed to nerf him. Now there is a really solid technique.

After that..it’s time for the big war. You could argue that the war itself had a bunch of mini arcs within it as well. Of course you have the long dream saga where each character imagines what the future could be like. Some are simple AUs while one extended one recaps the whole series. That one was unfortunately a bit too ambitious for its own good. With an arc as long as the war, it wasn’t always able to be consistent but there are a ton of super memorable moments to be found here. Madara finally making his move and of course seeing all of the reanimated shinobi was a lot of fun. All big Shonen titles should end with some kind of a huge war because it’s the perfect way to really show off your extended cast. Without that then it’s harder to bring everyone in. So the arc may be controversial but I still thought it was very good. The climax really makes it. You’re seeing the strongest shinobi of all time all going at it. Who can’t help but not get excited at such a prospect right? This is what we came here for, this is why we are Naruto fans.

Madara is a villain who was hyped up for the entire series and I’m glad to say that he absolutely lived up to it. He is a beast in battle and the kind of guy who loves fighting. You already know that would win me over right from the start. This is a villain who shook the entire world with just his name. Now that’s presence, I don’t think there is any other villain with that much aura. It’s a shame how his character ended up going out because he was absolutely cooking everyone. There’s definitely a whole lot more you could have done with the character. Still, he got so much screentime that I can’t complain much.

Then we have Obito who was also a really big threat. Perhaps not as strong as Madara but still a top tier within the verse. You definitely understand his motivations, not just because losing someone is something we can all sympathize with but because of the fact that we got to see Rin die like 100 times throughout the series. I felt bad for her because that flashback would never stop looping. It was absolutely crazy. I do think that Obito got off way too easily in terms of reputation though. I’m glad that the series deals with redemption arcs but this man did hurt a ton of people. Lets not forget that so easily.

Zetsu has a consistent role throughout the series and then he really turns up near the end. He’s actually a rather fun character with how tough he talks the whole time. The guy has a lot of good plans and while it may stretch disbelief at times, hey the guy is patient. He is the ultimate strategist who waits on the sidelines but technically can’t fight at a high level. If he could fight too then the world would really be finished.

Kushina has a solid role as Naruto’s Mom. She was a real fun character and a go getter. It’s a shame that her screentime was so low but she gave him good advice throughout and was a super solid parent. Then you have Minato who also looked really good. We actually got to see him fight a lot which was awesome. He always had a very cool air about him. The guy was also a top tier parent. He ends up being one of the better characters in the series and he definitely has the best reputation as the Yellow Flash. People knew not to mess with him.

The 3rd Hokage doesn’t do much here but I’ll just say that he’s annoying. Every time we get a new flashback, we see how more and more of the problems were all his fault. If he had just stood up and stopped at least one of the internal villains then things could have been very different. It’s hard to be as harsh on the 2nd Hokage since most of his actions were off screen. He seems to be a solid fighter but again we just don’t know a ton about him.

The 1st Hokage is easily the most impressive. You could make a decent case for him being the strongest character in the series. The guy’s abilities were super terrifying. Personally I still have Madara above him but the two were rivals for a good reason. It definitely wasn’t one sided in either direction. The scene where he powers up to freeze all of the Hokage and Sasuke was definitely a true flex and one of the biggest hype moments in the series. It’s hard to imagine him ever going down in the past.

Killer Bee is the only Tailed Beast holder aside from Naruto who gets a big role. He definitely makes the most of it as his debut appearance against Sasuke was definitely a really memorable one. It was nice to see an owner who actually bonded with the beast. Eventually Naruto would do this as well but it would take a long time. Killer Bee’s rapping gimmick also wasn’t that bad to be honest. Not really my thing but the execution was okay.

Hinata doesn’t do much for most of the series but she starts to get a role by the end so I should mention her. My main issue with Hinata is the same as with a bunch of other characters. She is too soft spoken the whole time and needs to assert herself more. This is what keeps me from becoming a big fan. I want to see a Hinata who gets really tough and just starts blasting the enemy. Still, I’d say her fans should be satisfied with her portrayal here.

Side note, it was cool seeing Zabuza and Haku return. They may have appeared super briefly but that was a lot of fun. One old character who shows up a bit is Iruka but I still don’t like the guy. He’s way too harsh on Naruto and wouldn’t even hear the guy out when his wedding day was approaching. I think some people find the dynamic charming with Iruka constantly bashing Naruto and apologizing for him since he assumes that the lead is up to no good. The problem for me is that this gag has the opposite effect. He should trust Naruto completely by now. It’s definitely a big L for Iruka.

