Tag Archives: Prequel

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion Review

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It was definitely a really hype day when they announced they would be porting over Crisis Core from the PSP. This is an absolutely top tier game that a decent amount of people never got to play. I can definitely assure you that the experience absolutely holds up here and I think they did add a few moments here and there on the PS5 version. I forget if there were any story additions at all or just side stuff, but either way it works perfectly as the lead in to Remake. You should definitely play this one first if possible as it makes your experience through the main game even more intense. Some parts of Cloud’s story don’t really seem to pan out eh? Hmmmmm…

The story starts by introducing us to Zack who is a fairly young member of the Shinra forces. He hopes to become a Soldier First Class and to do that he will need to impress the top brass. Fortunately for him, a lot is going on right now so it looks like he will get his chance. Genesis has gone rogue and now clones of him are showing up all over the planet and they have to be stopped no matter the cost. Along the way Zack begins to learn some troubling secrets about his employer which also have his comrades Sephiroth and Angeal rather frazzled. What was once the most powerful unit of all time is starting to break apart. Zack may be the only one who can keep them all together.

Well, where to even start on this masterpiece right? First up, everything is super modern here from the menus to the hud inside the game. You always know exactly what is happening and it is very easy to navigate all of the menus. Everything has a sci-fi feel to it and of course the graphics are really top notch. The cutscenes are all super good and there is voice acting for pretty much every line in the game. They really do not hold back on the budget at all. It’s great really learning more about the world here and the cast are all able to hold their ends of the story.

Then you have the soundtrack which is incredible. Pretty much every theme is some kind of big rock song which works really well with the vibe they are going for here. It’s just a very fast paced and intense game. Even the way the levels are structured makes sense with this. You usually have a cutscene, a few fights, cutscene, fight, then chapter ends. The game is rather short as a result of this though. I beat it in around 7 hours so this is definitely what I would call a mini game. Certainly nothing like the main FFVII title but it still covers enough. The length isn’t gonna limit this game but it does mean you could easily end up beating it in a day or two if you don’t pace yourself.

There is bonus content to keep you busy though. You can go back and complete all of the missions which is bound to take you some time. You can also try for the Platinum trophy which will be difficult to obtain. I won’t say that it’s a tremendous amount of replay value but every bit helps. It’s not about the length, but the quality of the time you spent after all and this was top quality.

As for the gameplay, this is your classic 3D slasher. The game is a lot easier than the main title for one critical reason though. There is no cooldown on items. So unlike the main game where you have to try and survive for a bit after using an item, you can spam them endlessly here. There’s not much to buy either so you’ll be swimming in cash. I maxed out on potions early on and then I was basically set. Get 100 potions and then get 100 Ethers. You can now spam your most powerful attacks over and over and over again for as long as you need to.

I recommend keeping one slot active for each of the 4 elemental types. Do that and you will be well equipped to deal with any enemy. There are a lot of fights and you may lose some on occasion but usually that will be because you let your guard down and got tackled. You should usually be able to win even with some good spamming. I recommend doing some of the side missions to beef up your summons though. They definitely go a really long way here plus you get cool cutscenes when you attack with them. Blocking is also a super good skill in this game.

A lot of times I completely ignore the button in any video game but it does seem to reduce damage by over 60% and some attacks are basically impossible to dodge so this is the way to go. I applaud the game for actually making the block option viable. Usually it just feels like it’s wasting space. So the devs really thought of everything this time around. I suppose if I had one nitpick it would be that we get the combat stance too late in the game. There’s a meter there so you can try to use it often in battles to build that up but there’s no apparent reason to use it.

It just seems worse than fighting normally. Maybe you unlock a true ending for getting the affinity to 100% of something. It better be a really good reward considering how slow you get the progress up with it whenever you land attacks. I got it up to 0.09% after defeating a bunch of enemies and that’s when I gave up on it. I would need much more of an incentive to use it, but hey more options is never a bad thing. I’m sure some people had a great time with it.

Overall, Crisis Core is an elite title and one that you need to play right away. The game does a tremendous job of showing us what Zack was like and Sephiroth’s fall from grace. It really covers a whole lot and of course you know how the story ends, but seeing it in real time is still crazy. The story was absolutely incredible! They did a good job with how the gameplay works for the final bosses as well. You definitely have to fight hard to make sure you last long enough here. Whether you’ve played the main Final Fantasy game or not, this is a must buy!

Overall 9/10

Kaiju No. 8: B-Side Review

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It’s time for a Kaiju No. 8 spinoff that lasted for a little while. Miniseries like this are always fun to flesh out the side characters with material that we never got to see in the main title. It’s a good idea and I think more manga should do this. I would have liked it to have been longer if anything, but we still got to see 3 different characters and their origins which was fun. They picked really solid characters to do this with. I guess at this point there are just 3 more that I would like to see a full prequel with. Captain Ashiro, and then both of Kikoru’s parents. Maybe someday though.

The first story is the origin for Hoshino. All his life he has trained in the ways of the sword but the problem is that this is seen as very ineffective against Kaiju nowadays. Most of them are just too large so the sword won’t pierce and even for the smaller ones, it seems a lot more efficient to just mow them down with a machine gun. Hoshino really wants to stick to the sword though, that has been his family legacy after all. Finally he is being given a chance by Captain Ashiro. Can he live up to her hopes or is he about to just doom his chances of ever being a true Kaiju hunter?

It’s definitely fun to see Hoshino in the old days and he already had great speed and ability. Honestly I never thought the series made a good case for why guns beat swords. The gun blasts vary based on how much power you can get out of the suit and the way I see it, almost nobody can get a reasonable amount of power out of the suit. So in that case, it ends up feeling like they’re just spinning their wheels there. It’s not a great long term approach at all. So if everyone had swords, at least they could stab into the Kaiju because the power of the suit won’t limit the sword as much as it would a gun. Maybe there are more reasons for not using swords though.

