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Stagecoach Review

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It’s time for a film about a bunch of people all stuck together on a stagecoach. It makes for a pretty interesting film even if some of the characters sure can be annoying. It’s intentional though and you get to see everyone’s true colors this way. I wouldn’t say there is a ton of action but we do get an exciting climax with some gun slinging action. Ultimately I don’t see this one being too memorable next to other titles but it’s good enough.

The movie starts with a few people getting onto a stage coach and they pick up some extra passengers along the way. One of them is a very infamous shooter named Ringo who is a wanted man. Some of the passengers don’t feel safe with him here but now they’re all heading the same way. They temporarily stop at a hut to get supplies and regroup but they lose time when one of the passengers begins to give birth. Indians and Bandits are quickly approaching and the army base isn’t nearby. Can these strangers find a way to unite and fight against these odds or are they completely doomed?

There’s definitely a lot of pettyness going on among the crew which makes it hard for them to unite. First up we have Dallas who is treated poorly by some of the other characters (Hatfield in particular) as she is a lady of the night and it’s not a profession that the characters hold in high regard. The only one who mainly defends her is Ringo who doesn’t really know or care about her past. He’s an outlaw and his values are also a bit different but he also knows it’s just plain silly to be making such a big fuss about this.

Look, it’s definitely a bad job to have but Dallas may have been forced into that business or there could be all kinds of explanations. The characters shouldn’t be so quick to condemn her and also it’s not really the time or place for this. Their being petty isn’t helping anyone. Dallas tries her best anyway like staying up the whole time the baby is being born to help as much as she can. In general she doesn’t complain or anything and is one of the most polite passengers.

As for Ringo, he may be a crook but he seems like the nicest guy on the coach. It’s definitely ironic when something like that happens. He’s an easy character to root for as a result especially compared to the others. It’s also helpful to have someone on your side who actually knows how to fight since the characters know that a fight is coming up and they won’t be able to avoid it. Without him they would all definitely be doomed.

Then we have Hatfield who is likely the worst character here. He crosses the line from being a nice guy into a “nice guy”. He constantly puts Dallas down while trying to show his complete servitude to Mrs. Mallory. The guy just never felt genuine in the slightest and naturally his idea when the going got tough was to shoot her as a “mercy” before the villains finished them off. That’s not the kind of mercy most of us are looking for and this guy just gets on your nerves the whole time.

Doc Boone is another annoying character because of how he’s always getting drunk. As the local doctor he really needs to stay sober at all times for emergencies like when Mrs. Mallory was giving birth. In the end he’s able to handle the situation just barely but it ended up being a lot closer than it needed to be and that’s entirely on him. Afterwards his first thought is to go right back to drinking too so it’s not like he learned anything. Getting addicted to alcohol like that is always such a tragic thing because you see how the character is completely overwhelmed by it.

Mrs. Mallory seemed okay enough. She wasn’t quite as rude as Hatfield but she wasn’t particularly nice to Dallas either until Dallas helped with the baby. Before that I’d call her knowingly oblivious at best. She would just stay out of the way for the most part. Then there’s Samuel who mainly serves as the resident coward of the group. He’s a bit afraid to voice his own decisions here and in general just isn’t a commanding figure. Hey, I’ll take that over being super annoying or an antagonist so that’s a start.

The writing here has that retro feel to it that I always enjoy. The script is pretty good. Even if I may not enjoy some of the characters, I can still appreciate the back and forth banter the whole time. The pacing of the film is pretty solid and the fight we get is good. This is certainly not an action film so don’t watch it for that but it’s still an added bonus. In the end this is a film you shouldn’t really have any big issues with. It’s a fairly safe ride to the end.

The cast is also fairly big so the movie does a good job of throwing so many figures at you. They all have different personalities and don’t really overlap. I didn’t even go into all of them here. The film is another reminder of why I wouldn’t have wanted to be around during the wild west era though. It feels like you are always one broken stagecoach away from serious trouble. If a wheel slips out you’re basically dead because you’ll be caught before you walk to the next army base. Even if it’s working bandits could show up at any time and if you don’t have a lot of guns then you would be doomed.

If you think about it, things go sideways for the characters here because they got delayed and before they could leave the enemies popped up. It’s not even like they made a bunch of bad decisions like horror protagonists. It’s not like you could stop the baby from being born at that moment either so the heroes were just in a rather sticky position the whole time. They’re lucky that the enemy group wasn’t bigger or things would have really gotten dicey.

Overall, Stagecoach is a good movie albeit one that is not the most memorable. It’s not particularly exceptional in any way, it just goes about its business and executes the story at a good level. Without the big gunfights or super memorable characters to write about it isn’t able to compete with the top members of the genre but it still beats the weaker ones. That’s why I’d say it’s a good movie. It’s not breaking any records but it handles itself well enough.

Overall 6/10

Tista Review

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Tista is a manga that’s not super well known but due to the success of Spy X Family you should be seeing it around a little more often now. It’s very short at only 2 volumes and you get the feeling that it ended up getting axed be cause there’s a lot of directions it could have gone. It’s definitely an intense story and one with a whole lot of tragedy mixed in. I’d say it works well although I could have used a bit of a stronger ending.

The manga starts by introducing us to Tista who is a legendary assassin. She is so skilled at sniping that none of her targets have ever even seen her. She can hit someone from multiple buildings away and basically pulls off impossible shots like it’s nothing. The reason for this is because her eyes are natural trigger lens as if from a gun. She can auto lock onto anything which makes her the perfect sniper. As people keep on dying, is there anyone who can stop her? Additionally the more Tista murders people, the more she wonders about the meaning of life in general.

See Tista works for the Church. While most people know the church to be a loving environment that takes in orphans and makes the world a better place, what they don’t realize is they have been training these kids into child soldiers whose only aim is to destroy all evil in the world. Now their reasoning for it is basically that the legal system is limited and there are often a lot of villains who escape unscathed because blackmail and corruption run rampant in this town. The villains have gotten so much influence around here that they basically operate out in the open. Of course this is an argument that most anti heroes/villains make so it doesn’t tend to hold water.

I will grant that it’s always a very interesting villain rationale though and it does tend to make a lot of high quality villains like Light Yagami. In this case Tista was groomed into this role ever since she was a small child so it’s not like she ever had much of a choice. It’s basically like brainwashing and that’s a main theme of the whole series. If you grew up in an environment where you were taught to murder from a young age and your eyes grew into aiming signs from the jump…did you ever really have a choice? Once you’re an adult maybe you can snap out of it but Tista’s still a teenager here.

That’s where some of the darker elements of the series come into play. The town is also such a rough place that you either murder the villains or watch them murder someone else. The cops are unfortunately not going to be very helpful here. We do see some good ones but as always there isn’t much point if the higher ups are involved in shady dealings as well. To their credit, the series doesn’t really go too hard on that area so we can presume most of the cop are good here and they’re just really ineffective in stopping crime. Additionally the country is a huge place so it’s not like you can stop every criminal. There will always be crime no matter how many people you stop. That’s true even with Tista bumping everyone off.

Tista does meet a guy named Arty who she starts to become friends with and that puts her in a rough spot. It actually creates vulnerabilities in her that the villains can exploit since he’s the first one to get her to doubt her mission. As I mentioned at the start one of her big advantages is that she can fire from super long distances so she’s never in any danger. Later on she likes murdering people at point blank range to see their expressions and naturally that puts her at a much greater risk. If there are any survivors then she will be remembered and of course all it takes is a lucky shot and she could die.