The 9 Tails himself gets a ton of character development and it’s fun to see how far he has come. Gone are the days where he would just be yelling and trying to scare everybody. Now he is actually a rather reasonable person which is cool. He supports Naruto and really helps him to improve. It’s a superb dynamic and I like how they build each other up. No matter what, Naruto and the 9 Tails will always have each other as friends.

Finally we have Kaguya and unfortunately the anime does her a disservice. The extra scenes actually make her look worse instead of better which is crazy. She just appears to be too naive and slow on the uptake there. I would have liked her to have fought more and just messed over anyone in her way. She is Kaguya, one of the strongest people in the verse. That shouldn’t be asking for too much right? Great design and everything but the flashback definitely hurts.

After that, the series mainly starts to wind down. We get a quick mini arc for Shikamaru based on his novel, a Sasuke arc for his, a mini arc on picking out presents for Naruto, and episodes for some of the characters as kids. The anime really wanted to make sure you had time to see what the characters were doing in the present which is a nice touch. I mean personally I’m cool with just ending on the big fight but the longer you can extend a series the better and it was worth it to reach 500 episodes. That is an absolutely crazy amount that almost no show nowadays can ever hope to reach. It is simply too impressive.

Even with a review this long there are tons of characters and episodes I didn’t touch on. It’s why watching this show is a true saga. It’s an experience that you can’t complete in a few days. It would be literally impossible to do so. That’s the charm of the series after all. Even I would probably not remember everything if I gave it a re watch so in that way there is always a ton of replay value here. You can try to notice extra easter eggs and lore that you didn’t notice the first time. Then you will have made it to the level of grand Naruto scholar and you can use that as super bragging rights. Of course the next step will be to enter the world of Boruto at some point but that’s a discussion for another day. That is technically a separate series after all so it should be looked on separately as well.

Overall, Naruto Shippuden is one of those titles that I will never forget. It will always be very important to me because of all the memories and the experiences I had with the show. It was a title that lasted a long time and there are very few titles that can keep going for 500 episodes nowadays. It’s lucky for most to reach 100 after all. I would definitely recommend this to any action fan. For a long title like this, you are really given time to know all of the characters and get emotionally invested into the whole thing. That definitely goes a long way and at the end of the day watching this is like watching a big piece of anime history. You owe it to yourself to experience what this global phenomenon was all about. On an episode by episode battle it may not beat the higher tier shows but while those end every 12 episodes, this one will just keep on going and going.

Overall 7/10

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War Review

Posted on July 27, 2024 by dreager1

This is a manga that I felt like I was reading for years and years. It just took forever to scan but the series is long with almost 100 chapters so it was a really big project. It certainly had its moments here and there but ultimately the problems were just too massive for the series to ever get past. Put it this way, the series takes place in the olden times of kingdoms and tradition. So unfortunately a lot of characters don’t make the right moves because of a sense of honor. So by the end most of the characters are just real awful and it’s hard to really try and redeem any of them. It’s actually a real shame when you look at it that way.

The story is really split into two main sagas. The first half is about Prince Sigurd as he does his best to unite the kingdom. There are tons of evil countries out there and even his own has a lot of problems. So Sigurd has to really start from the top but since he’s Prince he should be able to do a lot right? Along the way he falls in love and has to work to balance the weight of the crown with the weight of being a husband. Will he be able to unite the kingdom?

Well the second saga is about his son Seliph who has to stop the evil kingdoms so you can probably guess how that went. Seliph is a little more extreme than his father was. He is an ultra pacifist who doesn’t want to hurt anyone. Yeah Sigurd was also keen to avoid fighting but the big difference was that he would ultimately draw his sword when needed. He understood that sometimes you had to fight in order to protect what you love. Seliph takes forever and a day to learn this which is annoying.

Now the idea of two sagas is very interesting. Outside of people who played the game and knew this was coming it really comes as a shock. I was definitely not expecting a whole new 2nd act that would have brand new characters and everything. It’s really like a whole new adventure from end to end. So the idea is cool at least even if it didn’t really do much to save the series. You may be wondering, just how bad can this series get? It’s still Nintendo so what’s with the super low score? Well I hate to say it but this series broke all of the biggest cardinal rules.

First off, it pulls a Sword Art Online. The series so infamous that just using the term lets you know what’s going on. Well maybe not for everyone so basically the series decides to go grim dark by having one of the villains attack Sigurd’s wife and things get really dicey from there. The series really fell into the gutter from that point and never recovered. Unfortunately it doesn’t stop there. The series also decides to pull another Sword Art Online with a plot twist about Seliph’s wife and that reallllly gets dicey. The series really didn’t need to pull that. There are no point to the twist beyond the standard shock value that comes with it. Yeah that may have been something that happened more in the super old time this takes place in but that doesn’t mean it has to be included.