Either way Ashiro made a wise decision in picking Hoshino for her team. He has definitely proven himself a whole lot and he really did good against the Kaiju fighters in the first story. He would go on to consistently be one of the best characters in the series. Following him up would be a tough choice but the series went with Kikoru which makes sense. She is also a prodigy after all. In this case we already know her origin from the main series though so what would the story be about?

The title decides to show us how she ended up picking out her custom weapon. Her normal weapon wasn’t strong enough to pierce the armor of the Kaiju that she was up against in the training exercises so she grabbed an axe and then the rest was history. You could tell that the writer was a little more constrained with this character since we see her a lot in the main story but this was a smart way to get us some more fights and everything. It’s definitely much smaller scale than the first story with the stakes not being as large but it was satisfying to see her rise up to the top.

The Kaiju corp is definitely lucky to have so many prodigies on the team. In some ways it’s why the series reminds me of World Trigger because the heroes have so many different hype characters on the roster. They just keep on coming and so you’d think the enemies might be in a bad spot but fortunately for them, they have a lot of strong fighters too. If they had actually made a move before the heroes grew so powerful, it would probably be curtains by now.

Finally the last story is about Gen and how he was recruited. The guy started out as a…guess what…a huge prodigy! As a kid without a suit he was already powerful enough to take down some of the smaller Kaiju on his own. Mix in the Kaiju suit and now he was basically unstoppable. This guy has the special kaiju eye implants that can let him detect future attacks. So mix that in with his relentless training/ability and he is one of the strongest in the series. I dare say that he easily surpasses both Hoshina and Kikoru in skill. I’d like to see a quick story with a rivalry between those 3 characters to be honest. That would have been a fun way to finish up the series as a bonus story of sorts.

Ultimately I suppose the point of the series is to hype up the main one and get more readers on it. It does a good job with that as each chapter ends with a flash forward to the main series as everyone gets hyped to take on the Kaiju. The monsters don’t stand a chance against the combined might of human ingenuity! The art is definitely really high tier and holds its own with the main series. All of the action scenes are drawn really well and the villains are definitely very imposing. Of course this is before we got to the intelligent Kaiju so they’re basically just classic monsters but the designs are really good.

This is a rare example of an anthology where I liked all of the characters/stories. Usually in formats like this, there will always be at least one that holds the others back but this wasn’t the case here. I guess it goes to show how solid the cast is for the series. Kaiju No 8 has a very small cast of notable characters next to other titles but that’s probably a good thing in this case. It allows each one to stand out way more than they ever would have if they tried introducing too many characters. Still, like I said before there are some other characters around if they want to go and start working on those in another anthology spinoff.


Overall, All 3 stories were really good. The series was really a bunch of nonstop action scenes across the 3 leads which worked perfectly for this one. That’s why you are reading Kaiju No 8 after all. You’re here for all of the fights and the intrigue. The series never holds back on this. The art is still really solid and so this is a must read for any fan of the franchise. Even if you don’t read Kaiju No 8 this works as a solid jumping on point. Then if you enjoyed this prequel, you can jump into the main story right away. That’s a good way to handle things.

Overall 7/10

Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation Review

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It’s time to look at the Monster special/mini movie that came out recently. You know when they first announced this project I figured it’d be at least an hour or longer but I guess that would have not really made sense since this was based on a one shot. At the very least they would have had to add a lot of extra scenes. Maybe if they included the full fight in the after credits scene instead of just the ending but for people just trying to watch this as a stand alone it probably would have been a really odd way to end this.

The story starts with Ryuma showing up to a village in a state of near starvation. He hasn’t eaten in days and so Flare (I feel like her name was a little different when I saw the film but this works well enough), a nice person lets him eat a bunch for free. He considers himself to be in her debt now although he has a funny way of showing it considering that he starts a big fight in the bar. This happens because the world’s strongest swordsman, Shirano ends up bumping his sword into Ryuma’s. It should have just been a simple accident that they both laugh at and walk away from but Ryuma takes this kind of thing personal.

The same thing happens with someone else a few minutes later, but this time it is a villain named D.R. who pretends that he has been stabbed by Ryuma and uses the legendary dragon horn to summon a dragon to destroy the village. Now the whole village is mad at Ryuma but also just depressed because they are all going to die. Shirano vows to stay and fight the dragon but Ryuma knows that it isn’t his fault and just figures everyone should run off and live. Is this really the right move though? And why did this villain randomly summon a dragon like this? Something’s not right.

The special’s length is basically around 1 normal episode so things have to move pretty quickly. That includes the main plot twist here although it’s one that you will absolutely see a mile away. This is a fairly conventional story about a heroic figure slaying the giant dragon and so the plot around it is pretty much what you would expect. I’m guessing back in the day when submitting the oneshot to the magazine, the writer probably wanted to go with a safe story to start off with. It makes sense and the movie is a very faithful adaption. In a world of subversions and complex plots though, it works well enough.

My main complaint would be that I wish we got more action though. There is only one real action scene here with the dragon and it’s a short one. Yes there is a sword “duel” but that only lasts for a single move and is very fast. It does have the best action sequence by far though. I tend to like when an animation quickly switches to black and white for dramatic effect although you don’t want to overuse it. For example we get another black and white flash against the dragon but that one was really underwhelming in comparison. I would say the animation here is reasonably good but definitely not great or excellent like you would expect from a special. One Piece itself destroys this with many episodes in Wano.

As for the soundtrack, it’s pretty uneventful. Nothing to write home about so you’ll be forgetting the tunes pretty fast. As a main character Ryuma is okay but I wasn’t actually a big fan of his. The guy is super irresponsible, I still can’t believe that he broke a statue in Flare’s restaurant for practically no reason. I get that the sword is important to him but then you confront the guy outside. You don’t pick a fight where you can hurt innocent civilians. It’s also worth noting that Ryuma clearly went for a headshot against Shirano. So he was going to murder a guy for lightly bumping into his sword? Even after the guy apologized?

It’s hard to just overlook that. Particularly as it isn’t really played off as a bad thing either. It’s more of a comedic moment because Shirano had the skills to stop the attack and defeat Ryuma instantly but otherwise it could have been bad. This does also raise a power scaling issue later on. I mean a good rage mode easily answers that question but it’s why we should have had more of a fight later on.