She basically becomes super blood thirsty by the end which was an interesting character development choice. It’s pretty easy to see how she was messed up after we see her origin story though. There’s domestic abuse and a close friend attempts to commit suicide. In both cases the culprit got to walk off free so Tista took care of that. That’s really set her on the path to being an executioner because if she can destroy all of the evil people then she can give the victims some peace.

Her broken psyche is represented by a chibi-monster version of her that appears to offer its own twisted input. It makes for a pretty interesting inner voice since Tista herself doesn’t talk much. At the end of the day naturally Tista takes some blame for this since she’s committing the murders but it’s not like she has much of a choice here. If she stops then she will end up being erased by the orphanage. If she turns herself into the cops she will be dead on the spot. If she just runs off and gets a new identity then every time she turns on the news and sees another crime she will feel responsible if the person has any priors since she would have been tasked with eliminating that person.

So there’s a whole lot of interesting themes here but of course the series is only 2 volumes long so it really ends just as it is still beginning. It’s the kind of series that could have been a bit risky if it kept on going though as with the dark themes I could easily see the series taking a step too far. Certain things are heavily implied here but the series mainly avoids being exploitative. Bad things happen and we know about them but the series doesn’t go out of its way to show them or drag them out which I appreciate.

In the end Tista is a very depressing series where characters are put into bad situations. The school side of things with Arty is fairly light hearted and in a way it shows just how alone Tista is. Most people live a fairly carefree life unaware of how twisted the rest of the city is. In a lot of ways Tista helps to preserve the peace so she can take a little solace there. It’s just that after you’ve murdered enough people it makes sense that you’re not really going to see the sunlight anymore.

As the main guy, Arty is a pretty solid character. He can be a little off like with the way that he drew a picture of Tista but for the most part he’s just your average guy trying to live life. He gets a lot of points for never selling Tista out or getting her into trouble. She saved his life after all and it’s always really annoying when the characters falters anyway. Owing your life to someone is a huge deal after all so there’s no room for mistakes like that. It would have been nice if he could have learned how to fight or something though. I think if this series had become a long running one he would have gotten something to do later on but as it is his role is a lot smaller than you’d expect.

On the cops side we have Snow who is one of the higher up agents looking into the Tista case. She is good at role playing and getting the suspects to lower their guards but ultimately she isn’t able to find a lot out. Arty gets a lot of credit there and of course the orphanage for having a lot of connections. They know how to shut down a story right away and with their brainwashing it is really hard to touch them. It’s another interesting dynamic of basically working for the villains. Usually you see villain orgs burying evidence and using legal loopholes to get away from the heroes and for once this is what’s protecting Tista.

Proko is one of the big members of the Church and he’s a rather twisted individual. We see how quickly he’s able to entertain the thought of just destroying Tista when she starts to doubt the mission. He really believes in destroying evil at any cost but that also means becoming evil himself. While you could say that the series tries to keep the Church in the grey for the most part, this guy teeters over the line into being flat out evil. The instant you are discussing murdering a child when there is no reason to do so, there isn’t any way to defend you.

It’s already murky enough training child soldiers but murdering them is another step entirely. I’m sure this guy has quite the dark origin story that led to him being so radical but many people have sob stories. It doesn’t give you the excuse to go over the edge and start doing things like this. Down the road I’m guessing Tista would have had to end up fighting the church and assisting the cops. As well intentioned as the group may be, we’ve seen this story many times where the vigilantes end up becoming full fledged heroes. The justifications just naturally continue to escalate which is why in general heroes try not to take a life. It gets a little too easy to keep on taking them afterwards which is why you have to stop that right at the jump.

The artwork for the series is really good. In some ways I’d say it even looks better than Spy X Family but maybe that’s just because this one has a lot of action. We get a lot of impressive double spreads and the background details are really on point. The visuals really pop out at you and go a long way in backing up the story. It’s all got a lot of weight behind it and it shows what Spy X Family could look like if the author ever really embraces the action element more.

Tista not being afraid to tackle some religious themes here also adds some extra depth to the series. After all, the Church is supposed to offer up a chance for redemption and the idea that you always have another chance. So doesn’t murdering these guys go against that? Well, Proko’s feeling here is basically that these guys have no shot of redemption on their own and so you’re removing them from the planet to spare others who actually could be redeemed. It’s also mentioned that this is a mercy in a way although I don’t think any of them actually believe this. The Church isn’t fully united in this mission either as some have second thoughts about this which would probably be a subplot the longer that the series went on. I fully expect a twist that the Church murdered Tista’s father as well since it’s implied so hard that it may as well be confirmed.

I can totally get it if some people are turned off from the series on the premise of the Church potentially being evil here but I just think it’s such an interesting view on the usual anti-hero argument. How bad is it to murder someone who is obviously evil? What’s the difference between doing so in normal peace times vs during a war? The latter is generally accepted by all while the former is frowned upon. Typically there are three reasons for this: 1. Reasonable doubt that the person is actually guilty which is why you need the judicial system and due process of law. 2. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime. For example murdering a murderer may be fine but murdering someone for jaywalking would obviously not be okay. 3. Inspiring other vigilantes who may not have as strong of a moral compass or will murder innocent people by mistake.

All are very logical reasons and why you couldn’t do this widespread. Now if we take this specific example into play, in Tista so far the Church only punished people with such crimes that are worthy of death and of people who we know 100% did commit the crimes. That does solve the first two issues and nobody can really copy their approach because of the special eyes that the Church developed. (We don’t actually know exactly how that works which is something a longer series would delve into. Tista seemed to steal the eyes power right before her friend could unlock them in order to spare her the pain but the whole process is wrapped in mystery) The only weakness is of course if the Church gives Tista a false target she would never know which opens up a can of worms.

So are they doing more harm than good or vice versa? In this case the city is shown to be so evil and corrupt it’s hard to make an argument against them. They’ve destroyed so many murderers and gang members who would have gone free to terrorize people. I think this could be a good editorial for the future about anti-heroes but again that’s why this series is so interesting. Long story short, I don’t disagree with the Church’s actions. I don’t trust them but so far from what we’ve seen they are only making the world a better place and until they actually cross the line of murdering any innocents, whether they be one of the kids or a reporter who is getting close to the truth, I’d be rooting for them.

Overall, Tista is a solid series. It does a good job of showing the amount of psychological damage any sane person would get after murdering enough people. Even if you believe you are doing it for the greater good, murder is murder and will place a heavy burden on you. Additionally that means you are constantly being exposed to the darkness of the world and too much of that is tough as well. I wish the series could have really had time to explore more of the world and the characters even if it could have been a little tricky but ultimately a lot gets done within the two volumes. As long as you’re prepared for the adventure to get a little dark, this is a solid title to check out. There’s really a lot to ponder and discuss considering how short the series is which is impressive.

Overall 6/10

The Quiet Man Review

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You guys know I enjoy a good romance as much as the next but when a film has a really bad romance I have to call it out immediately! This one’s just so bad that it’ll leave your head spinning the whole time. The Quiet Man should have stayed quiet this time because the more he talks the more annoying he gets. The film has a long drawn out fight at the end which can be a little entertaining but as a whole the movie was definitely a miss here.