That’s my thing with a lot of these series. Just because something might be historically accurate or improves the realism, doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to include it. In fact, I would say the opposite is usually true where adding these things just weakens the story by a massive degree. The series could have done without all of this stuff. These were the two most notable moments but trust me when I say there were a whole lot of others as well. The series generally didn’t have a ton of fanservice either. Some here and there but for the most part it was avoided so I appreciated that at least.

Too bad the villains had quite a few pervs in their ranks. Unfortunately this is where the annoying honor stuff comes in again. One guy harasses one of the girls a lot but he’s a high ranking noblemen so the heroes are told to stand down. The girl even says she can take it but really? The heroes aren’t gonna do anything? Oooh yeah I’d have some problems with that. One of the quickest ways for me to lose respect for a character is when they sit back and allow villains to get away with whatever they want. That’s absolutely not something you can allow in any timeline.

The series is long and yet the ending also manages to be rushed. That’s always an impressive combination in a rather grim way. Like how do you even let that happen, it doesn’t make any sense. The main villain suddenly decides not to be super evil and basically gives up, then Seliph decides it’s time to finally have some rage and goes for the final blow. It’s really not a satisfying ending in any way and so the series couldn’t even end on a positive note.

As far as the art goes, I can’t say that it was very good. It’s extremely old and has one of those art styles that just feels really dated right now. Not like that’s a super bad thing in itself but at the same time I wouldn’t say that it goes very well. It’s not the worst art that I’ve seen but I would say that it is considerably below average. It really feels like the whole deck was stacked against this series right? Well one more main negative and then lets go onto some positives.

The power levels make no sense here. I don’t usually go into this much because most series will have some power issues as they go on. It’s pretty much impossible not to right? Well what makes this one particularly egregious is the fact that it’s so drastic. The series is mainly down to Earth. A few fighters have burning blades that increase their attack power but that’s it. That is…until some mages show up. One of the villains is a girl who can shoot meteors that can literally destroy mountains. She is shown to burn a whole town in the blink of an eye. So how do the heroes actually manage to beat a villain like this? Well, she is either told to retreat by her inept commander or she just doesn’t use her abilities until the heroes get in close to knock her out.

Eventually the heroes get mages of their own who have wind abilities and yet the heroes never really do much with him. What’s the point of having a super weapon if you’re not going to use him. I would say that the heroes absolutely did not have good tactics at the ready. There is no excuse for them to not be able to do much of anything here. They had the numbers and manpower to do better but otherwise the villains should stomp. The instant the girl with meteors was introduced, that should have been the end of the series without a doubt. You can’t really come back from that.

Okay now lets get into some positives right here. The first one is that the series does have good world building. While I may not enjoy a lot of the characters and settings, it is hard to deny that the series does a good job of going into everyone’s backstories and the various countries that are around. There are quite a few countries and they all get their big moments to shine. This is a very big world and the series makes sure to explore this as a theme. No country is left behind here, they all have a role to play.

It may be a bit convenient how they all attack one at a time in most cases but I can overlook that for now. The fight scenes are suitably dramatic when they happen and I do enjoy the climaxes for each arc. The series is at its best when it is focusing on these spectacles. There are also some characters that I actually do like quite a bit. In general the cast of part 1 is vastly superior to those in part 2. You have people who look forward to fighting and who can really hold their own.

It unfortunately goes without saying that I couldn’t get behind almost any of the romances in this series though. They tended to fall into the trap of being either risky, rushed, or just out of left field. The characters wouldn’t often have much of a reason to like each other or it felt like something out of desperation. The amount of characters who need validation from others here is rather large after all and unfortunately this always leads a villain to taking advantage of some of them from time to time.

The series’ length is something that works to its favor at least. While I didn’t care for the title in the end, there is a lot to read through if you do end up enjoying it. You can tell a lot of story in 99 chapters after all, particularly since each chapter is really long. The series definitely changes a whole lot when it ends compared to where it starts. It can be happy, sad, action based, romance focused, etc. There is a ton of variety to be found here and it feels less like a video game adaption and more like a full on epic. If it just could have avoided most of the problematic issues of the time then it would have been just fine.

Some titles can survive a few setbacks but the main problem was that these were just way too extensive. At that point the series couldn’t survive which is always a shame when you see the lost potential there. I’ve read lots of series that put in the work to be a super solid title and then they were ultimately not able to prevail. It’s just how it goes sometimes but at least there are so many other Fire Emblem titles out there that it’s not like I would ever need to even try re reading this one to get my Fire Emblem fix.