I also think the climax raises some questions on exactly how the scheme worked. It seems to me like the dragon whistle actually works really well because the dragon never tried to attack them. So if you have a dragon working for you, then you can just blow villages up all the time. Why even bother with elaborate traps and schemes? It just seems unnecessary. There could be world building reasons around that like not wanting to attract attention but it seemed like the villain would make things harder on himself here.

D.R. is a fairly underwhelming villain. The guy can’t fight and isn’t too strong so he’s the kind of guy who really just hides in the back and hopes that things will work out. Flare is a decent heroine but a little too gullible. The fact that she was so quick to turn on Ryuma with no evidence was annoying. I get that it was traumatic but she really has no reason to jump in with the mob there. As you can tell I was not a big fan of the cast overall. Shirano would be the strongest character here by default. He may not go out very well but the guy is interesting all the way through and does help to enhance the special. With a better ending he would have fared even better.

Overall, Monsters is a fun special but I don’t see there being a lot of replay value. There just isn’t a reason to watch it for a second time. The best moment is a quick scene that plays after the credits though. I’ve actually watched that one a few times now. It’s got a lot of replay value but you could Youtube that instead of watching the whole thing again. The connection to a certain franchise is one of those open secrets where everybody basically knows about it, but I won’t spoil that in case you don’t know. If they could have hidden the connection more then the scene would really hit extra hard but then you lose out on some of the marketing angles so it’s a double edged sword. Regardless I do think this is worth a watch, particularly with how short it is.

Overall 6//10

FLCL: Grunge Review

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I feel like FLCL is one of those series that likes to keep on reusing its ideas over and over and over again. It just never really improves or adapts. This one also decided to stack the deck against itself by going with a really low quality CGI approach and then reusing a ton of animation. I’m sure they saved a lot of money that way but with only 3 episodes it just feels like we don’t really accomplish a whole lot. This is a pretty bad title through and through so you’ll want to give it a hearty skip.

There are 3 main characters here and each one gets an episode. Now you may be thinking, that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for a climax right? Well…yeah you’d definitely be right about that. Each episode tends to end in roughly the same way and the third one just expands a little extra onto that. That’s where all the recycled animation I mentioned earlier comes up. It’s a neat excuse to keep on showing the same scenes over and over again and I don’t think this was a good approach at all. I get the idea of showing different perspectives to introduce the characters but you can do that without reusing the animations. The latter just makes it look lazy.

The first episode is about Shinpachi. He’s basically your average kid and he helps his father out at the sushi restaurant. It’s not the most fulfilling work but he gives it his all and even commissioned a new blade from one of his friends. The blade doesn’t come out very well but it’s the thought that counts. One day the mayor walks in with a girl named Haruko who is basically going around causing a bunch of trouble for no real reason. That’s sort of what she does though so it’s not super surprising. She puts a virus in a nearby robot and has started to speed up the end of the world. Can Shinpachi figure out what’s going on and save everyone?

The plot is intentionally weird so if it sounds a bit odd, that’s just how it goes. Haruko is in theory a protagonist always trying to stop corporate but her methods are a bit extreme. Also you cut her less slack than some other main characters because it feels like she never ultimately accomplishes anything. Even in this show she gets a fight scene but beyond that the villains escaped once again so now she has to find another planet. Her adventure always feels like a very futile one and maybe she’s just messing around way too much.

Haruko tends to spend the majority of time flirting with any guy she comes into contact with and basically has no standards there. If she can make someone squeamish then she is all set. Definitely a sad character all the way through. Poor Shinpachi doesn’t really have much experience with girls so it is easy for her to mess with him. In FLCL you unlock your abilities after being flustered and stuff so then he gets the weird bump that turns into a robot. Again it’s all pretty odd stuff but not in an interesting way which is the massive problem.

Shinpachi ultimately is a decent main character at best. At least he tries to resist Haruko and keep going about his business. His business is important after all and he wants to help. His father is oddly quiet all the time though and for a minute there I thought he was a robot or something. So Shinpachi isn’t able to have as much of a conversation as he would like and has to figure things out on his own.

The second episode is about Shonari and he’s an alien made of rocks. His older brother and the rest of his society are heavily involved in gang warfare and criminal conduct so it’s been a tough environment for him to grow up in. He’s tried to keep his head down though and just be a nice guy. For the most part he’s pulled it off but then Haruko shows up to take over the gang and things get pretty hectic. Ultimately Shonari learns what it means to pick up a blade and destroy someone. He’s a nice enough guy but the episode doesn’t do much to really make the character interesting. Then the ending is basically a redo of the first episode so the actual episode isn’t massively interesting or anything like that.

Finally the third episode is about Orinoko and her quest to find some sharp materials to make the ultimate blade. She’s rather embarrassed at the quality of work she puts out due to not having good equipment. Even when Shinpachi asked for a blade she had to give him a cheap one. Well now it’s time to find the ultimate metal and the bonds she has forged will help her with that. Then we get to the end of the episode where the plots all converge and we get a rather weak climax. It all goes back to a rocket launch and how not everyone can leave the place. There is only 1 ticket and 3 main characters who need to get off the planet.

At least the ending does have a good friendship moment, that’s probably the only real complement I’ll give this title. It’s a wholesome ending with characters keeping a brave face even as they make a sacrifice. I’m always here for stuff like that because it’s just such a good moment. When you make a sacrifice you need to keep a brave face on because otherwise you’re basically guilt tripping the other character which doesn’t help anybody.

The soundtrack is definitely on the forgettable side. I can’t say that I really remember any of the tunes. It goes without saying that the visuals aren’t very good either. It’s some of the weakest CG I’ve seen in a while and I say that as someone who isn’t really a big fan of CG in the first place. The show needs to have a higher budget here. Granted it won’t matter much if the writing doesn’t step up either.