The film starts off with Sean moving to a small village and getting ready for a peaceful life. He used to be a boxer but retired after a certain incident. He will not fight any longer and it’s hard to blame him because things really didn’t go well. He ends up falling for a local lady named Mary and the two start a romance. A problem arises though when her brother won’t accept the engagement and Mary refuses to marry Sean without the guy’s blessing……..and so the start of their romantic issues begin.

The whole thing’s absolutely crazy, ridiculous, and forced. So because of old traditions Mary won’t marry Sean even though it’s obvious that her brother Will has a huge vendetta against Sean and will never OK the thing? Basically he’s upset because the lady he has a crush on (Tillane) gave the house over to Sean instead of him. The whole thing has nothing to do with Mary and yet he won’t let bygones be bygones. When you marry someone, your significant other should trump all others. That includes family, friends, etc.

The fact that Mary won’t get together with Sean over this is such a massive red flag that he should be walking away at this point. Even the way they met up was pretty awful. Sean found Mary going through his house while he was gone so he forces a kiss and she’s still talking tough the whole time and not wanting to admit that she likes him. After a bunch of tough talk they get together only for Will to step in. The romance didn’t start out as a healthy one and it never developed into one. The film gives us no reason for either character to even love each other.

It makes no sense and I’ve already said that but I’m going to keep on saying it! Finally it looks like things are getting better but then Mary won’t be with Sean until they get a gift from Will. Mary wants him to give her money as per tradition and when the guy makes a big deal about it/refuses to give it to Sean she insists that it is non-negotiable. Seriously? She wants Sean to basically go on his knees and beg for it from a guy who is clearly in the wrong. This is why she’s so annoying, the whole thing is blown way out of proportion. She even runs off to ditch Sean early in the morning and he only barely catches up to her in time and has to literally drag her back home. He then fights Will on behalf of her honor but there’s no point to it.

Now I keep blasting Mary here but you have to understand that 50% of this is Sean’s fault as well. You can’t have a relationship with just one person after all and Sean is still putting up with all of this. He should have walked away the instant Mary started acting up like this. He fell in love with her randomly so it’s not like he’s liked her for years. As soon as these red flags popped up then it was time for him to leave. Staying was only empowering her to keep up these crazy actions over and over again. He just needed to nope out of there. She’s literally getting him into trouble by having him pick fights with people in the town who could be dangerous like Will.

Sean obliges and ultimately has the big fight with Will where he could have been seriously injured. The film gets a bit cheesy in the end as after all of this the fight helps them grow close. You’d think it was a Shonen Jump fight or something by the end of this. My big problem with this is that no lessons were learned as a result. Sean and Mary lived happily ever after even though she showed that she did not respect him in the slightest and put having money above his happiness. Sean showed that he is willing to be walked on like this and doesn’t have his full self respect left.

The film adds insult to injury by pairing Will up with Tillane after all of this. Tillane didn’t even like Will and made that clear the whole film, but then by the end she likes him now? Then this guy who was so petty and willing to ruin his sister’s marriage over a little squabble gets to have a happy relationship of his own? The film didn’t seem to realize just how messed up all of the relationships were here and that’s a shame. The punishments just didn’t match the crimes because there were no punishments.

The tone of the film was off the whole time. This is treated like a wholesome romance when it’s anything but. If it was a full on comedy/parody then you can see how the film would deal with this but it’s actually played very seriously. It’s just a really odd film by every stretch and it didn’t work out well for me. It didn’t click and I can safely say that it’s one of the weaker romances that I’ve seen in a while.

Overall, This is a film to stay far away from. The Quiet Man is about a main character who’s not even super quiet. He cracks after a while rather than dealing with the problem upfront and that ends up being a problem. You’ve probably never even heard of this film since it’s been lost to time and that’s a good thing. You want to stay far away from this one as there are plenty of drama and romance titles that are better than this one.

Overall 3/10

Devil World Review

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It’s time to jump into one of the new NES online games that has surfaced. Devil World is interesting because the gameplay is really not what you’d expect when you jump into it. It plays a whole lot like Pac Man to the point where they copied the fruits (switched to desserts) idea as well as the monsters chasing you. I like it but it doesn’t beat the original.

The gameplay is easy to describe, you have to eat all of the pellets in a maze before you get tagged by one of the monsters trying to destroy you. To protect yourself you have to pick up a cross which allows you to shoot blasts of fire at these creatures. You also aren’t able to pick up pellets unless you are holding the cross so keep that in mind. The cross only lasts for a few seconds so then at that point you have to pick up another one or you are really going to be a sitting duck there. So don’t let the opponents get the upper hand or you’re doomed.

Each stage has 2 levels to it. Once you beat the first level then the second has you collecting 4 Bibles to seal up the portal of doom. You basically have to carry the book over to the entrance and you’re good. In some ways this level is a lot easier than the first because it gives you unlimited firepower until you drop it off and then you just repeat that until you’ve done it 4 times in total. Of course the one tricky part is being patient here because if you go to the center too quickly you may find yourself surrounded.

There is one big change compared to Pac Man though which is that the devil is constantly moving the screen. If you get caught being a little too slow then you will be squished and that will be game over. Additionally this mean some pellets will go off screen and you have to wait until the next rotation in order to grab them. It’s actually a pretty interesting gimmick that does help to differentiate this from Pac Man. Granted I really don’t think you needed this gimmick but it’s a good way to really test your skills. I would make the case that it increases the difficulty level right out of the gate compared to Pac Man. In a lot of ways for Pac Man you’ll probably master the first 20 levels or so after playing it enough times while the screen shifting here adds a whole other dimension to it.

The graphics are fun enough for the NES. You can easily tell where everything is and the screen is always clear. The game never lags and the screen never gets too cluttered either. The music isn’t particularly memorable though. Pac Man at least has the fun stage transitions and such which have iconic sounds but this one is a lot less memorable. Fortunately the gameplay itself makes up for that and of course there is pretty much unlimited replay value to be found here. You can be playing the levels over and over again for pretty much forever. I can especially see this being fun to play with friends and trying to get the highest score.

Overall, There’s not a lot more to say about the game beyond that. It’s a very simple game and that’s what makes it fun. You can jump into the adventure at any time and just work on getting as far as possible. It’s easy to just pick up and play and from there it all comes down to your strategy skills. So even if someone has a 1 year head start on you, it’s completely possible that you could just go in and start getting a higher score. I love strategy titles like this. Again that’s why Pac Man is the better game though since without the screen moving it is complete strategy but this is still a fun little rival to play from time to time. I bet it would be a hit at parties since most people don’t even know about it. The best tip I can give is to just be really patient here and wait for the right path to open up.

Overall 6/10

My Happy Marriage Review

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It’s time for an anime with possibly the most wholesome title of all time. It’s a slice of life romance series with a lot of drama and it’s pretty solid. At times the main heroine can get a little tricky since part of the show is about her dealing with confidence issues but you feel like by season 2 she will really be hitting her stride. The show even throws in some supernatural/action elements in so there’s a lot going on in this show.

The show starts off by introducing us to Miyo who has had a really tough life so far. She was born into a fairly prestigious family but without any supernatural abilities. As a result her stepmother and step sister constantly bully Miyo and treat her like a slave. Her father is no better as he doesn’t defend her and tends to passively pile on as well. Miyo is in love with one guy, Kouji and this is her one way out of this rotten life. He can marry her and take her away with him. Unfortunately he ends up being promised to Miyo’s step sister Kaya and he is too weak willed to refuse. The family figures this is a good time to dump Miyo so they give her over to the rich Kiyoka who is infamously cold hearted. Can Miyo turn this around?