Pretty much all of the villains are just super evil to the point of it almost being comical without much other depth to them so I won’t talk about most of them here. A lot of them are your average dark mages with different spells and sorcery. Some of them do have some real ability but for the most part they tend to hide in the shadows. They have the fighters with actual skills rush into the fray and then go for the cheap shots. Usually the most notable fighters will turn good and get recruited into the army. Then rinse and repeat for the future arcs.

wo of the first fighters to show up are Lex and Azel. Azel is young but he has good magical abilities. He’s a decent fighter but gets flustered rather easily and does seem a little too young for these games of death. Granted, it’s a war so it’s not like the characters have much choice. Lex is a lot more experienced but doesn’t have the same level of ability so they have a fairly good dynamic there with a lot of contrast.

Then you have Diadora the main heroine. She has some pretty good healing spells and has a big role. Unfortunately things really don’t go very well for her at all and I wish that she would have had a better ending. She was a very nice character after all so the whole thing felt rather harsh. The cast in the series is really huge overall and there are a bunch of other heroines who seem rather similar and got to have better endings. I suppose they can’t all go out on a high note but it still felt like a bit much. I had to quickly take a look through the early chapters to remind myself on some of the different names.

One thing I will say is that the series does have that issue where a bunch of characters look really similar. For once you can say there is a bit of a lore reason for it as almost everyone is related in one way or the other but it still makes them hard to pick out in a crowd. It doesn’t help that most of the characters wear similar getups since they’re all in a war scenario.

Avra is a heroine who stood out as one of the dragon riders. I liked her combat gear and she was definitely more of a tsundere type fighter. She made sure nobody ever got the wrong idea when she would help them but of course this does lead into a romance plot. Fire Emblem is one of those series that has a ton of different romances running around but almost none of them work. It goes for more of a quantity over quality kind of thing.

Again I think part of the weakness here is in how old school everything is. All of the characters constantly talk about honor and what can or can’t be done. As a result they rarely end up seeming all that reliable to me. They will freeze up or hesitate if the big boss says anything and can also be a bit slow to help each of their heroines.

I already talked about the dancer Sylvia getting harassed and everyone was really slow to help her. Levin is a solid character as he is trying for peace and uses his wind abilities to mow down anyone in his way. It would be nice if he was more of an aggressive fighter though but there really aren’t any big characters like that. If we had more notable characters that were really bold and stood out, that would really change things. There are a bunch of other characters but again, they don’t really leap out of the page or anything like that.

Overall, Fire Emblem had a lot of potential but it didn’t live up to this. There is a ton of world building and the story goes really in depth on the kingdom setup so it probably is a must read for scholars of the franchise but I also wanted a top tier story along with that. I don’t think this would be too greedy of an ask right? In general I am still a really big fan of Fire Emblem and I look forward to seeing more stories about the franchise. I’ve generally enjoyed all of the other ones, this was really the only one that just couldn’t hold its own. I think any newer title would easily dominate this one and so I would say to definitely give this one a hard skip. Read Fire Emblem Engage instead if you want a really solid story with great art and characters.

Overall 2/10

Juni Taisen: Zodiac War Review

Posted on July 25, 2024 by dreager1

This series is one of those survival tournaments sort of like Fate/Zero. There are a lot of fighters gunning for the grand prize and everyone has their own reasons for winnings and strategies. We change perspectives a whole lot which is interesting. The series does a good job with all of the varied abilities as well. It can definitely get rather intense at times and for the most part you really can’t trust anyone as they will all do whatever they can in order to win. It definitely keeps you at the edge of your seat the whole time.

The story starts by introducing us to the Zodiac War tournament which is a battle that is held every 12 years. One fighter is chosen for each of the 12 Zodiac symbols. This is typically someone who has really been training for this day because the prize is immense. You get whatever you wish for. The limits of your prize appear to be absolutely unlimited so who would not jump at such a chance right? Each player swallows a poison gem and the deadline for the tournament is midnight. If there is more than 1 competitor still alive at that point, the gem will unravel and everyone dies. So you better murder the 11 contestants quickly or you will find yourself in oblivion as well.

Part of the fun is of course seeing who gets bumped off and who wins so I won’t be talking about who wins or anything like that. Obviously you want to go in with as little information as possible. Most of the characters’ wishes are hidden as well until the end so I won’t really go into that. Instead, I’ll mainly spend the review talking about each character individually. At the end of the day this is really a true combat manga all the way so you can expect quite a lot of action all the way through. It definitely does not hold back on the action at all. The series can get rather violent with how everyone is getting murdered. Of course that will come as no surprise but the backstories tend to be dark as well. You’re shown just how hopeless things are for most of the characters and why it is so important that they win here.