What FLCL needs to do is have more of a purpose. Right now it tends to be weird and eccentric just to show that it can. You can be weird in a cool way you just have to try for it and have the whole plot still be interesting. Focus less on Haruko hooking up with every character in the series and really dive into the fight against the government. Metallica seems like an interesting villain in theory but the show never really bothers to explain the plot much. Even here the plot is clearly just a backdrop to the character stories and those aren’t interesting so it doesn’t work out.

I dare say you could skip the first two episodes and you wouldn’t miss much since they all go to the same place anyway. Each episode gives you a little extra context into what’s going on but not a whole lot. So they’re nickel and diming you at every turn and you don’t have much of a payoff to show for it. At its core that is the real problem here. I’m even struggling with what else to talk about for this one so this is going to be a fairly short anime review. I suppose that makes sense with only 3 episodes and not having a ton of plot here. What we really need is a future season with a super confident main character who will resist Haruko’s advances and just take charge the whole time.

Overall, This is FLCL so I wasn’t expecting much but either way it was still no good. You desperately need better characters for a title like this to work out. There also can’t be so many animation shortcuts especially when CG is already starting you behind the 8 ball. There aren’t really many positives here but the worst part is really just that it’ll end up being rather boring by the end. It’s lucky that it was only 3 episodes long as it would probably be even more apparent if it was longer. Hopefully FLCL can rebound at some point because we’re 4 seasons in now and things are still being rough for it.

Overall 2/10

Naruto: The Whorl Within the Spiral Review

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It’s always good to see Naruto returning back to the world with a new story. To this day the original series is one of the most influential titles in the entire world. Almost everybody has heard of this series at some point after all. Well, this one’s a prequel about Boruto’s grandfather Minato after he won the global popularity poll. It’s always nice to see more of this guy since he’s so great and the story is handled really well. It’s got action and a lot of character development. Minato and Kushina is also easily the best romance in the series and one of the best in all of Jump.

The story starts off with Minato getting jumped by two Jinjuriki but he manages to escape them. It does give him the inspiration to create a new ninjutsu though and so he creates the Rasengan. It’ll come in handy because Kushina loses control in a fit of rage so he’ll need to take down the Fox once and for all and save her from her destiny. It’s definitely a pretty fun story through and through as we see his true power. No way Obito should have been able to hold his own against this guy. I’m just saying….no shottttttt.

The art here is excellent so right away you can see that the artist has not lost a step. He’s as good as he ever was. The details are really on point and the action scenes are really impressive. It’s cool to see Minato using the true Rasengan. I still think it’s way more impressive how he creates it with one hand compared to Naruto who usually had to use multiple hands to form it. This way’s more instant and lethal in a fight. Since part of the chapter takes place more in a meta dreamscape of sorts I wouldn’t use the attacks for power scaling personally but if you do then Minato scales up considerably since he’s 1 v 1ng the Nine Tails on his own.

The most important thing here though is how devoted Minato is to keeping Kushina safe. He doesn’t waver in that goal and is really someone that she can depend on the whole time. He makes sure not to injure her at all and takes some pretty serious injuries in getting her control again. He clearly trained in the sealing jutsus a whole lot off screen and from the chapter we see that he was meeting with Kushina almost daily to improve his skills. Minato definitely has the level of determination that we usually see Naruto with.

You could absolutely make a whole miniseries out of this so in a way it’s too bad that this is just a oneshot. You can feel that there is a lot of story left to tell even though it’s unlikely that we will ever get to see this. We even see more of Minato’s squad including an Uchiha but it’s hard to say who that would have even been. Possibly a whole new character I suppose. It’s also interesting seeing the Nine Tails as more of a true villain again.

Of course the Hidden Leaf looks as tactless and corrupt as always. They surely could have handled Kushina with more grace than basically threatening her not to leave the village constantly so she wouldn’t run out of control. She wouldn’t be trying to run off and everything if she wasn’t under so much pressure. That’s just common sense but these guys are dragging her anyway. I was glad to see her take them for a loop. While the chapter is definitely more Minato focused, she definitely gets her time to shine here too. In the end she was also pivotal with coming up with a good name for the new jutsu.

Overall, This was a really fun story. It’s very well contained and the 50 pages go by in a flash. You’ll read this in minutes because it’s just such a good story. Hopefully we get more one shot adventures in the future. In the meantime you can read this even if you haven’t started Naruto yet and maybe it’ll inspire you to check out the series. It’s very new reader friendly but of course if you’ve read the main series then you will enjoy it even more.

Overall 8/10

RWBY: Roman Holiday Review

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All right it’s finally time to jump into the last RWBY book that I had not read. This one’s a prequel involving Neo and Torchwick so I had high hopes from the jump. Needless to say this one did end up passing the other two to be the best book in the series. It feels really plot important next to the others and Torchwick has always been a really entertaining character. Seeing more of him was nice and this is the most we’ve learned about Neo’s personality in the whole franchise. There’s a lot to enjoy here.

The book changes POVs in each chapter from Neo to Torchwick and so their stories stay separate for a while until they inevitably meet up. It makes for a good way to get invested in each of their plots and wait for them to collide. First up is the Neo plot where we see how she grew up in a rich household but this came at the expense of a loving environment. She was always trained on how to be a very dutiful child but she was rebellious and bored as a result so she made up an imaginary friend and caused a lot of mayhem. Eventually she was sent to a private school to be formally educated but even this is boring. What she needs is a new environment and someone who treats her as an equal but where can she find someone like this?

Meanwhile for Torchwick we see him in his younger days. The guy grew up in a rather rough environment in Mistral so he’s used to having to steal to survive and he fights off anyone who gets in his way. He steals wallets, etc. One day he is noticed by the big crime lord of the area who gives him a choice of serving under her or dying. Torchwick decides to serve while earning some petty cash on the side until he’s caught and leaves town for Vale. Now he has to try and succeed in a new environment but this won’t be an easy task. Of course this is where Neo lives so the two are about to cross paths.