The opening episodes really go far to show just how irredeemable and awful the rest of Miyo’s family are so don’t get it confused and think that these guys could end up being great later on or something. It’s going to take many seasons for them to even come close to having a redemption arc for me. When you bully someone their entire life, effectively enslaving that person then you can’t really bounce back from that. It’s just way too much. This should remind you a lot of Cinderella because that’s pretty much the setup here. Fortunately as you can guess that means Kiyoka is actually a pretty guy. He’s your classic misunderstood character who has a hard time showing his emotions but isn’t a bad guy at all. Basically its the result of rumors being spread around that weren’t true and previous wife candidates not being in the relationship for the right reasons.

Now I do have to note that when Miyo is sent off, the marriage isn’t official yet. Think of it like an engagement setup and after a period of time, Kiyoka can choose to marry her. Until that actually happens officially they aren’t married and that’s an important plot point because just about every character will show up to try and put a stop to this because they’re just so petty in this world. If there’s something they can do to mess things up then you have to believe that they are going to do it!

So first up from the characters we have Miyo and as I mentioned at the start I’m not really a fan of hers which does hurt a bit. You want to be careful about victim blaming here as she is completely outnumbered and social norms are against her. It would just be nice if she could stand up for herself more rather than being crushed at every opportunity. Kaya for example has a strong personality and talks back to several characters. Even without powers I feel like Miyo could have defended herself more and kept things from going quite as overboard as they did.

Even if you accept that there was nothing she could have done in the early episodes, once she was together with Kiyoka that was her time to be strong. She still lets Kaya talk down to her even once Miyo completely outranks her and then Miyo ultimately chokes under pressure when another guy shows up to steal her away from Kiyoka. It just feels like her character development is moving much too slowly. I want to see her embrace the fact that she has her complete freedom back and never has to bow before anyone ever again. This is her new life now and she should stay pleasant and well natured but her timid personality has to go. Before she can protect anyone else she needs to be able to protect herself.

Then we have Kiyoka who does look pretty good here. He really tries to be a good person who is patient with Miyo so that he doesn’t scare her. He may not be too good at showing affection or anything like that but he gives it a good try. He is ready to plan out dates and make this work even while protecting Japan from supernatural monsters. Yes that’s the action part of this series, there are monsters around every corner just waiting to pounce. Kiyoka is known as the strongest fighter in the land and for good reason. He can burn a whole area of the forest down in one blow and his swordplay is exceptional.

So he’s a very complete character through and through. He consistently makes the right calls and gets to cause some mayhem to Miyo’s family which is great. You really want a character like that on your side. The romance would be all good if not for the fact that it is a bit of a rebound from Miyo’s point of view. The man she was in love with was Kouji and ultimately he just wasn’t man enough to defy his father and the social customs of the land. So she ends up going to Kiyoka since Kouji was off the table. They were never actually together or anything but it does make Kiyoka a second pick in a sense. At least there should be no wavering so it’ll be them for the rest of the series. Gradually that should continue to help the romance out.

I do have to say that Kouji is easily one of the worst characters though. He’s the biggest wimp in the series and there’s no way I can ever respect the guy. He knew Miyo was being abused for ages and did absolutely nothing to help her out. All he did was give her the false hope that he would take her out of there someday and then he goes and gets engaged to her step sister? There’s no amount of crying that Kouji could do afterwards to make him go back up for me. The guy had his big chance and he blew it.

The romance that he being set up with him and Kaya is going to be really hard to buy because this guy was obsessed with Miyo and now he’s going to be with the sister? It’s better than trying to be a homewrecker but nah Kouji’s pretty awful from start to finish here. When you break your promise to take the easier road there just isn’t much hope for you at that point.

At least Kaya is shown to be antagonistic the whole time. She isn’t trying to be some sympathetic character who just made a few mistakes. I do think the show is going to try and redeem her at this point but it needs to be done carefully and slowly across a ton of seasons. Otherwise I’m just not buying it. A redemption arc is a great thing of course but there’s a difference between making a mistake and just being evil for an extended period of time. So I just hope they take this really slow.

Meanwhile Shinichi and Kanoko should both be completely doomed in that regard. Shinichi allowing his own daughter to be treated like a servant for so many years is awful. He never really cared about her and no excuse the show tries to give him will hold any water. He’s the father and the head of the household. There were tons of options at his disposal to save her and he didn’t use any of them. He also gets some blame for choosing Kanoko as his rebound wife. She has a bad attitude from the start so the guy completely missed it and then didn’t do anything to fix the matter afterwards. Choosing your partner for life is an extremely important decision and it’s why you have to be careful who you choose. Particularly if you have kids since you won’t be the only one feeling the effects.

You feel bad for Miyo’s original mother Sumi who died early on and wasn’t able to be there to help Miyo. I don’t think Sumi’s plan right before death ended up working out very much at all. You can also argue that it completely backfired but of course we don’t know exactly how it would have gone otherwise so at the end of the day it’s really all a hypothetical.

Kazushi is an interesting character where we have to see where his arc will go. The guy isn’t afraid to defy traditions and basically left the family to do his own thing. Now he’s back and in a position of power so we have to see if it corrupts him and he ends up being a big villain or if he stays good til the end. It would be nice to have a good supporting character who doesn’t turn traitor so I hope he’s a good guy.

One heroic figure who should definitely stay true to the end is Yurie. She’s basically Kiyoka’s main attendant so she cooks, cleans, and does any errands as needed. She really shows Miyo the ropes of how to handle the household and puts her mind at east. Miyo would have had a much tougher time without her so Yurie gets a lot of props there. Hazuki also shows up later and is a pretty fun character. She helps teach Miyo about etiquette and is fairly tough in her own right. I don’t see her getting pushed around much at all by anyone. I’d be glad to see her as more of a supporting character.

Yoshito is one of the few supporting characters on Kiyoka’s side. The guy does his best to break the ice and keep things civil for everyone. At times his jokes go a bit far though like with how he flirts with Miyo. It’s all played for laughs of course and the characters know that he doesn’t mean it but I always thought jokes like that were pretty dangerous. Then there is Iwashimizu who does a great job of grabbing intel for Kiyoka. He helps deliver a whole lot of the lore over to Kiyoka and get the guy up to speed on what’s going on.

Finally we have Arata who is one of the big villains here. There are a decent amount of villains within the show so far outside of the main family characters but none of them are particularly memorable so far outside of Arata. They all just feel a bit generic and are also too weak to do much of anything. Once the Emperor makes a move then things could change a bit but in the meantime the most serious enemy had to be Arata. He can fight really well with his illusions and even took Kiyoka down a peg. The whole fight was annoying though since Kiyoka should have won easily but I guess you can’t win them all.

I really don’t like Arata though. He’s another desperate guy who really likes Miyo and wants to try and steal her away. Where were all of these characters when she could have really used a helping hand? Well snooze you lose so Arata just needs to get over her and stay away. That should happen going forward with any luck so this would just be his low point. He’s someone who could actually have a decent redemption arc coming up.

In terms of animation the show looks pretty good. I wouldn’t say the fights look great or anything, it’s clear that the show is more focused on the romance part than the action. That said, the character designs are always on point and the backgrounds look clear so I really have no complaints. The show’s budget was reasonably solid. The soundtrack is a bit more on the weaker side though. It could do with some more fast paced music or just something more memorable in general. Even during the fights you don’t really have music that’s jumping out at you.