I can understand why they take the risk considering the stakes. That said, I would say some characters are considerably more powerful than the others. Everyone has some kind of a special ability up their sleeve but it’s hard to compare reading vibrations to having unlimited bullets for example. For the most part the characters are rather down to Earth so having an infinite machine gun is actually super handy. The series does a good job of using the rock paper scissors type rules though where characters have good and bad matchups which ends up being just as important as the battles themselves. You might still find some fights a tad cheesy with who comes out on top but all in all I would say the series did a good job with this.

The art is definitely very high tier. The series has a ton of detail on each page, you can definitely feel the dread of the characters and understand how high the stakes are at all times. Each page makes you want to flip to the next. It’s very easy to read and the style is memorable. For example Rabbit in particular looks super deranged the whole time, definitely not someone you really want to mess with.

One thing that’s too bad is that we didn’t get a longer introduction. We only get to see all of the characters together in the same room interacting for a very brief time. The tournament starts almost immediately and from there we don’t have a lot of time for conversation. Sure we get the 1 on 1s, but after that it’s about action. Seeing a little more tough talk and flexing at the beginning is the kind of thing that I will never turn down. The tension is palpable and it’s the kind of thing I really enjoy about tournament series especially because until the rounds start, it really is anyone’s game.

Okay so first up lets talk about Rat. He is one of the more unremarkable characters at first glance. His ability is a mystery but all of his stats appear to be around average. The guy is quick but still wouldn’t be a favorite to win. He’s a fun character to have around though and when you think of Rats in any form of media you know that they’re really clever. So naturally you are expecting something smart out of this guy. I liked his plan and once we get the reveal about his ability, it’s one that I really like. It’s an incredibly useful ability and yet I would not say that it is downright broken. The author is careful to add some limits to it. Honestly it’s an ability that would still be super scary to have in real life.

Then we have Ox who is one of the big favorites to win the event. He’s known for being virtually invincible. His strength is completely off the charts and he wins every fight without getting a scratch. He is absolutely unstoppable and the guy is very emotionless. He just does whatever he wants and doesn’t generally doubt himself. I liked him quite a bit. We never get a whole lot of backstory into the guy but just enough where you can understand him. I like the mystery there and of course in general I tend to like the characters who are really good at fighting and come prepared.

After that is Tiger who tends to get drunk a lot. She’s a solid fighter as well and gets even better when she is drunk but at the same time she never feels like she is a match for the top tiers which is what holds her back. I like her can do attitude and how she never backs away from a fight but at the same time it would have been nice if she was a little stronger. Bravado is all well and good but when it’s not enough to lead you to victory then it can end up feeling rather hollow. I still liked her well enough and in general the series made almost every character likable. There are two main exceptions here but she isn’t one of them.

Rabbit is the next one to talk about on our list. Like I said, the guy is absolutely insane. It’s hard to know what he is thinking at any given moment and that makes him a dangerous wild card. He is strong but his real strength is his unpredictability. At any moment he can just lunge at you and end the fight. For that reason, I feel like the characters could have had their guard up a little more. It’s not like this guy even looks all that stable right? Rabbit is super smart though. His ability isn’t necessarily the best at first but is one that becomes more and more useful as the fight goes on. in a survival game that is absolutely a really good kind of ability to have. It sets you up just right to make a play for the win.

Then we have Dragon who is one of the only ones that I did not care about. I don’t think the series ever meant for him to be all that interesting though. In a tournament of 12 fighters with only 4 volumes, some fighters can’t get as much depth as the others. I felt like Dragon was one of these guys. His ability isn’t very interesting and the guy doesn’t seem all that tough. So in the end there just isn’t much else for the guy to do. He’s just absolutely busted but not in a powerful way.

Snake suffers from the same fate which isn’t really surprising since they’re basically twins. So he has all of the same issues that Dragon has with no real improvements there. This guy can feel vibrations…but yeah that’s about it. These two are still good to have in the story of course to round out the roster but I don’t imagine that very many people missed them. They just never felt like they were really ready for this level of competition at all.

Horse is one of those guys that I thought had a whole lot of potential but in the end it just wasn’t enough. The way he went out wasn’t super satisfying either to be honest. I know a lot of this is about wits and being careful but even so it was just underwhelming. I still think he made for an interesting character even with the lack of screentime. He’s one of those guys who really would have made waves if he was left on the board for too long as well so it’s easy to see why he had to be targeted early on.

Sheep is the oldest contestant. He’s been around for a long time and so he can’t compete physically at all. The guy has bombs though and one of his big advantages is the guy’s a team player. He’s willing to work with just about everyone but of course in a tournament like this you have to be careful. He has a lot of wits and is a reasonably fun character but at the same time it just feels like he is doomed right away. No matter how skilled you are, can you really make it far without having some level of physical ability? It just seems like a losing battle.