Naturally I am assuming that you’ve watched the show before reading this book so that you understand the characters but even if you haven’t, I dare say that the book is pretty new reader friendly. It’s a story that is understand with a fun dynamic of a girl who wants adventure and a criminal who has pretty much hit the limit of what he can do without a partner in crime. So when you mix these two together then you are in for a fun adventure all the way through.

Torchwick is one of those fighters who is easy to underestimate because he doesn’t use a semblance but in the show he was able to easily defeat Blake and held his own against Sun for a while there. He was also obliterating volume 3 Ruby so you aren’t surprised when he wins most of his fights in this book. Ultimately he only goes down when the numbers are really against him and that’s when he’s in a position where most other fighters would be going down as well. Torchwick has a lot of wit when he is dealing with the others and he also never makes excuses. When he loses he just blames himself for not preparing and that’s the end of it. He doesn’t really have time to hold grudges or anything like that, he just keeps it moving.

He’s certainly a crook through and through so you never have any illusions about him being some kind of misunderstood hero. He’s just a very entertaining villain and that really goes a long way. He’s the kind of guy who is easy to sympathize with. Then you have Neo who has certainly been through her share of troubles. You get the feeling that her parents really need to take 90% of the blame for how she turned out because at her core she was a nice kid. She just never got enough attention and that ended up putting her on the wrong path. Naturally even at the school she was trying to be nice and the bullies came out of the woodworks so of course she turned to a life of crime.

The book focuses on how skilled she is at close quarters combat too. Neo always had a knack for it but at the school they helped perfect her skills. That was certainly the biggest benefit of being there. Neo also got street smart very quickly thanks to Torchwick and he was already at a level where she could likely deal with pro huntsman given that Torchwick was giving them the slip and she surpassed him very quickly.

There are a number of supporting characters here like Miltia and Melanie. They’re fun enough but I preferred them when they were going on missions and taking out targets of the gang as opposed to when they were just being petty bullies at school. I guess even villains need their downtime but it would have looked a whole lot better for them if they were cooler outside of their work. Lil’ Miss is impressive with how much clout she has even if physically she doesn’t seem like the most powerful fighter. You always wonder how the person at the top isn’t super powerful. I know in part it’s about how many followers you have but you’d think that a lot of them would jump ship if they knew that they were stronger than the leader right? I mean that would just make sense.

One of her stronger fighters was the Chameleon who had a pretty good fight with Torchwick. The power to camoflauge is certainly a good one to have. We saw Iliya use this fairly well back in volume 5. Ultimately you still can’t count Torchwick out of a fight though as he adapts to everyone quickly. Brick and Mortar found this out the hard way. The book has several fights here and it’s always fun to read a fight and try to visualize it. The tactics are on point and it’s nice to see another side of vale. While it may seem like a great place by day, apparently it’s still got a whole lot of crime once nightfall hits.

Not even the professional huntsman and Ozpin can keep a steady leash on them. Since Torchwick had the whole city running scared by volume 2 it’s fair to say that nobody was really in a position to stop him at all. The guy just got too powerful too quickly. A little cliffhanger ending with Cinder approaching him could have been fun but maybe they’re saving that for a sequel if this book ever gets one. We’d have to see why Torchwick ended up working for her. I mean we can all guess why (She probably forced him) but it’ll be cool to see that unfold. There are countless adventures that you can tell through the books and one day I hope they come up with more stories. This can’t be where the novels stop! Not when we were just getting started like this.

Overall, Roman Holliday is a great book. It really helps to expand the RWBY universe as we know it. Not with a lot of lore or anything like that but just the inner workings of how the kingdoms operate. We see just how rough people in Mistral have it where apparently people get mugged every day as a casual thing to the point where no cops will even appear. Then seeing the criminal underworld of Vale was enlightening. These are things the show probably wouldn’t have time for so using a book on them is perfect. More books like this would definitely go a very long way. So I highly recommend reading this one and hopefully they announce more at the next RTX convention.

Overall 8/10

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist Review

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

Wait we’re back to the Exorcist again? Not to be outdone by the third film, this one adds animal violence, nazi’s, and an evil tribe here to cause some trouble. Now I would say that the third film is nothing if not competitive when going to the bottom and still does end up surpassing this one as being worse but Dominion put up a good fight and nobody can take that away from it. There aren’t many exorcisms here at all as we’ve come to expect from the series since that was mainly focused on in the first but we still get a dramatic finish with a lot of yelling.

So the movie starts with the Nazi’s rushing in to terrorize a small village. First they make sure to break father Merrin by having him choose 10 sacrifices and it was all a cruel test to break his spirit and resolve. Merrin changed paths to being a travelling architect as he digs around in ruins that may have some religious ties. Well this time he is accompanied by Father Francis as the group is worried about Merrin. Turns out that they should have been worried about the whole village. See the temple was protecting them from the devil demon and now he’s here to destroy them all. He decides to inhabit Cheche, a guy who can’t really talk much and suffered a grave injury but is healing really quickly. The heroes are going to need to watch out now.

It’s hard to know where to begin with this one. Almost immediately when the film starts up we see a bunch of people torturing an animal to weaken him up for being a sacrifice and it reminds you of what a cruel practice that is. Any cruelty to animals is always awful and so right away you’re not really rooting for the village at all. Merrin and the translator Chuma try to defend the practice but to no avail. It’s definitely something that should be completely outlawed by force if necessary. There are animals dying and being injured throughout the film and that definitely serves to ensure that the film never gains any momentum. It is quickly stripped away whenever that may be close to happening.

There also aren’t many likable characters here at all. The only one who seemed decent was father francis but of course he is powerless to stop the demon. The holy water doesn’t do much and when he tries to read the scriptures he is promptly taken down. You would think that he would have moved faster with the water when the demon was waking up though. Just push his head into the water or something, don’t want and dramatically drop a few driplets on him. I always thought this is something the heroes should do more of, forget the small sprinkling and just chug a gallon of the stuff at him. It would be way more effective in theory.

Unfortunately a big part of the movie is about how the demon’s influence eventually catches up to everyone and that happens here as well. Basically just by existing the demon turns people evil and so the humans start to turn on each other. There’s this whole subplot where the British come in with an army and start shooting the tribe members to enact revenge on them. The divide between the two gets worse as the film goes on and then at one point a tribe member murders a bunch of kids so that they can’t learn from Father Francis anymore.

There aren’t really any winners here. By the end of the film everyone is really broken. There’s the main heroine Rachel who stays strong for a while but then also gets corrupted. One of the worst scenes for Merrin is when she shows up and effortlessly seduces him while he was on the trail of the demon. Not the best time to be tempted and you’d think that he would have held strong here. Well, actually I’m not sure how much confidence I really had in the guy to be honest but he still disappointed me there.

Merrin gets to sort of relive the past thanks to the demon and try some other things out but ultimately there was no easy way to get out of the situation. He definitely shouldn’t have sold the 10 people out though. It was a really bad situation but honestly the best thing to do there is make a play for the gun and hope for the best. Sometimes there are no perfect ways out of a scenario and you just have to try your best. By the end of the film Merrin gets his confidence back at least.

The character you probably feel the most sorry for here is Chuma the whole time. It’s rough being a translator because half the time you are having to translate messages that are no fun for anybody and as a result you’re in the line of fire now. If I was him I definitely would have gotten out of there real fast after a while. Unfortunately there probably aren’t many opportunities in the area so leaving is a risk all on its own but anything surely has to be better than staying there right? At least it feels like that would be the case.

This film does remember that it’s supernatural and isn’t trying to hide it most of the time like in III so we do get some decent visuals at times. The green light as everything got trippy near the end was pretty intense. I also liked the clock that appeared in one scene but I have to admit that the effects were so bad that the scene was unintentionally a bit funny. Just a bit mind you but I was starting to crack up. It just made for a really funny visual even if that was not the intent.

The demon’s final form was also the opposite of intimidating even when his face would turn pale like a true demon’s. It’s just not easy to take him seriously as a great villain but they never are in these films. If the characters would just grab some guns and rock the guy you feel like he would go down. Temporarily I suppose since you can never seem to truly get rid of them.

There just isn’t much to enjoy here as with the other Exorcist films. The whole thing is so dark, dreary, and relentless. The heroes don’t have much of a chance at stopping the demon for a while because they don’t even know that they’re fighting one. By the time they do there are so many dead bodies that the heart of the village is gone.

Overall, This is another film to avoid for sure. An exorcist prequel just didn’t need to exist, much less two of them. At least this one has a decent ending, in fact I would say it easily beats the rest since it’s actually happy if anything. I suppose that’s the benefit of being a prequel since you can’t just bump everyone off or ends things rather grimly. I suppose they could have and suddenly the film wouldn’t be canon but that’s a very risky move at best. In theory it’s all uphill from here but we’ll see if that’s actually the case or not for the series.

Overall 0/10

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Review

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It’s definitely good to be in an age where all the big anime films get to go to theaters now. It’s nice having that complete experience there and the audience was pretty engaged throughout the experience. Seemed like a mix of people who knew the future events and anime onlies. There was certainly one guy the whole time who thought Maki was quite mean and well, she is rather aggressive with the main character for a while but she mellows out by the end. All in all Kaisen’s definitely a great film and I look forward to seeing how the next one stacks up.

The movie starts by introducing us to Yuta Okkotsu. If you saw season 1 of the show you’ll likely remember him getting a lot of hype throughout. He hasn’t gotten to appear yet but the others mention him as being a big threat so you get to see how he made it there. As a kid Yuta became engaged to his best friend Rika. Unfortunately she was hit by a car and died almost immediately afterwards but their connection was so strong that a curse came between them and now Rika lives on eternally as Yuta’s protector. Any who would dare stand in his way will get obliterated by her. This has depressed Yuta to the point of being suicidal but then he is contacted by Gojo, the strongest sorcerer of the human world.

He takes Yuta to Jujutsu High where he will become a sorcerer. He joins the first years Maki, Panda, and Toge. Yuta may not be strong on his own yet but his cursed spirit Rika is incredibly powerful to the point where Yuta is considered to be a special grade fighter. Unfortunately this has also caught the attention of the evil sorcerer Geto. Can Yuta stay alive long enough to master his abilities and free the curse on Rika so that she can be free or will he be defeated and the modern timeline isn’t what we think?

The movie moves at a fairly quick pace. Yuta appears and gets recruited within a few minutes. Then you have the origin story with Rika thrown in very quickly and more details are spread in throughout the movie. We get several missions so you could see as Yuta improves his abilities. There is a little time skip near the end so we don’t get to see the exact point Yuta goes from being a decent member of the team to a super powerful one but it helps make the final battle more intense. When Yuta suddenly shows up with all kinds of new abilities and techniques, you can tell that he’s been training very hard.

It’s also nice seeing Yuta in the younger days here. He almost feels like a completely different character from the Yuta I’m used to. He’s more like your classic Shonen lead here even if he might seem to have a bit more of a subtle edge than others. He was quick to volunteer to destroy Maki’s clan along with her and it shows how he values his friends above all else. I like Yuta in all of his appearances so far so he’s a character with a lot of range. He may start off as timid but ultimately he still steps up to do the right thing when it counts.

He is also a quick learner and doesn’t shrink away from combat. The way he handles Rika is also part of what makes him a great character. He never goes through a phase where he is afraid of Rika or blames her for everything. Even when he’s upset he just blames himself and never tries to make this appear to be her fault. It was a mature way of handling things since Rika was just doing her best to help him. Perhaps it was not in quite the way he was hoping since she could be quite violent but she is a cursed spirit at this point so it’s likely not easy to hold herself back.

While we don’t get to see the human Rika much, she was definitely a very solid character. She is extremely loyal as evidenced by her cursed spirit form and always had Yuta’s back. She really helped to make things as easy as possible on Yuta and I appreciate that she stood up to the bullies. Yeah it felt a little hard to believe that her first 3 victims survived the attack. I suspect this was a way to make sure that Rika never turned too close to the dark side but the way we saw their bodies mangled and the amount of blood that they lost….I don’t see how they could have possibly survived. Well, good on Rika I suppose.

As always Gojo is a very fun character here as well. When you have a character this powerful you do have to suspend a little disbelief for how he doesn’t just obliterate everyone. It feels like he could have dismantled his opponent and kept on going unless he has grown exponentially stronger in the year after this prequel takes place. You could say that he’s sandbagging a little as well but from how the movie’s story went you feel like he would want to be there in the climax.

Either way he’s definitely a fun character as always. I liked that he made it clear to the elders that he would protect Yuta if they tried to murder him. He’s always been the kind of guy who stands against corruption and that’s what I like to see. As you’d expect with a film like this there is a really big climax so you get a ton of guest stars and cameos from the rest of the Kaisen verse. It was nice seeing Todo and the crew as well as all of the pros. They may not get to be here a lot but they all get to use their signature attacks which is fun. I always enjoy seeing everyone come together for the climax for some action.

Of course the biggest roles go to Yuta’s teammates so lets talk about them. Maki gets a large role as she is teamed up with Yuta in the first mission and they get to hang out a bit. She has her own baggage which is touched upon in this film a little bit. As a result Maki’s gotten to be rather aggressive and always picking fights since she feels the need to prove herself. I tend to like this character type and Maki does well here. Ultimately her fighting style means the character would likely be limited against stronger opponents but she still does her best to fight back and also helps to improve Yuta’s close combat skills quite a lot.

Panda probably gets the smallest role out of the 3 but he gets to have the longest fight against Geto which helps to even that out. He really did well all things considered and was able to move quickly enough to hit Geto while also repelling the spirits. That’s not an easy thing to do. His fans should definitely pleased with his role. Then you have Toge who does his best to try and get Yuta to fit in. The fact that he can’t really talk at all for fear of using his abilities makes this a bit difficult though.

I’ve always had a major problem with Toge’s abilities before and the movie doesn’t change that. Just using a single word causes him to be in absolutely terrible condition. With the throat medicine he can do a little better but when your ability’s drawback is that huge it just doesn’t seem worth it. It’s a great ability but I think they should give him enough durability to be able to use it a few more times. It would definitely make his technique a lot more dangerous.

Then we have the main villain Geto. The villain has some depth to him as his goals are quite grand but in the meantime he keeps up a good front so he is able to earn a lot of money. A lot of the times it feels like the villain wouldn’t bother putting up a front even though it would cost him a lot in the long run. So it was a good way to show that Geto was quite smart and wouldn’t be falling for those kind of traps. It’s also impressive that he can fight from both long and short range. Not just any kind of opponent can do that.

So I liked him quite a bit. He makes for a memorable villain. He also has a whole team of villains with him for the attack but there isn’t enough time for any of them to get a lot to do. They seemed interesting enough and I’ll give the author credit for giving them all distinct designs and character designs. There’s just no way to give them enough to do to make them really memorable without stretching the film out another 30 minutes or so. Of course I would definitely be cool with that but I can see how it wouldn’t be needed.

The soundtrack is excellent as expected. You get a few new lyrical songs here and a lot of solid tunes. They really help to enhance the scenes and you can feel the danger in every moment. As I mentioned earlier, the pacing here is fairly quick and the music’s always moving quickly as a result too. It doesn’t mean there is a fight scene every moment of course and the big fights tend to be in the second half but there’s always something going on and any time you think it’s about time for another action scene to pop up, it does.

As always Mappa delivers with the animation as well. The action scenes are really good and the hand to hand (Or rather blade to blade) fights are extremely fast and savage. The choreography is excellent and you can feel the power behind the hits. These are the kinds of fights that you figure will age well forever. Even 20 years from now you won’t be able to deny that these are great fight scenes. Not surprisingly my favorite battle is the one between Geto and Yuta. It’s a fight that the film builds up for a while so you know it’ll be good but even with the time skip you may not be prepared for quite how good Yuta is.

The action can get intense but I wouldn’t say the film is too violent. The most disturbing scene is likely when one guy’s head is stretched apart by demons. That one was definitely a gruesome way to die but for the most part the attacks are limited to the combatants or aren’t too intense like that. So I wouldn’t say there’s anything extra to worry about beyond the usual action you would expect to see here.

The movie has its share of humor which lands well. The characters tend to have rather crazy facial expressions whenever Gojo mentions something out of the blue or is messing with them. The chibi effects are used well and since Yuta is out of the loop on everything, he tends to have some good reactions. It never gets excessive so it’s just enough to keep that nice balance. The writing is also really solid. Outside of the Gojo power level moment I wouldn’t say I had any other big items to mention. Even the romance here with Yuta and Rika was decent enough. I’m usually not all for the romances in films but this one was executed well. No drama, rebounds, or any crazyness here. Just two good friends who hit it off and their bond even surpassed death.

I guess on the power levels part I’d give a small mention to Gojo just letting Geto run out in the first place when he shows up with the crew. (All roads go through Gojo I suppose) I think with his speed and ability Gojo could have saved the hostages and stopped Geto. Again I guess that’s just what happens when you have someone as impressively powerful as Gojo. You expect him to solve everything when he’s around.

Now the film does have an after credits scene which is great since you should always have that. I think I would have picked something a little more exciting as the final scene to be honest but it’s nice enough. It’s more of a happy scene to confirm some characters in the present. Won’t say much more than that to keep you in the dark about it, but as always that means you should stay past the credits.

Finally the question you’ve been wondering. Would Yuta in this film be able to defeat Yuji from the TV Show? If you include Rika then I would say Yuta wins without question. It’s hard to see Yuji being able to defend himself from a two pronged attack like this. If Rika is out of the picture then Yuji wins because he’s just a better street brawler and has more control over his black flash techniques. Rika should always be counted in a Yuta battle though so as of now the original main character wins. That’s just how it goes.

Overall, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was definitely a great film with a lot of replay value. The action was on point and it made for a very solid introduction to Yuta. I always like the idea of building up two main characters but not having them meet for a long time. The longer you wait, the bigger the payoff when it finally happens. It’s rare to see this though. Beyblade (Manga only), Seraph of the End, Fate/Zero, and a very few select others have done this but it’s very rare. After all, it’s tougher than it sounds to have two characters keep getting separate plots and adventures without having them tie in since you have to be careful that neither side feels rushed all the time. Kaisen’s a good example of a series doing this well as you are definitely ready for Yuta to meet Yuji. I’d definitely recommend checking this one out whether you have watched the anime or not. I would say it’s fairly friendly to newcomers as the TV show events are not really referenced so this can feel like more of a stand alone.

Overall 8/10

Saint Seiya Episode. G

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The art is definitely odd for this one. It seems to be trying for a webtoon look but the character designs don’t work so well with everyone having huge eyes and the details getting a little messy. Still, the action is good and the story’s off to a fun start so we’ll see where it goes from here. I’ll have a review up for the series when I finish it.

Overall 7/10

The Seven Deadly Sins: Original Sins Review

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As you probably know, I was not the biggest fan of the Seven Deadly Sins main series. Much like Fairy Tail, it could have been one of the all time elites but was held back by fanservice issues and a really poor main character in Meliodas. Still, with the concept being good, that always means that the spinoffs have a lot of potential since you can possibly get all of the highs without the lows if the stories end quickly enough. I would say this spinoff does a good job of that. It’s not amazing or anything like that but it’s a pretty good collection of stories where the Sins get to do their thing and take out the enemies.

The main story in this book sees Meliodas and the crew take on the vampires. This story is from before they disbanded so it’s fun to see the team together from back in the day. Even at this point they were all incredibly powerful and I think you could do a whole prequel that would be a lot of fun about this era. There isn’t a lot of danger as the heroes completely outrank the villains in every possible way but at least we get to see them all use their signature techniques.

From the vampires the only real notable one is Gelda as she would later go on to have a big role in the climax of the series. She’s certainly smarter than the average vampire and quickly knew the score and exactly how everything would play out right from the beginning. Her request to be destroyed by Meliodas still isn’t the right move here though even if winning would have been impossible. At this point she had no true allies or reasons to keep on going but she could have found some if she stuck around. It all ultimately ended up working out for her but if you read this story before reading the main series then she will come off as being someone who gives up way too quickly.

The strongest vampire was probably the leader who fought Escanor but even then you knew that he was doomed from the start. The art is great as always though so you can really appreciate the villain designs here. They just emit power in every panel. Likewise the heroes all look powerful here and you can see why they are known as the ultimate fighting force in the kingdom. It’s rare to have a hero group who completely outshine the villains like this but that’s just how good they are. It would be difficult for any group of villains to match them. The fights are solid so that’s why the vampire story is very good.

Then there’s a very short story where a few bandits decide to break into the cafe Meliodas owns to harass Elizabeth. Fortunately the rest of the Sins show up and beat up/intimidate those bandits for a while. The group’s always ready to watch out for her that’s for sure. While the story may make it seem like they arrived by accident, you get the feeling they’re all always on the lookout so as soon as the bandits showed up they knew what to do. This was before the popularity poll results in the volume so it was a good way to give everyone a moment to shine first.

Finally we have the pilot to the Seven Deadly Sins series. It’s always interesting to read the pilot to see how things changed from the original oneshot. For starters, Meliodas actually seems like a decent person here. He has a huge sword as well instead of the hilt that’s missing a blade. The plot itself is the same as Elizabeth shows up to try and locate the Seven Deadly Sins to help her retake the kingdom but they are all scattered to the winds. Her personality is very different though as she doesn’t really have any manners here and is super oblivious to all social rules.

In this case, her being a princess means that she doesn’t have much common sense and doesn’t know basic tasks. Unfortunately this is an excuse for some fanservice. The villain here is a little more deranged and one of those pervy type villains who is extremely annoying so the main series definitely had a better introduction when it comes to the villain. Both the original first chapter and pilot have different positives and negatives so in a way the series just changed up what held it back. It’s a decent pilot but it’s easy to see how this could have taken us down the wrong path.

The artwork has certainly improved from then though. You can’t really compare the character designs from the pilot to the main series, it’s just a world of difference and that makes sense since the artist is a lot more experienced now. With these 3 stories in here, this makes for a fun one shot. It’s always good to see the gang again and I’m glad these stories were put into a manga volume instead of staying in limbo for all eternity. This is certainly the better deal.

The Seven Deadly Sins may not be the best group of heroes out there as I’m not a huge fan of most of their members but it is a nice dynamic with how they’re barely a team. They don’t work very well together to the point where it’s extremely rare to see them all teaming up at the same time. They’re all just too strong so naturally they all have big egos and rivalries of their own. Merlin and Gowther always seem super suspicious so it’s hard to know what they’re thinking. King and Ban are always fighting, same with Ban and Meliodas. Escanor’s personality does a 180 based on whether it’s night or day and Diane is nice enough. Their chemistry makes for a lot of fun banter but usually won’t turn into teamwork. They’re so strong that it’s rarely needed though.

From the 3 stories my favorite one was the vampire story for the reasons listed above. It’s just a very classic action story and seems like the kind of plot you could expect to see in a movie. Second would be the short story about the Sins beating up the random bandits. It was really short but it was nice to see everyone defending Elizabeth there. Finally the pilot would be in last. Still a decent story but between the villain being pretty bad and Elizabeth not being at the top of her game it just couldn’t compete with the others.


Overall, Original Sins is a clever title for having the original story in here but at the same time it makes you think that this might be more of a full prequel instead. I still say that a story about their original adventures in full would be a lot of fun. If you’re a fan of the main series then you’ll definitely want to check this one out. If anything you may enjoy checking this one out if you haven’t read the original as well as it’s a decent jumping on point. The vampire story at the beginning tells you all of the character personalities and abilities while the pilot gives you a good idea of the story. So that way you’ll have a good idea on if you will like the series or not.

Overall 7/10