We get our share of super emotional moments of course but the music played during those is a bit more on the generic side. Still the moment itself is usually intense enough where you’re still really engaged. The show goes all out in just how much Miyo had to deal with. At one point the villains even grab a pair of scissors and really put some fear into Miyo. Those are again scenes that make sure Kaya can never rebound from them.

There was a really good rage moment late in the series when Kiyoka finally found out some of the details and went into the estate to clean up shop. It was really nice to see him burning buildings and causing a lot of chaos. If anything I wouldn’t have minded if he went a tad further with that. We certainly know that those characters would deserve every bit of it after all. Now the only thing I’d be worried about going forward is if Kiyoka ends up bowing down to the law. What I mean by that is Kiyoka is still technically in service of the government and the emperor, both of whom we know are on the villains’ side. So it’ll be annoying if they arrest him or something and he doesn’t resist because he doesn’t want to follow the law and then Miyo gets kidnapped. I’m really hoping that doesn’t happen because it’s always such a pain when a character chooses duty over love.

Miyo needs to be above all others for Kiyoka at this point. His main duty is keeping her happy after all and everything else is secondary. I wonder if Miyo can end up contributing more on the battlefield soon too. I think there are a lot of good ways you could pull that off, maybe something like QQ Sweeper. We’ll have to see. Season 2 could also afford to be a little lighter. Throw in a bit of comedy and let the characters have some fun. After all this one had to be darker due to the origin story for Miyo which was definitely a tragic one but with that out of the way she should be allowed to have some time to smile without a catch at the end.

Overall, My Happy Marriage is a good show. There are some annoying elements which keeps it from being higher like how polite the heroes always have to be while the villains just run around getting things done. I feel as though you owe nothing to any villains so just show up and take them down without going through all of the formalities. I’m really hoping that Miyo should be completely solid going forward and now have any more doubts in her ability. As long as that doesn’t happen we should be in a great spot for the second season.

Overall 6/10

Earthbound Review

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It’s time to review one of the most iconic Nintendo RPGs of all time. Everyone has heard of this title and for good reason. They really pushed the envelope on this game with the amount of crazy visuals and just having a generally weird world around the main characters. Games like Undertale would end up continuing in this same light. Without Earthbound you can argue that many games would not exist. It really has aged quite well.

The story starts with a meteor crashing in Ness’ home town Onett. He goes out to check it along with another boy named Porky. Porky ends up succumbing to the dark side and serving the dark lord Giygas while Ness is tasked with saving the world. He will need several allies including a genius, a martial artist, and a psychic expert. Can these kids really stop the end of the world though? Giygas is a being that exists across dimensions and all of time with seemingly unlimited amounts of power. That’s not an easy opponent to overcome but Ness won’t give up!

This is a game where you really need to cling to everything that you are told because it always ends up being a lot more important than you would have guessed. Sometimes you have to talk to a character multiple times and other times you have to go back to an old town to grab an item you may have missed. The game is quite vast and I’m sure I didn’t talk to a bunch of people/witness bonus content. The dialogue is all a lot of fun here. It has that absurd comedy type angle where crazy things are happening and people don’t have much of a reaction to it which is a type of comedy in itself.

The writing is quite excellent. I like how your father will call in from time to time to check on you and give you some money to get items with. It has a very “Are you winning son?” vibe to it and it’s great to have supportive parents here. Your Mom is always around to give you a fresh pizza and recover your HP as well. Your sister even contributes by giving you items and a place to store extra ones. These are little elements that just help make the world feel a lot more fleshed out.

There’s also a lot of room for fun theories about different characters and what’s going on. You could really make a whole franchise out of this which is why it’s a shame that Nintendo hasn’t kept up with making a bunch of Earthbound games. There is so much potential to them and I’m sure with modern graphics and everything they could really make this massive. This game took me close to 30 hours as it is. In general a nice advantage of RPGs is that the long story really lets you connect to the characters.

One of the playable characters doesn’t show up until you’re over 20 hours in for example which is really impressive. I had actually forgotten about him for a while even though in the intro you get to name all of the characters so in a way you know that they’re coming. It’s just a long wait and you’re busy doing a lot of other things in the meanwhile to really keep track. The final boss is super iconic of course and then you’ve got a lot of other creative enemies and even full concerts in game. Yes this is an ambitious title.

At times it can be easy to get lost or not know what to do next. Fortunately their are hint shacks around. The NPCs aren’t generally very helpful so otherwise you would have been in a pretty tough spot. Also some areas are very well hidden so even when you’re following a path, try to keep note of which path you didn’t check in case you have to use it later on. As you progress through the game you unlock some quality of life features like teleportation which is definitely worth the wait.

If I have any issues here, I would say one gameplay mechanic doesn’t age too well. This one uses the old Final Fantasy 2 type of mechanic where if your character dies they won’t come back to life even at an inn. You have to specifically go to the hospital to revive the character and that’s a lot of work since those are rarer to come up against. Again this is a quality of life feature that comes in later on once your character learns how to revive someone. That’s near the very end of the game though so it takes a while.

Also your storage is very small per character so you will run out a lot. This means you will have to constantly toss items out to make room for new ones or pay the storage fee to put in some extra back at home. I think they could have been more generous on that front. It’s only a mild annoyance to have to go in and toss stuff since you can only do this one at a time but still it’s something where a sequel can improve a bit.

The soundtrack is definitely excellent, there are a lot of really good tunes you will hear as you go through the adventure. The graphics are also really solid for its era. Like I mentioned earlier the game is very creative here both in the enemy designs and the effects. It gets a bit trippy with Giygas and the game is just so far ahead of its time that I’m sure the reactions to that boss must have been crazy.

In terms of replay value, there is a lot in terms of talking to people and such but there isn’t really a post game. Regardless the main campaign is long enough where that isn’t a problem. Additionally the game can be rather difficult at times so you will have to stop and train at different points. Don’t think that you will just be coasting by and the whole thing is a breeze because you will be in for quite the surprise!

Meanwhile the ending of the game is really intense. I don’t know if Mother 3 actually follows up on this or not but it’s really a high note. Yet another reason why Nintendo needs to license that game already. It would be so much fun to play through! The music gets rather tense and for a split second you’re wondering if the game is actually going to just keep on going. To date Nexamon is probably the only game I can think of that keeps on going after the long credits play and is the most realistic fake stop. I’d like to see more games do that and it only works in an RPG type game like this because you can have it trigger after 20-25 hours which would be realistic to end with.

Overall, Earthbound is a great game all the way through. It excels in every area and makes for a really fun experience. The gameplay is really smooth and the world is just so large. It feels like they crammed in a toooooon of content here especially relative to the average SNES game. It’s extremely impressive and the fact that it still holds up to this day is also something to be proud of. I would highly recommend jumping into this game as soon as possible. You will be having a lot of fun all the way through.

Overall 8/10

Practical Magic Review

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It’s time for a film about magic and how a curse can really last for a very long amount of time. The film has its moments but the whole main romance is really just a big rebound so that does take some points without a doubt. Ultimately the movie goes by rather quickly and it’s an entertaining ride even if it won’t end up being one of the top titles.

The film starts off with a witch creating a curse that bad things will befall any guy who tries to get together with her descendants. The marriage will not be able to last and that has carried through to the present. Sally is our main character and she’s not going to let a curse stop her. She marries a guy named Michael and they had some kids but one day he is hit by a truck and she finally realizes that there is no way to beat the curse. She will not allow herself to love ever again but her sister isn’t ready to quit yet and has a ton of affairs. Unfortunately she has gone in with the wrong crowd now by getting together with a crazy guy named Jimmy. Sally will have to help her out before it’s too late but in the meantime what if she falls in love with one of the local authorities named Gary?

Of course that’s exactly what happens and so there is no way to get around this romance. Sally basically lost her husband to a curse and now she’s going to move on just like that? She probably should have just brought him back to life. Yes, the whole movie is a cautionary tale against doing such a thing but I think you can make it work. In a world where magic is real and it is actually possible to revive someone (albeit with some side effects) then you just have to spend your life perfecting the spell to make it work. I guarantee that it’s at least a possibility considering that we know the magic exits.

So the romance ends up being annoying as a result. Granted Gary’s not even a bad guy. He’s a good person trying to do the right thing and help out. It’s just that I’m not buying the romance. Particularly since Michael was also a good guy before he bought the farm early. The most annoying character has to be Gillian though because she’s the one dragging Sally into a whole lot of trouble. From what we’ve seen of Jimmy he wasn’t exactly a class act from the start so how did this relationship even start?

Regardless he ends up causing a lot of trouble for the duration of the film. Naturally he takes the bulk of the blame since he’s the one going around breaking the law and basically trying to murder the heroines. It would just be nice if Gillian was more responsible since it doesn’t feel like she actually learns any lessons during the film. The aunts are also not without blame as they just run out midway through the film and vanish during the climax. It sure would have been nice to have had some adult supervision to back Sally up when she was in a tight spot.

The film feels pretty short and it’s entertaining enough. There are definitely some jokes that work well like the heroes murdering Jimmy multiple times. The plot is serious to an extent but there are always a lot of lighthearted moments thrown in to keep everything balanced. It also wasn’t too easy to snap the curse so the original witch’s power was definitely impressive. You’d think the main characters or at least the aunts could have worked a bit harder to blow up the curse but granted it seems like the aunts agreed with it to an extent. So they had no real reason to snap it.

The cast here is fairly small which isn’t a bad idea so you can focus on the characters but it’s just a problem that none of them are super likable. There aren’t any standouts here and as a result the film isn’t quite as lively or exciting as it could have been. You’ll never feel bored while watching it or anything like that but there also isn’t a ton of replay value here either. So it’s not bad but it’s not that good either and just winds up being in the middle. I will give the ending props for using the power of friendship though. Sally had been neglecting the other moms at school who were just trying to help and so by the end they all help each other out. It may be a bit cheesy but it was still a decent climax.

One thing the film could have done maybe was to lean into the curse a bit more. Have Sally actually try meeting tons of guys and each time something goes wrong. The main weakness of this strategy is it could make Sally look completely desperate so it should be played completely for laughs with lots of slapstick. Then you never do a serious romance and the plot of the film is more actively about ending the curse. I will say that the curse is slick to not activate until the descendant has had kids so this way the lineage will continue to grow.

Overall, Practical Magic is a decent movie but I feel like there’s so much more you could do with magic. I tend to feel this way for most slice of life/romance type movies that involve magic. Magic is one of the ultimate fantasies for any person to have. There are so many ways you can immediately enhance your life with it or even just show off for others. I’d like to see a main character just go wild with it for once. In this movie the power levels are a bit lower so it might have been harder but the magic feels like it’s only something on the side to keep the film fresh but it’s not as overpowering an element as you might expect. If the comedic/romance plot sounds good to you then you should check it out but the fact that it’s all a rebound hurts it just enough for me to not bump this to the next level.

Overall 5/10

The Rainmaker Review

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It’s time for another court thriller. This time we have a lead who is fairly new to the game and gets thrown into a really difficult case right off the bat. This movie’s pretty solid with some nice humor but mainly a ton of focus on the court system. You’ll really learn the ins and outs here and how every technicality is super important or you could end up losing the case.

The movie starts with Rudy finally passing the law school and ready to get his license. He just needs to pass the BAR exam now but in the meantime he needs some experience. He ends up working for a guy known as the Bruiser and the office looks nice but it becomes clear that these guys don’t mind taking some shortcuts. They get wins but at any cost and ultimately this is starting to catch up to the firm. Rudy doesn’t want to get into trouble but this is the only gig he has. Can he pull this off and also do good in winning cases for his client?

I think the toughest part about being an attorney is that you won’t always be on the right side. For example you have to give it your all whether you’re defending the person you think is just or not. Fortunately Rudy manages to stay on the just side here but it’s a tough balancing act. Also even if you’re a good person, if you work for a crook then that gets a bit dicey. Seeing Bruiser get swarmed by the cops was pretty intense, I wasn’t expecting that and as a result he plays the interesting role of foreign fugitive. Obviously Bruiser’s not a good guy but I can at least respect that he takes care of his allies. Even when he’s half a world away, he shows up when it counts to help Rudy out of a jam.

Meanwhile Rudy’s partner Deck seems rather incompetent at first. He’s failed the BAR exam almost 10 times and doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. That said as the film goes on you get to see how creative he is. Deck has the good idea of creating his own law firm with Rudy and also comes in clutch when Rudy is late to one of the hearings. So definitely a good example of not judging a book by its cover. Deck may not be book smart but he’s street smart and has picked up a whole lot over all the years that he has been in the sector.

Meanwhile Rudy is pretty good at staying focused on the cases and blocking out the noise. The main case he is handling here is on behalf of a kid named Donny who is dying of leukemia. What Rudy has to argue is that this death was preventable had the insurance company allowed him to have a bone marrow transplant operation. The defense is alleging that this would not have worked anyway and was very experimental so it wouldn’t be covered. That’s the crux of the main case here and it plays out during the duration of the film.

As with a real case there are lots of breaks and it spans many days which is how you can have the rest of the film playing out. One thing that is distracting Rudy a bit from the case is he bumped into a lady named Kelly who is being abused by her husband. Rudy tries to convince her to leave the relationship but she’s scared of the repercussions and so he has to try and figure out a way to get her out of this jam as well. It’s just difficult because there is only so much you can do from an outside perspective especially if she doesn’t want to go through with it. After all if you make the wrong move then she is the one who is going to pay the price there.

It’s a fairly dark plot and definitely the most serious part of the film. The rest of the film is still fairly serious of course but more in a somber way like with the Donny plot. This plot also nearly takes Rudy out for the count since he didn’t time things too well for when the husband would get there. In general this is a plot I’d remove from the film and keep the focus on the main case.

Meanwhile the case has a lot of developments going on for a while. For example the previous judge dies so we get a new one, Tyrone. This works out really well for Rudy because Tyrone is a whole lot more reasonable. He’s eager to see some justice done although he still has to act within the confines of the law so he gets annoyed when Rudy starts making some rookie mistakes. Either way it makes a world of difference to have a judge who is sympathetic to your cause though.

I enjoyed all of the court room stuff quite a bit. You can tell that the movie was taking the legal aspects very seriously here. It’s all done by the books and I could definitely watch that for ages. It is the film’s strength without a doubt. The writing is solid and so the pacing is pretty good there. The film tends to weaken a bit when we’re outside of the court room though. I like the legal stuff like working around the office and finding things out but the subplots outside of that aren’t quite as interesting. Rudy getting used to the area and the Kelly subplot end up distracting from the film’s main focus and the latter just felt unnecessary with how it really darkens the tone. The main case was already dark in its own way with how shady the company was so that was enough.

Overall, The Rainmaker is a good film. I’d say it’s just slightly not strong enough for me to call it a pretty good film but it hits enough of the right notes. The ending is definitely not very satisfying at all though. It feels like Rudy just started to give up and in the end that doesn’t just hurt him but all of the people who need a good lawyer out there. I didn’t buy his arguments for why it was time to leave. Still if you’re looking for a solid court movie this is a good one to check out.

Overall 6/10

Mieruko-chan Review

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It’s time to take a look at a horror anime! I haven’t seen very many of those so this would be fun. Granted I’d say it’s also part comedy so not a full on horror but the visuals can get intense. The anime never quite manages to match up to the manga version in that area as the manga really feels like a true “Holding nothing back” horror all the way. The anime unfortunately has a big fanservice issue that the manga mainly avoids and that does end up being a crushing blow. Still there’s some fun stuff here as well so lets dive into the world of the supernatural.

The series starts by introducing us to Miko. She was living an ordinary life when she begins to see supernatural spirits. They are all incredibly scary and she has to try and keep a straight face or else they will realize that she can see them. This means Miko has to often just sit there and endure whatever visions she sees. Her best friend Hana is completely oblivious though so Miko also has to make sure to manipulate her so that she doesn’t crash into any ghosts. It really is a full time job but one that she is absolutely ready for…because she has no choice in the matter. So begins a new chapter in her life. Will anyone be able to help save her from this predicament??

This show’s fairly quick at only 12 episodes and most of those are stand alones. We only just start to touch on the more serious plot based episodes by the end so for the most part it’s really just a lot of episodes of Miko getting scared the whole time and trying to keep it together. The opening definitely reflects this well as it’s the most I’ve heard the word “Stop” in an opening ever. That’s basically all the lines in the beginning and the ending. Unfortunately the opening isn’t very good. The music isn’t great and the animation is pretty lazy. It’s a shame because it has a good opening beat but it quickly fades from there. In general the soundtrack is more on the mild side. Nothing you’ll really remember all that much. At most I guess you’ll remember the monster yell that plays at the beginning of the ending for each episode. That’s a good jump scare.

Lets get into the biggest negative right out of the gate though which is of course the fanservice. It’s very relentless and hits you hard in every single episode. You never get a break from this as the show always chooses the absolute worst camera angles. The characters could be talking about lunch and the camera is really low for no reason. We have several shower type scenes here and bottom line, the series isn’t confident enough in its plot and premise so it has to resort to large amounts of fanservice at every corner. It definitely hurts the show quite a lot because of how frequent it is. You never get a break from this at any point and that also makes it hard to recommend.

Now my only other main issue with the show is that you don’t understand why Miko is so afraid. Let me explain here, she sees a whole lot of crazy stuff in regard to the spirits. I get how they look really scary since a lot of them are quite deformed and all. So that makes perfect sense but what really doesn’t make sense is why she is so determined that they don’t know she can see them. She acts as if they could actually hurt her but we already know this isn’t the case.

She’s already seen how tons of humans are getting stabbed by these creatures and the blows go through them. The creatures are completely intangible so none of their blows actually have any weight behind them. Given that we know this to be true, she is in absolutely 0 danger throughout the series. In theory no matter how strong a creature may be, it should not be able to be on the same level as her. It should immediately be crushed and then that would be the end of it. Doesn’t that make the most amount of sense here?

The show could prove me wrong down the road but that wouldn’t help because I need a reason for why Miko is afraid right now. From how the show begins this is something that just started happening to her so you can’t say that something happened to her as a kid with a ghost attacking her and we’d know in the present if this was the case. This was nagging at me throughout every episode because it is such a core part of the plot and yet it feels like the show didn’t think of it.

Now you may just figure that Miko is special so their attacks would land. Except we’ve seen Miko walk right through a spirit and another time she actually got stabbed by one in the train and both times nothing happened. That’s because nothing can happen, Miko is completely immune. So this just feels like a plot hole pretty much at least until we get a real reason for why she is freaking out so much. It doesn’t make sense.

Now beyond that, while the soundtrack isn’t anything special the animation can be decent at times. Still nothing too high budget or anything like that but I do like the energy effects which work well for the occasional energy blast. The character designs are good as well and so for the most part everything is fairly smooth. I think the budget was decent for the show.

If you can get past the whole premise of the show not working, the small cast is fairly effective here. Miko is a good heroine who is doing her best to survive through this crazy situation and makes sure to look after Hana as well. At times Miko can be really dismissive of Hana’s attempts to help her but it’s more that she is trying to keep Hana safe and other times she’s too lost in thought. Miko isn’t perfect or anything but she’s a very good character all around and someone that you want on your side.

Then you have Hana who is the best character. I like how cheerful and upbeat she is all the time. Hana is very quick to defend Miko from all kinds of dangers and also always wants to be there for her. Hana may not know about any monsters or special abilities but it doesn’t stop her from doing her best and getting in there to stop the creatures as needed. She rescues a dog and in general will tell off anyone who makes Miko sad. That’s the hallmark of a true friend all the way through.

One more member added to the main cast is Yuria but she doesn’t really make it until the second half. They do introduce her early on through cameos and such but it takes a while to really get going. You feel bad for her the whole time because she can see spirits and has always longed to have someone else around who could see them but Miko won’t admit it. I actually think Miko really should have told Yuria sooner. Yuria won’t be in any extra danger since she can already see the spirits so I don’t see a downside. I can absolutely sympathize with how frustrated Yuria is the whole time because to her this just doesn’t make any kind of sense. By the end of the season they finally have a formal agreement that they know about each other but I expect that the misunderstandings will continue for some time.

It’s also easy to see why since Miko did literally choke Yuria to the point of unconsciousness right. Those were desperate times based on Miko’s misconception about how dangerous the spirits were but it’s not something you ever forget if you’re the one who was getting knocked out. The Godmother shows up briefly here but she looks very bad. She’s clearly past her prime and isn’t able to deal with any of the monsters so you can only hope that she’ll do better in a future season.

The season does have a bit of a cliffhanger for a sequel but it’s not as direct as I would have liked. Trust me, I’d have gone all in with the cliffhanger and just had a field day there. I feel like you have to go bold to try and pressure a second season. The ending here still works well enough but it’s more of a wholesome ending with a few nuggets to be explored as opposed to a glaring cliffhanger.

The show’s climax does end up being the best part as we get the shrine yokai who actively fight other yokai but the whole thing is a bit of a mystery. Why did they protect Miko 3 times and why are they super upset now? That’s all to be explored in a second season if we ever get there. They’re some of the scarier monsters as well because of how well they fight although once again I would make the case that they aren’t too scary yet since we figure they can’t actually touch Miko. Until proven otherwise or a character mentions that spirits can hurt humans I just don’t see why I would believe that.

One more character I should quickly talk about is Zen. He’s a good example of how to write a solid anti-hero/vigilante. The guy has a very mysterious aura when he shows up and plays a big part in the last episodes. He even gets an emotional backstory which is probably the most emotional out of all the characters. He had to put up with a whole lot and so he’s doing things in the present as well. He doesn’t take prisoners and it’s highly implied that he straight up murders someone. Within the context it makes sense though.

There was someone going around murdering cats in the neighborhood and he couldn’t let that stand. Fortunately the show doesn’t actually show any of the murders but based on the amount of ghosts around we can tell that it was a lot. There wasn’t much point in a trial at that point since he was guilty so that was it. I look forward to seeing more of Zen even if his role probably will only get smaller from here. He was a bit rude to his neighbor for no reason but due to a plot twist involving the neighbor we can definitely let it slide.

So yeah the show has a good blend of characters. The cast is solid which is always the proper foundation for a show. The stories range from comedic to scary to serious and the all flow together pretty well. If the show could show a bit more restraint in some areas then you could definitely see how this would just be a fun show to pop in and laugh with from time to time. The world building is on point so even with only a few episodes you feel like you know the score pretty well.

There’s also a lot of ways the show can go from here. If they really do pursue the idea that most of these ghosts just have unresolved issues then Mieruko could become some kind of spirit detective who helps them move on. It could also get more action packed if she gets a spirit summon of her own to deal with them. It’s always a risk changing genres but there’s just so much room for it that you feel like the show should go for it. You can absolutely still keep in the comedy and slice of life stuff while also having the big plot episodes. It could also make for some more solid plot twists like with the father and Zen, both of which are handled pretty well if you didn’t know about them previously.

Overall, Mieruko-Chan has a lot of entertaining moments within it. If they were to ever ditch the fanservice for season 2 then there would be a lot of potential here. The story itself feels like it’s going to end up being a wholesome one as not all of the ghosts are bad. In time Miko should be able to master her ability and then we’ll really be set. In the meantime though I wouldn’t be able to recommend this one. If you can get past the fanservice then sure you should go for it but that’s a big if.

Overall 4/10

Black Sabbath Review

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It’s time for another horror anthology film. You know what that usually means, lots of sadness as the anthology format ends up limiting everything. Well this time I can at least say that the anthology is pretty reasonable. It’s still nothing great but the format is used well enough. For example the first special is fairly solid but if it had been dragged out you get the feeling that it would not have been nearly as good. None of the shorts are super bad either although the second one is certainly the weakest by far. This one’s actually not in English so I got to really experience the subtitled experience here. I’ve seen my share of subbed films of course but it’s always an interesting change of pace.

The first story starts off with a lady named Rosy receiving a distressing phone call. A guy named Frank is showing up. This guy should be in prison but he recently escaped and Rosy’s testimony is what sealed the deal. Now he’s saying that he is going to destroy her and the worst part is that he can seemingly see her at every turn. How can he when she isn’t even by the windows? Her only hope is to call in her ex-friend Mary. The two have not been on speaking terms for some time now but Rosy can’t win this on her own. Will her old friend prove to be dependable?

So it’s a pretty tense story from the jump and it really does make a world of difference to have even just one more ally with you at such a time. Mary ends up stealing the show here as an interesting character. She loves her dark humor and while Rosy doesn’t really appreciate that side of her, at least Mary isn’t scared. Mary even has a large knife at the ready and is generally very sure of herself. We never find out exactly what the issue was that came up between them but hey Mary showed up. Ultimately I would have liked her to have done a little better during the short but that’s how it goes. Naturally there are some twists that show up during this short. One of them I have a little bit of a hard time buying into though. The film drops us a half hearted explanation that resorts to incredibly accurate guessing…but that’s not really satisfying. I’m not sure what you could have done without making this supernatural though.

The opening short does have some random fanservice so I wouldn’t call it super high brow entertainment though. There’s a lot to like here so I could still recommend it but the ending is a bit weak compared to the rest of the setup. I can say though that it is considerably better than most films about a scary phone call though so it does have that going for it. Check this film out even if just to see how this plot should really be handled rather than those over the top slasher films.

Then we have the second story where Vladimir stops by a house real quick after seeing a dead body. Basically it turns out that there are zombie type creatures running around known as Wurdulaks and they are incredibly dangerous. They can still move, run, and talk like normal humans but they can no longer eat and are driven by only one desire, to murder the one they love the most. It’s really a rough curse when you think about it because it’s actually using your own friendship against you. Vladimir doesn’t know how to end this curse but he ends up falling in love with one of the women there so he offers to at least take her with him and get out of there. Unfortunately she feels like she needs to stay with the rest of the family. They’re all worried that the father has been turned into one of these monsters because he’s been gone for a few days. Well he returns one day and seems a bit shady….should they destroy him or wait to see what happens?

Part of what hurts this short is how everyone makes the worst decisions possible. So it’s painfully obvious that the father has already been turned into a monster so just take him out! Now if there’s any doubt that’s fine, do some tests. Have him try to eat some food or at least put him in restraints. Instead they all just kind of stand there. The father goes to pick up the baby and they whine about it but let him take the kid. They all then go to bed as if everything was fine…..sure they have one guy as a night watchman but what were they thinking? Obviously these creatures have super strength so you’re not going to be doing much with just one guard. The whole story is really annoying because you just don’t see how this could have possibly happened. It really makes no sense the whole time. So inevitably when the body count starts rising you just know that all of the characters are to blame.

They open the door when monsters show up, constantly panic and split up, etc. Even Vladimir doesn’t look very good as he tries to leave initially but splits up of course. Then when he goes back to save the girl he doesn’t suspect that she might be turned and goes for the full body hug? Noooooo, this guy was asking for trouble. Horror characters are famous for making the wrong calls at every turn but this really has to be up there in the running for one of the worst films in that regard. The sheer frequency of all these bad decisions is completely mind boggling. Trust me you’re going to be shaking your head left and right. Throw in that the story is a bit darker as well with a dog getting shot and a kid being murdered…well this isn’t going to be winning any awards I can tell you that much.

Finally we have the last story which is a classic cautionary tale against greed. Basically it starts with an older lady named Helen being called in because an even older lady has died and so they have to get everything sorted out for the burial. Helen notices that the old lady has a really nice looking ring though and decides to take it for herself. Finders keepers and all that right? Well she puts it on and all seems fine for about 2 seconds but then she starts to hear some water tapping on the surface. No matter how many faucets she turns off it keeps up. This can be annoying but perhaps not a dealbreaker right? Well that changes once the dead lady starts appearing to reclaim her ring. If Helen isn’t careful then it will be all over for her. Can she relinquish the ring and make things all right or will she continue to double down over and over for as long as it takes?

So Helen definitely dug her own grave here. Sometimes it’s really as simple as just not stealing something. Whenever there is a film where the villain is attacking because the hero did something bad then it’s harder to have sympathy. Helen stealing from a dead person is just completely uncalled for and makes her look so bad. You simply can’t do that at any point. No amount of money is worth doing the wrong thing like that. The short definitely has a lot of fun playing with the colors here and it’s definitely a reminder that those old houses with lots of shadows are a bad matchup against a vengeful ghost trying to sneak up on you. You’re just giving it way too many hiding spots to try and get you at that point. The ending of the film is pretty satisfying with how the cycle keeps on going. Also the cops finally get involved there so you if we got a sequel it would be interesting to see how much they could deduce here. In a supernatural case it can be hard to really get any clues since they don’t really know enough from the jump but it would still be a fun premise.

Overall, This was a pretty decent horror special. Certainly wayyy better than the average horror anthology at least. There’s a good amount of intrigue here and some fun stories. The middle story definitely holds this combo back the most though and it isn’t quite up to the level of the other two. I can’t really picture re watching this one at any point but still it wasn’t bad. I would put it right in the middle. If you’re looking for some horror titles to watch then this could definitely work. At the same time, it’s not going to be the top horror title to check out or anything like that.

Overall 5/10