Monkey is the pacifist of the group and so naturally she is one of the most annoying characters. This is a war so of course there’s no way to get through this without violence. For starters that would mean giving up your wish and nobody is going to do that. So she felt rather nonsensical from the start. Monkey has some of the strongest stats in the tournament but it’s not worth much when she isn’t willing to make the first move. She made for an interesting wild card but as a character I just didn’t like her. She definitely went to the wrong tournament, that’s for sure!

Chicken doesn’t have the biggest role but is a fun enough character. She’s not thrilled about being in this whole fight because fighting isn’t her favorite thing. Still, she has a wish to be granted and is ready to get it. Anyone who sounds this nice is rather suspicious right out of the gate though. I would definitely say that for sure. She’s not bad but Chicken doesn’t really stand out next to most of the other fighters. I would consider her to be one of the weaker characters overall.

After that is Dog who is good against poisons. He feels like one of those characters who is also rather underutilized. I couldn’t take him super seriously and he didn’t feel like one of the smarter characters either. The guy definitely needed a better plan here. I’d have been eager to see more of what he can do but in the grand scheme of things, most of the others had more potential so it was definitely a fair tradeoff.

Finally we have Boar who feels like someone who would be the main heroine in another title. Her backstory is rather twisted but her design just feels like the lead. Her infinite ammo ability is really solid and she’s a very confident character. Definitely one of the favorites to win the whole thing and I really enjoyed her character the whole time. Definitely a really fun character to have around at all times.

There is also the referee Duedeculpe but not a whole lot to say about him. Of course he is important for checking on what’s going on and is key to the ending. Not the most interesting character or anything but definitely a necessary one. Especially since he is a part of the mysterious organization which is definitely interesting in itself. Now there’s a group that you definitely can’t underestimate considering how much pull they have. If you get in their way then it’s game over.

Overall, The Zodiac War is a pretty fun series. The battles are all rather intense and the abilities are used wisely. I liked all of the tactics being used here and the ending definitely works really well. It’s a satisfying conclusion that makes the whole thing really worth it. I’d recommend this to anyone who likes a solid action title. I would again caution that this definitely does get very intense but I wouldn’t say it ever gets extremely crazy to the point where it is trying to be an edge lord type title. For the most part the violence is limited to the contestants which is always a big deal.

Overall 6/10

Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts Review

Posted on July 14, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to take a look at a romance anime from a little while back. This one had a lot of mountains to climb to try and be solid though because right from the jump I had my doubts about the main romance. It’s going for clear Beauty and the Beast vibes here which is admirable about inner beauty and everything but it’s still hard to root for. The main guy is…well he’s a beast and the main heroine looks like a child. Mix that together and this romance is going to be a super hard sell. We’ll see if the anime manages to pull this off or if it can at least succeed in spite of this.

The series introduces us to a girl named Sariphi who has been shipped off to the land of monsters as a human sacrifice. It’s not exactly a great honor, it’s much the opposite. She was an outcast in the realm of humankind and was always treated horribly. At least now she could have a quick death but to her surprise, Leonhart says he will let her go. He actually never eats the human sacrifices and only keeps up the tradition for peace between the realms. He lets them slip out the back and presumably when they go back to the human world they live a brand new life. Sariphi has nothing to go back to though and decides to stick around. This forces Leonhart to name her as his bride to be. She will be queen over the kingdom and this news shocks all of beast kind. Is the King being seduced by the human? Many monsters will have something to say about this.

Naturally it’s not surprising that this would cause a lot of friction. It’s completely unheard of after all since humans and beasts are completely different. At least in this series both are totally humanoid and everything but yeah I’d suspect foul play if I was one of the monsters as well. It’s all just so sudden after all and the King doesn’t really go in depth on explaining his pick. He’s the king so why should he right? But the ole “Because I said so” is never a very convincing argument when you really think about it.

So lets dive into the romance right now. Why wait right? There are two main romance plots here. The first is with Leonhart and Sariphi and yes I could not really get into this. At the end of the day, he is in his beast form for nearly the whole series and she’s still super in love with him here. The problem is to me this just feels more like a gratitude thing. She went from a kingdom where everyone wanted her dead or out of the way to a beast that has made her queen. Naturally she owes him a lot and so she is super thankful to be alive. I don’t think it translates very well into the romance though.

I also just can’t really get past her design which is a little too small and the beast being a beast. So with those 3 factors in play, this was a romance that I was not rooting for. I’m afraid that the show will have to try and succeed in spite of it. The other romance with Amit and Jormungand is better but also still underwhelming. It tends to be a little more on the cringe side at times. Amit is just way too nervous the whole time and can barely have a real conversation with the guy. We would have needed a much longer time frame for this romance to really work at all.

Hey, this series isn’t only about romance though so lets get into the other aspects of the show. As far as the animation goes, I would say it looks reasonable. It’s clearly not a top tier contender or anything like that but I wouldn’t say it’s super cheap or anything either. I suppose it’s what you would call average. It checks off enough boxes as needed and will show up a bit for the fights when they occur. It’s not something that would hurt the show but it’s not something that would help it either.

The soundtrack is mainly forgettable as well. The opening songs aren’t bad though. Not my favorites or anything but they have a good beat to them. The second opening definitely wins from the two in terms of audio. So I give the series some props there. Generally the plot and atmosphere are solid as well. The show can get a bit violent and the sob stories can get rather sad but the series is never too drastic about this. They set up the world and have all of the details in place but don’t go out of their way to make everything too gritty to try and set up your sympathy. I can appreciate that.

The cast of characters is also reasonable. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but much like the rest of the show they fit the bill. Nothing too great or too weak. This series manages to keep up a fairly average level in most areas so I could see this one being a bit forgettable after some years. Ironically what will keep it most memorable is the main romance since you’re not likely to forget that even if it’s not for the greatest of reasons.

As far as Sariphi goes in terms of being the main character, I thought she was okay. She has her brave moments where she steps up to to protect her friends and face off with the villains. Ultimately what hurts her is she can be a little too naive though. For every risk she takes that is good, she will take a few that just put her in too much danger. Going along with the main villain Fenrir at one point is an example of this. She gets lucky a whole lot and I think she should stand up for herself some more.

The fact that she is a human going up against powerful monsters does stack the deck against her but at least she has a powerful Phoenix in Bennu. She should use this beast more since it can be super handy> Those flames will burn anything in their path after all. With the exception of Fenrir and Gleipnir, I think these would be enough to protect her from virtually any character in the series. She just needs to play things a bit more cautiously.

Then we have Leonhart and I’m afraid I’m not a big fan of this guy either. He’s the king, yet he lets himself be pushed around by traditions all of the time. How I see it, if he was a villain then he would ignore everyone and just make Sariphi his queen. Anyone who didn’t like it would just be wiped out. I’m not saying Leonhart needs to wipe anyone out but they should be respecting his authority as King. So if he says that she is going to be the queen then I need everyone else to back off.

Every time they take Leonhart to the table with threats about how she will be kicked out and everything, it’s just super insulting. Ultimately she usually says that she wants to take the challenge and he relents, but it’s not a great look on his end. This is when I need him to man up. He’s one of the wimpier kings that I’ve seen in a series like this. I know that tradition is a big thing but being King gives you the option to toss this away. No matter how many times he roared in the series, he couldn’t make me forget that.

Then you have the super “loyal” butler Anubis. He’s constantly trying to get rid of Sariphi and even thinks about murdering her at one point. This is not the guy that you want to have as your right hand man by any means. Anyone who would even consider murdering the queen to be like that can definitely not be trusted. Like that was just completely insane. Then later on he also doubts Leonhart himself. Yes he ultimately finds his way back to being a decent person but there should be absolutely no doubts. His actions put everyone in danger time and time again. Some would say that true loyalty is being able to make a move against your master and I would argue that it means always making sure they are safe and get what they want.

It’s an oversimplification and there are other factors at play but murdering the queen to be is not one of them. Then we have Ilya who is a terrible character through and through. Where to even start with this guy? He claims to be in love with Sariphi but was never around when she needed him. Then he shows up causing all kinds of damage to “save” her when she was doing just fine. I would get it if she was super beat up, bruised, or seemed off like mind control. The problem is that it was obvious that she was doing find.

He goes as far as to tie her up and everything which makes him look absolutely terrible. I like the drive of wanting to save her but he took it the absolute worst way possible. The instant he was not willing to even hear her out when she was explaining things was when he was completely doomed. You can’t come back from that. He also would not be able to protect her. If they go to the human world she will be murdered and if they wander around, a monster will eventually take them out. He is strong, but he is only human and that is not enough in this world.

If you want a real protector, then you have to go with Bennu. Bennu can have an attitude and is rather slow to protect Sariphi sometimes. But you know what? Bennu is still ready to help when it counts and trusts her completely. That’s the kind of bodyguard you want to have. I’ll take the loyalty any day.

Back to the army forces, we have Jormungand who is a really powerful fighter. He is very serious and always on top of business. I can respect that and his skills are legit. He is very quick to side with the king even after a lot of people start turning on him. This guy has actual loyalty and so he was always a welcome sight. In a lot of ways he’s what Anubis should have been.

Another good loyal character was Lanteveldt. He can be a troublemaker and always keeps everyone on their toes but he will protect Sariphi. He takes on a lot of injuries as the series goes on but never falters. By the end I would say he is one of the stronger characters even if he will never rise to the top. The fact that Fenrir and Leonhart have actual aura blasts and projectiles makes that matchup just plain unfair. Lanteveldt has his quickness and agile moves but at the end of the day those simply aren’t going to be enough to win sometimes. Still one of the best characters though. I like his confidence and you always get bonus points for not just following royalty.

Then we have Joz and Galois who are fairly minor characters but do a good job of testing Sariphi. What I liked about their test is that they weren’t risking lives or doing any of that crazy stuff. No, they just wanted to see how Sariphi would treat those who appeared to be lower in station. And she did very well of course because she’s really not into any of that stuff. Considering her background it makes sense, but even without it she just has a code of ethics that the other characters lack.

She also to show her kindness with the minor character Tetra. Tetra got to see why Sariphi made for a really good queen who would rule with a just hand. It’s definitely not something that you could really say for any of the other ladies who wanted to be queen. Most of them tend to look super petty throughout the series. Tetra is a nice kid, she doesn’t do a whole lot here but it’s always nice to have more allies around. Anastasia is more of a random character who appears near the end but she is able to read the ancient scripts which is handy. Honestly it’s impressive that she has survived so long while being an outsider and not really having any connections. Definitely not something that just anyone could pull off. She has a tough aura to her so even though her role is fairly small, I thought she was fun.

Now we get to some of the big villains. First up there is Gleipnir who is a super good assistant to Fenrir. The guy has unwavering loyalty which is second to none in the series. Fenrir saved him from a very short life filled with nothing but negativity and gave him a solid purpose. Gleipnir was eternally grateful and really honed his skills. In terms of pure skill he is probably the best in the series. I really liked his automatic weapons and I dare say only the top two would be able to defeat him. He would wipe the floor with every other fighter. He’s my second favorite character in the series behind Landeveldt.

As for Fenrir himself, he’s a solid main villain. The guy has a pretty tragic backstory and basically wants to prove that he is actually the best. The thing is that his abilities are nowhere close to Leonhart’s and they never will be due to how the power levels work in this series. The guy wouldn’t have made a good king anyway. I found him to be a bit whiny at times so if he got more screentime then it would probably get even worse. He worked because he didn’t appear for very long and that was probably the best way to do it. Also, his abilities were impressive. The show didn’t have a ton of action scenes so this guy got to help change that.

Finally we have the villain Set who is super petty and only gets as far as he did because the king is too soft. This guy wants to uncover the big conspiracy and set everyone against Leonhart. Great, I get what he is doing here but the thing is that it should not matter at all. Leonhart is the king no matter what shape or form that is. Set could and should have been stopped very early on but of course Anubis fumbled the bag which was the big mistake here. So yeah I never really liked Set and only plot armor let him last as long as he did.

Overall, Sacrificial Princess is a good reminder of why you have to be strict and tough as a King. The role of a King is different from that of a president or governor. A King has absolute power and so you must remind others that you have this power. You never have to be cruel or do anything crazy with this, just make sure that your decisions are respected. Pretty much the whole series only happens because everyone feels like they can talk back to the King and do what they want. Even the minions try murdering him during the climax of the show. That is absolutely crazy. Leonhart’s goals are good but at times he can just be a bit too naive. Ultimately it’s not a bad show or anything but I don’t think there is a whole lot here to capture your attention. I’d keep it near the middle for that reason because without the romance there isn’t a lot left. It’s not part comedy so there isn’t a whole lot of humor here either. The fights are good though when they happen. Ultimately, how much the show catches your attention will be completely dependent on how much you enjoy the characters and the setting. We’ll see if the spinoff/sequel/follow up gets animated at some point.

Overall 5/10

Wistoria’s Wand and Sword

Posted on July 4, 2024 by dreager1

This title is being heralded as the next big Black Clover title and I can see why. It’s looking like absolutely top tier content and is off to a great start. Having to fight off magical users while not having magic of your own always makes for a good premise. The art and characters are on point. I look forward to reviewing this one once it finishes!

Overall 8/10

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

	lknowledge on Spider-Man: Brand New Day…
	fiddletwix on Quarantine Review
	fiddletwix on Quarantine Review
	Siddhant Sourya on Spider-Man: Brand New Day…
	thezofinfinity on Alien vs One Above All
	thezofinfinity on Why Mario Odyssey is better th…

DReager1.com

The Ultimate Fighting/Review Site

Tag Archives: Fantasy

Naruto Shippuden Review

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War Review

Juni Taisen: Zodiac War Review

Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts Review

Wistoria’s Wand and Sword

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Review

Delicious in Dungeon Review

Robin Hood Review

Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons Review

Ranking of Kings Review

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: