Dick Review

Posted on December 9, 2022 by dreager1

The concept here isn’t bad since you could think of it like an alternate version of Bill and Ted. The real problem is really just that the movie isn’t too clever. It goes for the obvious jokes right away but after that there isn’t much left. Even the obvious joke doesn’t work since I know a Richard who still goes by the short version so the name isn’t dead yet. There was a good amount of potential here but right from the jump you get the feeling that it won’t live up to that.

The movie starts with a flashforward as a news guy tries to trick Woodward and Bernstein into revealing their source for the whole Watergate scandal but they don’t fall for it and then we find out what happened. The movie revolves around two teen girls, Betsy and Arlene. They aren’t very smart at all and can’t keep a secret for more than 5 minutes. One day they happen to be near a heist which ends up becoming a big deal and the White House staff has reason to believe that they know more than they should about Watergate. So President Nixon decides that the best way to keep them quiet is to keep them close and hires the two to be his official dog walkers. They have fun with that since who wouldn’t want to walk a dog in such a prestigious place right? Arlene even falls for Nixon but little do they realize that he is as corrupt as they come.

The film has fun making Nixon as big a bad guy as you can imagine. He is practically making evil plans in every scene that he is in. The guy is always planning something negative at the very least but the girls just never notice. It would take a whole lot to get them to realize that he is the villain so of course he keeps pushing the envelope further and further until they have to notice. If he would just pretend a little harder and not make obvious mistakes like leaving the tape recorder active then he would probably have gotten away really easily. Ultimately he wasn’t the smartest character either.

It’s always intense to see how the White House used to look though. It’s hard to imagine people just walking in and going upstairs like you see in this movie. It’s just all very lax and Betsy/Arlene really have the run of the place by the end. One unfortunate subplot for the whole staff is that they start making spiked cookies unintentionally and of course everyone loves them. This even helps with global peace so it shows what a strong meal can do.

From the main two I would say Arlene is the main weak link. She just gets crushes on people way too quickly as she already had another crush at the start of the movie. Just jumping from crush to crush like that in an instant is definitely a bad move. Then for Betsy she is a lot more outgoing and aggressive but that can be a detriment as well like when she has an affair with a random guy just to buy time for the tape to be stolen. It’s a really desperate plan that’s for sure and one that’s not worth it. Better to even try knocking him out but otherwise he seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn’t mind if the two just ran in and stole the tape. He probably wouldn’t even realize that was happening at that point.

The main focus of the film is how the two girls manage to have a massive effect on the president’s office and how every big decision actually went through them but it’s not a premise that can stand on its own without any backup. I don’t even think you need to make the two girls smarter necessarily because you can absolutely have a fun film with the characters not knowing anything. You just need a really clever script though and this film doesn’t have that.

Then you have the two reporters. I actually thought Woodward was solid and he did a good job of getting intel and always trying to be on top. I liked that guy but his partner was on the annoying side. Bernstein never really helped on his own and would only show up to steal the credit. Seems like an annoying guy to have around and I can see why Woodward was always upset. Here he is putting in a lot of work to grab the biggest story of the century and he’s only going to get 50% of the credit. That’s rough.

In a way it worked out that Nixon was the villain because if the president was a good guy then he may have been in trouble with how the main two immediately started spilling all of their secrets out to everyone. They did not hold the secret at all and that’s a shame. It’s another moment where they look really bad even if that is part of their characters. This is exactly why you need more than just the two off them wandering around and having stuff just happen. Maybe throw in a paranoid White House worker who starts following them or have the girls live at the White House instead of going there part time. They could keep hearing new confidential topics over and over which would cause more issues to keep occurring.

You need something to keep the film fresh for longer than it was. Without the writing improving it’s possible that this would just drag the film out instead of saving it but that’s really the best way to try and start working on making this one better. There is barely a plot here beyond the original premise so there isn’t really a whole lot to discuss here either. Either you will like the main dynamic the girls have or you won’t. That will make or break the film for you and it’s really that simple. There just aren’t a lot of other things going on here and the film can largely be aimless.

Overall, This movie isn’t all that good. It may give you a smile once in a while but there was just so many more things they could have done with the film. It wasn’t nearly as funny as it should have been and that’s really fatal for a comedy movie. There really isn’t much replay value to be found at all here. This movie could absolutely use a remake to see if they can do the premise a little more justice. I definitely think they would do better this time but we’ll see. It’s always a fun line of making things funny without making it too forced.

Overall 4/10

Sense, Sensibility & Snowmen Review

Posted on December 7, 2022 by dreager1

It’s time for the next Hallmark movie installment! As always it’s a solid experience all around and Hallmark is quite consistent with that. I did have some issues with the film relative to the others so this would not be one of the strongest ones but at the end of the day when your writing is on point and the film has good pacing, any issues tend to be quite minor ones.

The movie starts off with Ella messing up on another big Christmas decoration party by not following through and making sure that the musicians were set. Her sister Marianne is frustrated because apparently this happens a whole lot. They are co partners in their decorating firm but Marianne has really been doing all of the work. Ella is determined to make it up to her by nailing a big party this time on her own. She happens to overhear a CEO named Edward talking about a party and volunteers her company to complete it. Edward very reluctantly agrees and now it’s up to her to make this a success but is she really up for it?

On Edward’s side, he is the CEO of a really big toy company but ever since he took over the reigns from his father, it has not been going super smoothly. For some reason he just doesn’t seem to have as much of a knack for it and he’s confused since he is going through the data. He has to land this one big account or the company is finished and in the spur of the moment announces that the company will have a big party. Of course that isn’t true but he has to change that and this is where Ella comes in. So now they must hurry to make this deception work out.

I just saw a Hallmark film about lying to the boss so this plot happening again so soon is quite the coincidence. The main characters need to learn not to just lie to the boss when they get stressed out. Trust me on this when I say that it is absolutely not a good idea and will just get you into trouble every time. As for Edward not doing very well as the boss, it definitely makes sense from what we see. He’s been completely lost in his spreadsheets to the point where he cancelled the teddy bear that the company was known for. He said it was not selling well but the problem is that the company’s very identity revolved around the bear.

The company’s whole origin was based around it so getting rid of the bear was absolutely crazy. He seemed a bit short sighted with that decision and early on he is even debating making a toy worse to save some money. You do have to make some tough calls when balancing the checkbook and all the right funds but this was not the right way to do it. Not saying you have to get super emotional but he really wasn’t seeing things through. Even the scene where he nearly tells Ella he’s not interested in her doing the party was not a good move since he had no backup options at the time. This was a moment where he let his emotions get the best of him.

In general you know that he needs to improve a lot. I also thought his mild outburst at the father during their Christmas meal was a bit uncalled for. He did want to set straight that he would be leading in his own way…but in every scene we saw it would usually be Edward trying to impress him or running some numbers by him. I felt like his dad was always eager to help and offered advice (Which was usually very sound advice) when he was around but I didn’t get the vibe that he was super overbearing the whole time. So it felt a bit dramatic when I think his father would have understood right away either way.

As a final note, I also thought Edward badmouthing Ella’s group was a bad look near the end. Of course he has a reason for it but it was very presumptuous. You would want to let Ella make the call at the end of the day and you could let her know why you think it’s not a good idea. But the way he handled that was quite poor so I could see why Ella got upset. Ella jumped the gun quite a lot near the climax so I don’t fully agree with her but that scene was a really bad look. I’ve been taking lots of shot at Edward but at the end of the day he’s still a good guy. His voice is super deep which makes all of his scenes rather entertaining but he also goes out of his way to help Ella out with her future plans and you could say this was before he got super interested in her.

He handled the decorating situation well once he was pressed into it so he still had his good moments. As always I do feel like the romance was a little rushed though. You definitely don’t want to go after your head of party planning when you’re already so busy with the big party coming up. Going for a quick fling during the holidays seems like a recipe for disaster and you need a lot more time to have a quality romance going. That’ll always be a bit of a weak link in these films because there just isn’t enough time to properly develop a romance.

The film even tries to balance a second one here with Ella’s sister Marianne and Edward’s cousin Brandon. I didn’t think this one really needed to be here but at the same time I preferred both characters to their main counterparts. This is a case where the side characters were just really solid. Brandon was always ready to help out and didn’t jump to conclusions. If not for him the whole movie wouldn’t have even started. Meanwhile you totally get why Marianne gets upset in each instance since it’s not like Ella let her down once, but apparently it’s been a whole pattern of incidents. So you’re not so quick to forget when it happens over and over again.

Perhaps it got a little too serious by the end with them not talking to each other for a bit but you know eventually they’d get along again. As for Ella, she’s a good heroine but the party business may not be for her. She has a lot of fun in the moment but because of that she will do things on a whim rather than planning things out. It may have worked out here but that doesn’t mean it always will. It feels like a much more dangerous strategy than the structured way that Marianne has things. Of course with Edward being a very methodical person that should help them find a good middle ground.

Overall, The movie may not have always handled the drama aspects super well at times which is what made this one a bit weaker in some way but at the end of the day it still gets all of the fundamentals right. There are fun Christmas songs here and great scenery throughout the movie. It’s always got a fun vibe and a good amount of replay value because it’s just a nice film to watch on Christmas. Some scenes may make you wince just a little bit with the romance but you’re still in for a good time. I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a fun Christmas title. It’s just solid fun.

Overall 6/10

The Mistletoe Promise Review

Posted on December 7, 2022 by dreager1

The Christmas movies that Hallmark generates are always a lot of fun. They know exactly what they have to do in order to succeed and you’re always in for a very consistent experience. Well this one is no exception and I like the general idea behind the film. The idea of faking a relationship in order to get through some kind of event may not be new but it’s always very interesting.

We start off by being introduced to Nick who is in the running to become a partner at the law firm he works at. This is a really big deal and he’s been working towards this for quite a while now but the catch is that this firm is very family oriented. If you have a girlfriend or even better, a wife then your odds of being promoted are great. So Nick quickly tells his boss that he does in fact have a girlfriend and promises to bring her over for the big party at the end of the year.

Meanwhile we’re introduced to Elise who is in a tough spot right now because she divorced her husband but unfortunately never signed the paperwork when getting married so he ended up with half of her company. Unfortunately she tends to get walked all over by this guy in the business deals and she can only watch as he sinks the company into the ground while showing off his new girlfriend. As a result she no longer liked Christmas as this is the period of time where he rubs it in the most. That’s when she meets Nick in an airport and we get to The Mistletoe Promise.

Basically it’s a legally binding agreement where they will pretend to dating so Nick can get the promotion and in the meantime she can also parade him around the office to get back at her ex. In theory it’s a win win and of course one of the rules here is that nobody will catch feelings for the other. That’s the most important rule because without it the whole thing falls apart in an instant. So they better not let that happen…right? After all that would just wreck everything….

Of course you know that they’re going to fall for each other but you’re really hoping that somehow they won’t for most of the film. It would be a really brilliant ending if they actually stuck to the script and then went their separate ways after a while. Close experiences can certainly bring people together but you like to think that sometimes they wouldn’t magically see each other in that light and would keep it moving. If anything that would be particularly inspired and I would definitely be a fan of that. Ah well.

In general I wouldn’t say it’s a very strong romance but the film is able to do well either way. For starters the writing here is good so there is some fun banter and the characters have a good time beyond the romance. It’s always nice to make a new friend once you’re a grown up like that so it’s good that they each found a friend during this tough time. Nick still shouldn’t have lied to his boss though and I was glad that Elise basically said this to him a few times.

The company seemed really good and the boss was particularly nice so while this may be a theme Nick doesn’t agree with (Needing to have a family) you don’t get around that with deception. Also while that was the talk of the town, it didn’t seem like this was a hard and fast rule. Yes it’s possible that Nick wouldn’t have gotten the job but you still have to play this straight and give it your best shot without all the tricks.

Beyond that Nick seemed like a nice guy though. He tried hard to help everyone out when he has a case and his secretary appreciated him. Nick doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who will give anyone a raw deal. He may have not made all of the right choices here but for the most part he was reasonable and worked well as the main guy. He was also able to stand up for himself and talk tough to the Ex who was messing with Elise.

That’s the one aspect that huts Elise a lot which is that she doesn’t really stick up for herself. At best she will say something passive aggressive but at the end of the day she just sits there and lets the guy do whatever he wants. That’s not the right way to handle this situation. She still owns 50% of the company so I want to see her do something about it. Block some of his initiatives or launch some of her own to tie up the funds. Doing anything would be better than just sitting there and allowing all of this to happen. She was just way too timid the whole time and it could be really grating.

When she is in her role as Nick’s fake girlfriend she does well in throwing slight digs in at the opponent and really getting into the role but I wanted to see her use some of that strength in her personal life as well. Sometimes you do need to stick up for yourself and I just felt that she wasn’t really doing much of that over here. It puts her below most of the heroines in these Hallmark titles even if she was a very capable businesswoman otherwise. It’s easy to see how she got so jaded about love but it also means that you have even less reason to believe that she would fall in love again so quickly. That’s always the one weakness of the Hallmark films so it’s good that every other aspect is so good that it can still bounce back.

After all one thing the films never disappoint in is that they leave you feeling good. The movies have a very happy vibe about them and the ending is always satisfying. Things just work out and and you always get a lot of great scenery and backdrops throughout. This may not be one of the most ambitious titles out there but it has a fun plot and execution so I have no significant issues with it. I could certainly recommend it to anyone looking for some Christmas cheer.

Overall, The Mistletoe Promise is a solid film. It reminds you that just because you sign something saying you won’t have feelings for someone, doesn’t mean they won’t happen. When you develop those feelings it can be just about impossible to stop them and sometimes it can be impossible to predict them either. The more time you spend the more likely this could happen but don’t expect it to be so fast and perfect like in the movies. Ultimately it’s why an agreement like this would be risky in real life and either way there is no benefit as long as you aren’t trying to trick your boss. Honesty ends up being the best policy once more.

Overall 7/10

12 Dates of Christmas Review

Posted on December 7, 2022 by dreager1

Time travel in my Christmas movie? That’s a great way to drum up some hype right from the jump because I like any kind of premise that involves messing with time a bit. The film’s going with rules similar to Groundhog Day where the main heroine is trapped in a spell sort of like Itachi’s Izanami. She must continue to relive the same day until she meets some kind of condition. Usually this involves learning a lesson about yourself but you never really know until you complete the objective. It makes for a fun film for sure.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Kate who is rather rude to everyone. She has not been having a fun time at all. Her father and step mom have set her up with a blind date but Kate has made plans to meet up with her Ex to try and win him back so she’s got a busy day coming up. There’s also the Christmas dinner with her folks but Kate figures she’ll ace everything. Unfortunately she is knocked out at the mall as she gets sprayed right in the face and when she wakes up she is in the loop. No matter how good or bad the day goes she keeps getting reset all the way back to the beginning of the day. How can she escape this loop and will she begin to find the faults with herself?

From the start you can see how Kate has a ton of issues so it makes sense that she would be getting a whole lot of character development here. She is rude to her next door neighbor, doesn’t take her friend’s advice seriously, is mean to her step mom for no reason, blows off the blind date, and then tries too hard with an ex who has moved on. So there is an absolute mess of things that she has to get right and of course this should sound like Groundhog Day. You start off by having fun with the whole thing going the path you think is right, then you try to fix everything, then you stop caring, and eventually you land on the right path.

In Groundhog Day I believe they said he spent thousands of cycles in the town which sounds crazy. For Kate she is around a whole lot of times but I would guess 30-40 max as opposed to it being such a long time so at least she doesn’t get as depressed. No matter how fun the day is though, eventually you will reach your limit because the repetition would just be too much. With your progress being reset each time as well it’s not like you could even try to win the lotto or something. I would probably use the time to start learning a new language or some kind of knowledge that would transfer over but that assumes that you haven’t lost hope in getting out of there in the first place anyway.

It’s also rough when you feel like you’ve done everything perfectly and still get looped. At that point do you just try harder and harder or do you give up? It would feel weird to try and do things exactly the same way again but at the same time you want to help people so you don’t want to just forget to help them in one loop. So in a way that means that the final loop where she gets out will usually not be quite as good as one of the failed ones. If you could control where you could end the loop then that would be perfect but of course it would be a little too convenient.

There are just so many possibilities when going through the scenarios as well so it’s hard to know where to even begin. We see all of the ripple effects when she just stops to talk to one different person. Then you also have to pretend that you aren’t tired of eating the same thing over and over again which has to be tough as well. Now there is one side effect of all this time travel which makes the romance one of the weakest ones I’ve seen in a bit. So we know that Kate is obsessed with getting back together with Jack. She tries this many times but ultimately realizes that it’s too late.

No matter what she does or how nice she is, he will always end up proposing to his new girlfriend. It makes sense, they’ve been split together for a very long time and he is serious about this girl, going back to Kate now would just make him look bad. That said, when Kate inevitably falls for Miles you can’t help but feel like it’s a rebound. He was absolutely the second choice. If in any loop Jack had actually said yes to her and gone back with her then she would not have given Miles the time of day.

Any time there’s a rebound romance I can’t say that it was a good one so this holds her back big time. There’s just no getting around that one. As for Miles, I had some issues with him as well. So this guy lost his wife fairly recent, I remember it was no longer than a few years max and I think they may have even just said it was a year ago. Either way he said it’s too tough to be alone at Christmas so that’s why he is looking around. A blind date feels desperate from the jump but fine we’ll roll with it.

In one loop Kate convinces him to skip the blind date and go out with her. He does after a mild amount of convincing and then they connect in another loop when she is undercover. The guy seems desperate for companionship by anyone. Sure, it’s her in each loop but he doesn’t know that she is the same person so that’s another reason why this romance would falter. At the end of the day he gave his word that he would be around for the blind date so skipping it so quickly like that isn’t a good look. He also has a tendency to take everything quite hard and then run off.

I don’t blame him on most occasions but once in a while he dashes off quickly like when Kate brought up her ex at the dinner table during one of the final loops. Kate’s ex Jack seemed reasonable at least. He didn’t fall for any of Kate’s traps and rejected her in every timeline. While he may have moved on to another romance rather quickly, at least he wasn’t going to backpedal. Once he made his decision then that was it. Meanwhile there was a nice guy named Toby who did his best as he waited at the diner but ultimately the girl never showed up. So it’s a bit of a tragic route for him but Kate helps him out in the end. That romance is even more rushed and doesn’t work but the film doesn’t give it much screen time anyway. If you’re desperate enough to go on a blind date then I guess you just hope that it works out.

This movie is definitely at its best when it is having fun with the premise and just going all out with the loops. It’s fun to see the main character slowly get more and more advanced in how much she knows and how to maneuver around the world. You’d think that you would quickly pick up on a lot of things when you live through the day over and over again like this. The movie’s pacing is good and the writing is solid. At most you could just say that Kate is a little too mean at first. She’s completely unlikable and you’d think that she was Scrooge the whole time.

It’s fortunate that she had the loops to protect her because otherwise she completely burns some bridges during the loops. Even before she gives up Kate is just so selfish and only caring about herself that she really makes life rough for the others. At one point during the film I felt like she was trying to ruin Christmas for everybody that she possibly could. Definitely not ideal main character behavior.

Overall, The 12 Dates of Christmas is a fun film. I always like films about a time loop since the premise is just so much fun. Who hasn’t thought about going back in time for a redo? If I had rolled a different way back in the Smash 4 days I could have made it to Tokyo and won the big tournament. It’s impossible not to think about things like that once in a while and the film gives you a chance to really visualize it. I’d definitely recommend checking this one out.

Overall 7/10

Call of the Night

Posted on December 3, 2022 by dreager1

Vampires? Yeah it’s always hard to make a really good adventure revolving around that element and this title is no exception. We’ve got the usual blood sucking here but additionally there aren’t a lot of hype characters to try and counter this. The main guy/heroine definitely aren’t particularly likable yet. If you have an excellent plot like Records of a Fallen Vampire then perhaps you can make it but otherwise you’re in for a tough time. If we start getting a bunch of action scenes then this title may end up improving but for now it feels like it won’t be able to get beyond the premise. I’ll have a review for the series up once I’ve completed it.

Overall 2/10

The Craft Review

Posted on November 30, 2022 by dreager1

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

When I hear the term “The Witching Hour” I think of Football since they use that term every week on Red Zone when the games are entering the final quarter. I don’t watch a whole lot of movies about witches either so I don’t hear it in this context as much. Well in the end that may be a good thing because this one’s not very good. The characters are all pretty bad for the most part and any scene involving a witch initiation or ceremony tends to drag on quite a bit. This one did not end up being a winner.

So the movie starts with Sarah moving into town and it looks like this place is filled with creeps so she’s going to have a hard time fitting in. One guy seems to like her but it quickly becomes apparent that he’s just using her and does the same to all the newcomers. This drives Sarah into the arms of the 3 witch outcasts at the school. They believe that Sarah is the person needed to complete their quartet so they add her to the initiation and begin their spellcasting. At first things seem harmless enough like little coincidences or love spells but then the 3 girls start getting more and more extreme about using their magic to hurt others and have a good time. Sarah wants out but much like a gang…once you’re in there is no way out. Can Sarah stop these 3 or is it game over?

One thing I’ll give the film props for is that it does cover a lot of ground. Keep in mind that at first Sarah isn’t part of the clique so gradually she joins them, then they all explore their abilities, then they see how these powers are causing damage to people, then they become cool with this, and then they turn evil and go after Sarah. So there’s a whole lot of turnarounds going on here and the film does a reasonable job of giving each section time to breathe. As I mentioned earlier it only really drags on during the witch ceremonies.

We don’t need to see them huddled in a circle chanting to the winds or forming blood pacts. Those were dated when they first came out and you feel like Sarah is really letting them take her down the dark side here without much resistance for a while. They are cool with just stealing books from the local witch expert and while Sarah doesn’t steal anything, just hanging out with these guys is a bad look.

Because if you keep being friends with people who are criminals then to an extent it seems like you are condoning it right? You have to take a firm stand against such things if you really want to make a difference. Sarah just gets in a bit too deep here and it feels like the film wouldn’t have even started if she didn’t hang out with these girls. Now you don’t want to judge them on the reputation of course so it’s good Sarah didn’t buy that but once she saw that they were actually not good people then it was time to cut out.

Sarah isn’t exactly blameless in this whole debacle either though. She casts a love spell on Chris, the guy who messed with her in the intro and apparently it’s basically permanent and can’t be turned off. From there he really goes off the deep end with how obsessive he is over her to the point where he becomes dangerous. She finds this amusing at first and disturbing later on but doesn’t take a very active role in trying to remove the spell.

There is one lady named Lirio who at least knows about witches and can maybe help to an extent but surprisingly she ends up doing nothing in this film. She gets to talk tough and come up with ideas but Sarah runs out of there before they can properly try out the spell. I think Sarah should have stood her ground there since maybe they could have fought off the 3 witches together but I guess we’ll never know from there.

Throughout the film they explain that Sarah is a prodigy in magic so you’re waiting for her big power moment but this isn’t quite Shonen Jump so that doesn’t get to happen. Would have been really cool though. Sarah still does get her clutch moments in the end though and we do get a witch battle by the end. Sarah gets to confront all 3 witches and shows them what true power really is. I appreciated having some action at the end.

The ending of the film is also quite solid with Sarah really laying down the law. It’s not quite sequel bait but you know if there was another film that Sarah would be in good shape now. These other 3 won’t be able to do much against her anymore. So in the end I wasn’t big on Sarah’s character but at least she ends well. Bonnie and Rochelle were played up as if they were going to be sympathetic characters for a while there so I was definitely surprised when they went into full villain mode. It wasn’t a bad decision, the film subverted my expectations in a solid way there. These two didn’t really plan things out very well but at least they were following some kind of path.

Nancy was definitely the main villain of the group in the end though and was certainly the most ambitious. She probably should have tried a more direct way of taking Sarah down before it was too late though. Beating around the bush just put her in a tough spot here and gave time for Sarah to get her bearings. The way the witch powers work here is typically more mental than physical like messing around in the dreams but when push comes to shove you can also use telekinetic abilities. There isn’t much in the way of defense though so if they all ganged up on Sarah and just beat her up there would not have been much of a counter to that.

Overall, The Craft wasn’t really my cup of tea. The witch ceremonies drag on a whole lot and the main characters just aren’t very likable. There’s a super random scene with a guy and his snake that pops out of nowhere but for an instant opens up the door to some interesting plot threads. I thought things were going to go in a different direction with some kind of shady group showing up and the main characters having to team up. The 3 witches actually being evil by the end was unexpected and could have worked but ultimately just didn’t take this title to the next level.

Overall 2/10

Tangled Review

Posted on November 5, 2022 by dreager1

It’s been a little while since I saw the Tangled movie. It was a pretty solid film and it actually had some real danger with characters getting stabbed and everything. The manga does a good job of readapting the events and so you do get the movie experience here. You won’t get to fully experience the songs of course but if for any reason you can’t find the movie, this will fill you in on the details pretty well.

The story starts by explaining how there was a magical flower that could be used to cure any illness and so this was given to the queen once she had grown ill. As a result her baby Rapunzel inherited this ability through her hair and so she was kidnapped by Gothel who had been using the flower for many years to stay immortal. Gothel would just cut Rapunzel’s hair and be done with it but the power goes away when that happens so her best plan is to trick Rapunzel for the rest of her life into working for Gothel so Gothel can keep using the power to stay young. This plan works out for many years but Gothel was a little too possessive in keeping Rapunzel in the tower.

So one day Rapunzel decides to leave and her opportunity comes when a thief named Flynn barges in with a crown he stole. Rapunzel hides the crown and says that he won’t get it back until he takes her sight seeing around the kingdom and specifically, she wants to see the mysterious lights that go up once a year on her birthday. (Gothel messed up by not giving her a different birthday) Flynn agrees since he wants his crown but as their adventure goes on he learns valuable lessons about friendship and what it means to value someone over normal jewels and riches.

It’s a fairly straight forward story and you can pretty much guess how it plays out but the execution is on point which is the important thing. This is a very low key story but one that will keep you interested. The characters are good and we do still have some danger here as like in the movie Flynn does get stabbed at one point. Gothel makes for a very solid antagonist here. Sure, she may not be the smartest in some ways as she creates a lot of problems for herself but she did keep the ruse up for many years so she gets some props there. She can also fight and isn’t above getting her hands dirty. In some ways that may be the most impressive part of her character.

As for Rapunzel, she is a solid main character. She took matters into her own hands in beating up Flynn and had a nice plan for escaping. While her hiding skills may not be the best, she is able to keep on winning until she gets things right. She’s a very determined character and that’s a good trait to have in any main character. Rapunzel also sticks up for herself when she knows that things aren’t right. When you add that all up I dare say that she is more likable than a lot of the more classic Disney princesses.

Flynn is less heroic than most of the main guys in these Disney adventures but that does mean he gets to learn more lessons. He goes from being someone who will easily betray his friends to someone that Rapunzel can count on. I do think he looks rather unimpressive in the fights though as Gothel easily takes him out and he loses a lot of fights here. He will have the rare moment where he looks tough like when he fought the villains off with his frying pan but that’s about it. Usually it’s still game over for him but he gets some decent banter with Rapunzel.

The art here is okay at best. It’s pretty much what you would expect from a movie tie-in. It’s not going to get the high quality art of a classic ongoing but it does its best to look like the movie so that’s a decent start. Think of this like a Shojo one shot for an artist that’s just starting out. I will say that the paneling is good though and it’s easy to read through the volume. It feels really short by the time you are all the way through it and that’s always a good sign.

One of these days what they should really do is grab one of the movies but instead of ending where the movie ends, just keep on going. Have the series surprisingly become an ongoing where the adventures continue. Now that would be extra interesting and there are a lot of ways that this story could have kept on going naturally. They certainly won’t run out of threats to the Kingdom and having Rapunzel return could make a lot of thieves think about an easy pay day once her powers return. (Because you know that they would!) It could easily be a fun action adventure story.

Overall, Tangled is a very safe manga I would say and that plays to its strengths. It’s very low key and you won’t think about it all that much but at the same time it’s still easily able to achieve a high score because there’s nothing bad about it. It’s just a fun adventure that you read through in no time and have no regrets over. The core story is a solid premise that always works well with good writing. I would recommend reading this manga if you haven’t seen the movie. If you’ve seen the movie then I don’t think there is a whole lot of point to reading the manga but hey if you want to relive the adventure then this is a good way to get a different spin on it. It’s effectively the same but reading will always feel a bit different than watching something.

Overall 7/10

Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea Review

Posted on October 28, 2022 by dreager1

At long last, it’s time to dive in to the aquatic romance drama from a while back. This is quite possibly the most dramatic romance that I’ve seen to date. Just about every episode seems to end with a massive cliffhanger like someone confessing or being (literally) swept away before they can do something. It’s a very interesting show so you’ll stay engaged the whole time and ends up being a solid show for that reason. That said, while there are a lot of romances in the show, I can’t say that I could get behind most of them, but the main romance was on point which is what counts right?

The show introduces us to a world very much like ours except for one big difference, a huge chunk of people live underwater. This started ages ago and so there is a divide between those who live underwater and those who live on the surface. They don’t tend to get along very well but at least the kids are allowed to attend school on the surface. They have Ena which effectively lets them breath and interact as normal but they must stay hydrated by swimming or splashing water on themselves every once in a while or they could dry out and die. It certainly makes everyday life a little trickier.

The surface dwellers are all completely normal while the underwater factions get a bit more supernatural too. See, they serve the Sea God and he is represented by a familiar/high priest who accepts their tokens and free meals in exchange for keeping things peaceful. You get the feeling that the surface dwellers wouldn’t buy into that as much. There is a whole world out there but the series mainly sticks to one village. I found myself wondering how the rest of the planet handles the situations and disasters that come into play later on in the series. I guess there wasn’t much time for that but it would have been interesting.

Now lets get to the main story. We follow a group of kids from underwater, Hikari, Manaka, Chisaki, and Kaname and they’ve always been a very close knit group. They would like for things to stay the same always but with their having to go to school on the surface and growing up that seems impossible. They’re all changing and there is no way to turn the clock back now. They can at least do one last big project together which is to create a Lady Ojoshi doll to celebrate the annual Ofunehiki festival. This used to be an annual thing before there became a lot of bad blood between the two factions of humans.

Having kids from the sea and surface work on this together could help to finally heal the divide but it won’t be easy because Hikari isn’t particularly happy about this. He started off on the wrong foot with the surface characters because a guy named Tsumugu is among them and Hikari’s childhood friend Manaka seems to like him. This is where all of the drama starts. The chain of events seems to be: Kaname likes Chisaki who likes Hikari who likes Manaka who likes Tsumugu. With everyone chasing after someone else, that means almost nobody can have a happy ending here.

This is a very character driven show of course so you can expect a whole lot of development for all of the characters here. The romances are a big factor in the show as well so I’ll talk about each one and how they stack up. The cast is at a decent size here as well but fortunately the series is over 20 episodes as 13 probably wouldn’t have been enough to really handle this one. As it is, you feel like the show did a good job of covering a whole lot of ground and even changing things up with a big time skip midway through the series.

The animation is fairly good here. I wouldn’t call it anything super special but as this isn’t an action series they don’t have to worry about big fight scenes or anything. The backgrounds with the water are on point and that’s what counts. The visuals underwater can be good as well and I liked the ice effects. The show could have a bit of fanservice at times but for the most part stays away from that so you could still call this a classier romance story. Falling into that trap would have been bad for the show.

The soundtrack is really good. In this case the second ending particularly jumps out as it plays early for a few of the cliffhangers and works really well. Whenever you hear the song picking up you know that something big is about to happen. It’s suitably emotional and works really well for the show. I’ve listened to it quite a few times and the normal tunes during the episodes are good enough as well. They really serve to enhance the scenes.

Where the show does particularly well is with the drama. The show takes itself really seriously and it works here. Typically I am more of a comedic romance fan if I have to watch something that’s part romance but everything here was dialed up to 11 and it just worked. The show doesn’t do anything halfway and the drama kept me interested so it succeeded. I’d say that’s a credit to the writing as well as to the strong character cast here. You wouldn’t be able to pull off a romantic drama otherwise which is why the genre is so tough to get right. There are some really annoying characters here but that tends to be intentional. The pacing is good as well but now lets go into the characters in more depth.

Lets talk about Hikari first. As the main character he will be getting a ton of screen time here. Initially he is very headstrong and always getting into fights as he lets his jealousy over Manaka get the best of him time and time again. He’s quick to fight and constantly gets into a lot of trouble. It’s hard to root for him at this point in time because he’s just causing so much damage. It’s also the wrong approach to try and win Manaka over as well.

After the time skip he’s a lot more mature and a much improved character. He definitely did good by that point and does his best to keep everyone on track. He really grew into the leadership role out of the main group of friends and by the end I liked him a good amount. Then you have his best friend Kaname who is much more of a quiet figure. He tends to keep his feelings to himself most of the time and just enjoys being part of the gang. Gradually as he sees everyone else making moves he starts to make his.

Unfortunately while Hikari went up as the series went on, Kaname kept on going down. He started out well as the smart member of the group who always had Hikari’s back but then things started to get rough when he would do whatever it took in order to try and win out in the battle of relationships. This would cause him to put Hikari on the spot and try to stir up trouble. He went way too far at different points and there was no going back for that. It’s quite possibly why his ending isn’t quite as bright as some of the others.

Manaka is the fun heroine here who always has a good time and sees the bright side of things. She’s always a fun character and also gets quite a bit of development as the series goes to the end. I don’t think she stuck out as much as the other main characters as her personality is a bit more simple and she doesn’t have as many big character moments to have to fight through. Still, she is always at the center of things so you will see a lot of her.

Chisaki is Manaka’s best friend but of course she likes Hikari so that makes things a bit tricky. Chisaki is always trying to be the very mature member of the group so in a lot of ways she is like Kaname there. That said, the more you bottle stuff up, the tougher it can be and so she makes the situation a lot tougher on herself. She just isn’t able to voice her feelings as easily as Hikari can. Chisaki certainly has her big moments here and of the 4 characters I would say that she gets the most tragic scenes. You feel worse for her than the other 3 in part because you really know that she’s doomed from the start while for the others you figure that they could possibly have a shot at some point.

Tsumugu is the guy from the land who is here to help out and he at least treats the ocean kids well from the start. You can’t say that about a lot of the other kids who were around. He knows a good amount about the ocean children which makes sense as the series goes on. I like that he has a cool head on his shoulders and doesn’t panic a ton the way the other characters do. Tsumugu calculates every move and then tries to find the ideal outcome. He takes this approach to romance as well and this makes for an interesting approach. I liked him well enough. He may have broken up the main dynamic of the main 4 which left them a little sore but he always meant well and he doesn’t tend to make any big mistakes.

Then we have Miuna and she starts out as a girl who causes a lot of little problems for the heroes but after the time skip she becomes a fairly big character. She likes Hikari but of course that’s a problematic crush there and so you can’t root for her and have to hope that she can get over it. Miuna feels doomed from the start due to this and while the whole thing is sad, you just need her to move on. Beyond that plot she was much improved after the time skip to the point where she could now think up plans to help with the festival and do her best to pull her weight.

Her friend Sayu gets a bit less of a role. She starts studying really hard though and does her best to be a bit of a genius. She tends to also be good at being direct with the other characters like Miuna and isn’t quick to get too discouraged or depressed. Her romance may have some of the least development to it but at the end of the day she has spent years on improving herself and putting herself in the best possible position to land her guy. I appreciate the effort into that.

Lord Uroko is an annoying character though and now he’s someone that you won’t be rooting for. He likes to remind everyone that he is just a scale of the sea god so he can’t do much but he rarely helps the heroes out. He tends to feel like a pawn all the way through but one who makes the wrong decisions. Attacking the heroes was already uncalled for with the ice but then helping with the tidal waves? This guy’s a villain if you ask me and I’m glad that Hikari didn’t give the guy a second thought as he went to save Manaka. Sometimes you just have to go out there and save lives even if the cryptic characters claim that it’ll just make things worse. You can’t listen to them.

Akari is a reasonable character for the most part. She was one of the first to rebel from the village since she liked someone from the surface world. I did not approve of the relationship but I agreed with getting out of the village. Those guys could be a little too dicey at times. She did her best to still mend the relationships with everyone in the meantime. Akari ended up being a very memorable supporting character. More so than her husband Itaru. I was less sold on him and he didn’t feel quite as pro active as she was. He was mostly just around but not doing much of anything.

Atsushi doesn’t have much of a role in the story at all except to be someone who likes Miuna but doesn’t seem to stand a chance. As soon as he appears you figure that he’ll get to do something though. I never really liked him much but his role is so small that you won’t really think about him anyway. Now Tomoru was a very annoying character. This guy is the chief of the village and yet he can never be bothered to actually help Hikari out. Worse than that is the fact that he will get in the way. The old traditions are just too important to him and he takes forever to act. He really needed to have Hikari’s back no matter what and helping out earlier could have also solved some of the issues they all faced ahead of time. By not doing that he just put them in an even deeper hole. He has got to be one of the worst characters in the show.

Now lets talk about the final pairings for the show and I’ll tell you which one(s) worked and which did not. This will of course have spoilers to skip the next 7 paragraphs if you haven’t seen the show yet. This is really about romance and drama so if you know all of the final pairing then it’ll probably take away from your enjoyment a bit. So yeah this is your big warning on skipping it because it’s time to dive right in!

First up we have Hikari + Manaka as the first final pair and this one you will probably have guessed. They’re the main two and the show is about all of the obstacles that get in their way. Hikari openly liked her from the start but it always seemed like Manaka liked Tsumugu so things weren’t working out. It turns out that she didn’t like him in that way and just appreciated having him as a good friend. Some scenes may make you think twice about that but at most I suppose you can write it off as her having a very temporary crush on him when they first met. That said, this is easily the strongest romance of the series.

It’s a romance where both of them were the top option for each other and that’s a good thing. There were no rebounds here and Hikari did try real hard for her. He got rejected several times for moving a bit too quickly and I’m all about slowing things down so that wasn’t bad of Manaka. Ultimately I could give this romance a thumbs up because a lot of time passed and so the relationship developed naturally rather than being rushed. It was a good romance all things considered.

Next up is Chisaki + Tsumugu and this one is definitely a lot weaker. Keep in mind that Chisaki has liked Hikari all this time. Tsumugu wasn’t even on her radar until deeper into the series once the time skip happened and Hikari wasn’t a realistic option anymore. Even then she didn’t want to get together with him because she figured that it just wouldn’t be right but by the end she “settled” for him. Second choices never really work and so naturally this one’s going to get the thumbs down. It’s still a rebound even if it’s slightly less so compared to some of the other romances coming up.

After those two is Kaname + Sayu and this is probably the weakest romance. Kaname was desperately after Chisaki and even played dirty with the other characters to knock Hikari out of the running but in the end she just never ended up liking him in that way. He still likes her by the end of the series and only gives Sayu the hope that one day he will like her. On one hand the pairing doesn’t actually happen yet so perhaps it never will but if it does then it wouldn’t work as another rebound. This romance also gets less screen time than most of the others. At the end of the day you felt like Kaname was probably going to lose out and as the show went on that is what happened. Playing dirty never pays.

Then we’ve got Miuna + Atsushi as another romance that takes a nosedive here. Atsushi likes Miuna a lot but the guy barely gets 10 minutes of screen time in the show. Miuna is flat out not interested because she likes Hikari. Glad that ship didn’t work out but Satoru would be a very obvious rebound if it happens. As with the last ship it was only starting to be set up and hadn’t actually gone through so that gives me a little leeway to not give it the full thumbs down yet.

Akari + Itaru is next up and this one is definitely a full thumbs down. Look, Itaru’s wife died fairly recent given how young their daughter Miuna still is and yet he is now going out with the wife’s best friend Akari? It’s easy to see why Miuna was so upset. It’s an unspoken rule that you never go out with friends and so that was a bad idea. It really didn’t make either character look good and while it’s supposed to be a very emotional moment, I wasn’t buying into it. This was a romance that didn’t really need to happen.

Finally we have the Lady Ojoshi and the Sea God. We get to learn more about this one and it just makes the Sea God look really petty and awful. He broke up a perfectly happy couple on a whim and while Ojoshi tried to be happy it was clear that this was not the case. By this point it’s not like you could take things back and so their relationship ends rather tragically. The Sea God then decides to be petty for the rest of his existence and becomes another one of the worst characters here so that’s definitely not a good look for him. In the end the only romance I actually thought was good was the main one with Hikari and Manaka. The rest of the romances lose out but the show is written well so it’s still a fun adventure.

I’ve mentioned quite a bit about how the writing was good for this show and it’s important because as a non action title you’re really counting on the writing and characters to be on point. Without them there is no way the show could have succeeded. It also made some really bold choices like having the big time skip midway through. Part of why that one was interesting was because only some characters aged as the ones in a coma did not. So that really served to change the dynamics up. A few years may not be too crazy and you could make it work in a relationship but at the same time it is still tough because you know that you missed out on several years of your life.

A lot of the show is about The Ofunehiki festival and creating a Lady Ojoshi. To be honest this tends to be the most dull part of the show relatively speaking as you’re more interested in the interactions than the actual play. It is used to great effect though as tragedies always happen around this festival. You can see why a lot of people don’t even want to do it anymore even if the adults handle it in a very petty way. Hikari really has to handle most of it which is a bad look for the grown ups. The time skip was a good way to show how things have changed for a lot of the characters and not as much for others. It’s almost like having two completely different shows rolled into one. Hikari is still stuck in his season 1 mode but everyone else has changed so much. Even the attitude when doing the festival again was very different for the adults and kids who had aged up. There was a lot less petty fighting and everything this time around as people saw the very real danger from last time but also the bonds that came through it. Still would have been interesting to see more of the outside world and I wonder if the threat was as apocalyptic as Lord Uroko made it out to be. Something tells me that he exaggerated a bit. This wasn’t the point of the show but it still made me interested.

Hikari also gets the best hype moments of the series like when he saved Manaka from the sea god’s trap. The shoe is not generally going for hype but it does have its moments. Due to the drama there will also be times during the show where everyone makes a mistake or two. I don’t think there is a single character here that acted perfectly but at least most of them are likable so it’s cool. Some moments may feel like they’re just here for drama but it just works out. Each episode has some kind of big development and that’s key for this kind of show. There is also some humor but for the most part this is a very serious show. A happy one as well as a sad one but you’re just along for the ride. It’s so eventful you may be tempted to say that it isn’t a slice of life but I think that’s still appropriate.

Overall, A Lull in the Sea is a good how. It’s a very emotional tale about romance and characters having to grow up. They all deal with a lot of drama and issues that pop up because no matter how hard they try, they aren’t able to keep the old dynamics the way they once were. It’s just not possible and the show is really about accepting change. While it may sound a little too dramatic on its surface, the show does a good job of keeping you invested. It just dives in 100% to being a super dramatic show and that really works out. I would recommend this if a drama sounds appealing to you. Then you won’t find ones much better than this title.

Overall 7/10

Lost Song Review

Posted on October 16, 2022 by dreager1

The power of song is definitely not something that you would expect to be the ultimate weapon but this show has characters weaponize it which makes for a pretty interesting story. The show is held back a little bit by rather sub par animation and it feels fairly low budget but at the end of the day the story is good enough to keep this as a good anime. It certainly tricked me a bit on how good I thought one character would look though.

The series starts off by introducing us to a girl named Rin who has the Power of Song. Basically her lyrics can turn into tangible power and so her grandfather forbids her from using this technique. Rin doesn’t get why he won’t even explain his reasoning but mostly agrees but one day while in the forest she runs into a guy named Henry who was attacked by a lot of foes and so she uses her songs to heal him. Unfortunately the villains notice this and burn her village to the ground which destroys her grandfather, sister, and everyone living there. She must now get to the capital and achieve her dream of singing in the choir to at least honor their memories.

Meanwhile in the other plot, Princess Finis has the power of song as well. Unfortunately the army is determined to use this ability in order to win their war. Prince Ruto says he will destroy Henry, the man she loves if Finis does not agree to this. So Finis uses her power to destroy opposing forces and heal their allies but each time she sings, a part of her life is drained away. If she doesn’t stop soon then she will die but how can she get around this hostage situation?

I always like having dual main characters so that you can eventually see the two meet up in a climactic moment. That appeal is lessened a bit in this show since it’s not a full action but either way you still want to see them meet up. The show is rather low key for the most part but things change in episode 7 and then the show kicks it up to another level. That moment is so good that it single handily elevates the show and from there we get some time travel shenanigans and alternate timeline routes which is great. It gets complex like Kingdom Hearts with a lot to think about but it works out really well.

As mentioned, one weak point of the show is the animation though. Sometimes it feels like they pretty much ran out of animation and so characters will barely move and the fights leave a lot to be desired. This show doesn’t look very good even if it occasionally has some decent shots. One that looked pretty bad though was one character burning to death but he looks just fine and you would almost think that he was casually tanking it if not for yelling. With the fight scenes being no good as well there just isn’t much to catch your eye.

The soundtrack isn’t all that memorable aside from the Song of Mortality which is really on point. It is fun how characters will just break into song though. It feels like an old Disney cartoon in that sense with how out of the blue it is. You’re definitely not going to see it coming. The first time it happens it will take you by surprise but in a good way. If it was overdone then it wouldn’t be good but I’d say that it works out well enough.

The most annoying character in the show is definitely Prince Ruto. For starters, he’s your classic prince who is using Finis and Henry the whole time but they don’t mess with him because he’s the prince. I always thought that was an annoying plot because they should just take him out. I never like it when the hero just holds back because of their station or because they don’t want to cause an uproar. This guy is actively murdering Finis by forcing her to sing so all bets should be off and you just stop him. Likewise Finis could take him out and then his threats on Henry wouldn’t work anymore.

The show makes Finis and Henry look really bad on this note though. They know that the guy is super evil. He hasn’t been subtle in this with the threats and forcing Henry onto the front lines. Yet, when Corte tells them that they should escape, they look shocked. They’re absolutely flabbergasted when she starts talking about just how corrupt he is. Then later on Prince Ruto summons a bunch of guards and asks Henry to come with him to his tent. Henry suspects absolutely nothing and walks in there without a care in the world. It was one of the most bizarre scenes I’ve watched in a long time. It’s like the writers left a bunch of scenes on the drawing board to explain why he wouldn’t suspect the obvious villain. Something wasn’t right here.

I did like Henry well enough in the show and he was my favorite character until Finis reached in and snatched that title by the end. Henry’s a good guy who is a soldier and is willing to risk his very life to protect his friends. There’s just one problem I have with him aside from being super naive and being an awful tactician. He is really weak. This is what took me by surprise by the way. Henry loses a whole lot in this show. He starts off episode 1 by losing to the enemy fighters but I figured it was a fluke. From there he is easily kidnapped on multiple occasions, loses every fight to the villainous Bazra until someone else has to literally fly him into the guy, and he doesn’t get any solid wins in the show.

The rough part is the show acts as if this guy is a super strong prodigy fighter but we never see that. The show definitely made some questionable decisions and this had to be one of the big ones. Then the supporting cast is a big weak here. We have Doctor Weissen as the quirky scientist character but there’s not much to him. It’s great that he was able to invent some good items but at the end of the day I wouldn’t say that he did much. There are several allies who follow Rin in order to help her but two of them don’t really contribute.

They are Monica and Allu. Monica is a girl who falls asleep whenever she is in danger. Yes that’s her entire gimmick here and it’s not a good one. Then there is Allu who has the amusing gimmick or hitting her legs like a drum whenever she talks but beyond that doesn’t have a whole lot of character. I really think the show could have left these two behind and kept the core hero group a little smaller which would have worked out better.

Finis has one ally in Corte but unfortunately she isn’t a great strategist just like Henry. She figures she can poison Prince Ruto but keep in mind that the guy knows she can’t stand him since she works directly for Finis. So one night an attendant is bringing Prince Ruto a drink and Corte quickly grabs a poisonous one. Okay this is brilliant, switch them out and the attendant will bring Ruto the wrong one right? Wrong! Corte says she wants to bring it herself and that’s where the plan died. Why would Prince Ruto accept a drink from her now of all times? Then she’s not subtle in staring him down to the point where he asks why she is so interested in him drinking this wine. It’s clear that she doesn’t usually act like this and that’s too many mistakes to come back from. She meant well but handled this really badly.

I’d also say that Rin’s grandfather Talgia didn’t handle his side of things very well. He should have just told Rin that if she used her powers then the army would come to kidnap her since they are kidnapping all users of the power of song. That’s it, just give that quick explanation and at least the odds of Rin listening go up dramatically. By acting like he just didn’t like songs and not giving a reason, it made him look completely unreasonable.

Now lets talk about the characters who were a lot more on the solid side. First up is General Bazra who is actually a really solid villain. He also uses Finis in order to attack the other armies but is a lot more strategic about it. He isn’t just randomly being petty and super evil but is doing it strategically in order to win. He has his reservations about her and is always on guard but in general he does well. It helps that I gained respect for his fighting ability every time he beat Henry over and over again. That’s not easy after all but he made it look easy.

Then we have Rin’s friend Goodlight. She’s a travelling singer and can be a little selfish with how she doesn’t want to pay for her room but as the series goes on she is a nice character who helps the heroes out. She is always ready to fight which is a good thing and really comes in clutch. Her fighting abilities may not be enough to get them out of trouble most times but it is a good start and the kids would be in trouble without her.

Rin’s best friend here is Al and he’s not really my kind of character ordinarily but I thought he did a good job of holding it together. When he gets emotional he breaks off from the group so that they won’t notice and while his inventions aren’t very good at the start, he does contribute later on. He definitely had a rough path in the show but did about as good as you could reasonably expect him to without any super powers that he could use.

As for Rin, she’s a decent main character but definitely a lot less interesting than Finis. Rin wants to sing as it was her dream but the dream doesn’t really feel like a big deal compared to most. With her village burning down, you’d almost think that she would be on a quest for revenge or something like that. Maybe it’s for the best that she didn’t go that route but singing still feels like it would be really low on her list of priorities.

Her songs are quite strong though and it is fortunate that she is able to keep on singing without losing her life force the way that most do. Rin gets a lot of big moments as the series goes on. The way her character arc ends isn’t particularly satisfying but at the end she made the hard calls and was a trooper throughout. I just think there should have been more to her character. There’s not much you can say about her beyond the fact that Rin was a good person and that’s more of a statement than a whole personality.

Finally we’re up to Finis and I have a very high opinion on her character. Now she didn’t start out great. At first she is rather clumsy, naïve, and tends to get into trouble. She may be a royal but she doesn’t really know much of what is going on around her. She is super popular and everyone looks up to her but she isn’t really able to leverage this into political power because of her lack of experience.

So at the start it’s annoying because she lets the prince do whatever he wants with her. This all changes in episode 7 and from there on she becomes a great character. I’m now going to get into spoiler territory here so if you haven’t seen the show then you can skip the next 6 paragraphs but it involves timelines and such which is always way too much fun not to talk about. So again this is your last chance and I’ll see you at the ending.

In episode 7 Finis is tricked into murdering Henry via being burned to death. She wasn’t able to react quickly enough to dowse him with water but in part this is also because she ran out of songs. This was the last one that she could use and now she would die. At least…that’s what everyone had said and Finis believed this as well. Desperate times call for desperate measures though and she decides to sing the Song of Mortality. This is a song that will cause doom and devastation and Finis intentionally uses it on a global scale to try and destroy the world. It’s her last big revenge against everyone who has wronged her.

The whole plot of the show changes a bit from this. Finis succeeded in a sense but the song also granted her complete invincibility. Now she has to live through life over and over again and each time it ends she wakes up in a new timeline. Each timeline is similar to the first but different in some ways. In one of them Henry became a scholar for example. But no matter how many times she lives, dies, and repeats she can never be happy. It seems like it just never works out for her. So her plan is to find a timeline similar to the original one but this time she will sing the song while being powered by the choir and can destroy everything absolutely. This can break the chain of immortality and put her at peace.

The plan isn’t foolproof because it’s possible that her immortality just can’t be broken but it’s a plan at least and so I suppose you’ve got to go with that. She has to cling on to some kind of hope at this point because otherwise living out countless lives while never being able to age or die is rough. It doesn’t help that people are corrupt in every timeline and always try to attack her. She also found out that her abilities didn’t have a limit and now she can freely use them to attack others. She puts this to good use in working for the villains as a means to an end.

Therein lies the main twist which is that the timeline we’ve been following was not the original but the latest one which is why there were two of her. The original timeline failed a long time ago, it reminds me of Eden Zero where they do something similar. I do like the idea that for once the original timeline wasn’t the chosen one or anything like that. We’re in a whole new one at this point and in a sense it’s the final one if her plan doesn’t work. Finis makes for a great villain, much better than as a hero. She was a lot of fun to root for as a capable opponent for the heroes.

Realistically if she went all out then they would have been doomed from the jump so don’t expect a real fight. It’s more of a conversation with hope and all. Rin also gets a big role to play but that’s why the ending of the show is no good. It turns out Rin was a song and so she ends up dying at the end to bring Finis back to full power as her role was over. It’s not the ideal ending and you were hoping that she would just come back to life. Instead, she is reborn as a baby where she can now grow up. Of course this means that Al is out of luck since their romance isn’t going to happen now.

This is the only part of the loop that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Rin ended up being the baby in the timeline she came from that wouldn’t have been possible. Song or not, the age of the event wouldn’t have added up. Perhaps there is an essay somewhere to explain it but I definitely thought that was a little on the sketchy side. The show tried a little too hard to make everything interconnected with lots of twists and such there. This time they probably just should have let that one go.

Overall, Lost Song is a fun show. It starts off a bit quiet but the second half is on point. Episode 7 is the turning point of the show and where things get good. The Song of Mortality scene is easily the highlight of the whole anime and you won’t soon forget the music or the animation there. On the whole the show doesn’t look or sound like anything special but they put out all of the stops. The ending may not be very good but it’s also not awful so it’s not going to completely derail the show or anything like that. I’d recommend checking this show out if you want to see a fun music based title. It’s only 12 episodes so it won’t take long.

Overall 7/10

Earthchild Review

Posted on October 15, 2022 by dreager1

I remember all the hype this series got when it was first announced. It was going to be the next big title, a really great superhero story that was also part romance between an ordinary guy and the super talented heroine. Well, the series swerved that premise right off the bat in chapter 1 and it felt like the series never recovered. Now I got to binge the whole series so my experience may be different than someone reading weekly but I can get why the route the series ended up taking wasn’t as exciting. It was fairly different than I had expected even knowing the twist. It’s a good series but I can definitely see why it was cancelled, you can only bait and switch the audience so many times.

The series starts off by introducing us to Reisuke who is a super average guy in every way. That’s his complete character personality but then one day he is saved by a superhero. She quickly erases his memory and goes back to saving the world but for some reason he is still able to remember her. Why? Because he has fallen in love! The power of love is able to negate the memory erasure and so after trying again the heroine decides to let Reisuke hang out with her. Her name is Kareri and she’s never been able to open up to anyone before. Since her life is so crazy and full of danger, being with someone ordinary like Reisuke puts her at peace. They decide to have a kid together…and then she dies stopping a meteor from hitting the Earth. Now Reisuke will have to raise their child by himself.

So of course this is the big switch that nobody wanted. Everyone was hoping for a fun story about a couple raising their kid and a lot of adventures from there. It would almost be something like Spy X Family at least on the surface level but very different with the superhero angle. Well, that’s out the window and chapter 1 ends with Reisuke realizing that he now holds the worlds future in his hands. The writing for the series is awful like this whole line when his wife just died but we’ll go into that later.

The series quickly changes gears because a chapter or two later we find out that Kareri is still alive but trapped in stone. So yeah the plot’s changing again. The actual plot of the series is that Reisuke has to find a way to get into space and save her but to do this, he will have to teach Mamoru (Who is still a baby) how to control his powers. So lets get into the lore here. Kareri was an “EarthChild” which is why she had superpowers. This just randomly happens to people of Earth where occasionally they’ll be born with powers.

How occasionally is “occasionally?” well, there have only been a small handful of these types in the last few decades. There can only be one primary Earthchild at a time and they are given their powers to save the Earth from a world ending threat. It is then their destiny to die against this threat and the power moves onto someone else. If the user somehow survives past their allotted time then they will naturally start to lose their powers as the next user gets it. So one of the themes here is people telling Reisuke not to save his wife since he will be defying destiny. If he listened to them then he would be an F rank main character so fortunately he doesn’t.

The series is 27 chapters long and this plot takes close to 20 chapters. We then get a final arc that’s about 5 chapters long but lets talk about this saga some more because I think it’s probably where the series doomed itself. This is already far too many plot changes. Usually you need to have some kind of focus before you get into the next arcs but the author didn’t really seem to plan things out all that much.

It also feels like the chapters go in circles a whole lot. For example, at one point Reisuke takes their kid Mamoru over to space to save Kareri but then he realizes that Mamoru wouldn’t recognize her in the stone. So they head back to Earth and waste some time talking to her parents where we get a whole subplot about how their memories were removed. We then head back into space again and here’s where the ping pong starts. Reisuke goes outside to save her but…he fails so he has to head back to the station. Then he goes out to save her again and succeeds, but dies in the process as she wakes up. Then she risks her life to save him and fails so she goes back to the space station. Then she goes back out again to stop a new thread and Reisuke comes back to life and helps her out.

It’s a really long sequence of repetitive steps before the arc is over. A lot of these were for big cliffhangers to make you think that one of them really was going to die but that never felt very likely. Why introduce the twist of her still being alive if she was going to die right? What took us past chapter 20 should have only lasted until around chapter 10-15. There was just a lot of unnecessary steps here like failing the mission only to try again in 2 chapters and succeed this time. There wasn’t a lot of point to that.

After a while I thought that the series would just end with this arc. I’m glad it didn’t since the final arc is a bit more exciting. I never became a big fan of any of the characters either. There was one that I liked at least but for the most part the others could be annoying a lot of the time and it’s hard to succeed without great characters. Lets start off with the main character Reisuke.

His gimmick of being totally ordinary gets old fast but the guy also whines a whole lot. He cries in almost every chapter since he wishes that he could be stronger and often makes the wrong call like putting power inhibitors on his kid before realizing how crazy that is. Then he runs towards death on multiple occasions before being pulled back by the other characters who remind him that dying would be bad for his kid. They have to remind him of this numerous times. The reason Reisuke takes these risks is he gives up on controlling Mamoru’s powers and wants his kid to have fun even if it means dying in the process. That’s just not a very good option.

Almost every chapter will have him giving up before someone gives him a speech about how great he is and then he gets up to get the job done. I figure this must be what it’s like for people who watch CW’s The Flash. Yeah Reisuke ends up saving the day in the end but a lot of the time it’s cheesy. Remember that time he actually died? There is never an explanation given for how he is able to come back to life aside from his love for his family.

Apparently this love is so strong that even death cannot claim him which is…..not a great explanation. Everyone also respects this guy a whole lot considering how he’s always breaking rules and causing a fuss. One character who slaps him ends up thinking of him as a very mature hero by the end. Nobody can stay mad at this guy. I like some of his qualities though. I like that he’s determined to save his wife no matter what. I think he can come up with good ideas sometimes (Rarely) and that he is determined.

These are all great qualities but the way he executes them can be awful. There are several times he basically decides to go no a suicide mission because he figures it’s better than doing nothing so the other characters have to remind him that it is worse than doing nothing since he has a kid to look after. Eventually they talk him down and come up with a real plan each time. There’s also one moment where he takes off his helmet in space and it’s supposed to be an emotional moment but you just wonder how he’s not dead yet.

The author is actually bold enough to claim that taking your helmet off in deep space may not destroy you and cited some scientific paper about a one time exception that supposedly happened in real life. I didn’t bother googling that so maybe it’s legit but I have my doubts. The romance here is also really cringe at times but I’ll get into that more later. Needless to say, I wasn’t very impressed by this guy.

Then we have Kareri as the main heroine. I think she could have been a lot cooler as well. Her character arc is fairly classic as she used to be super cold and efficient at her job but after meeting Reisuke and falling in love with him her whole life started to revolve around him. She couldn’t help but talk about him nonstop, she was a lot nicer while being a hero and she gets flustered whenever someone brings him up. Pretty much all her scenes with Reisuke have one of them closing their eyes in embarrassment or covering their eyes because they can’t handle this.

I think we should have seen more of Kareri’s actual missions before getting together with Reisuke. That’s probably the riskiest thing about having them get together in the very first chapter. Yes there are some time skips so it’s not like they immediately got married but since it’s off screen it feels like we didn’t get to know the cold version of her. So when we learn about how she used to be a lot more serious through exposition and the occasional flashback, it doesn’t hit as hard.

Her powers are also kept rather vague. Basically all Earthchildren have the same ability which is telekinesis and it seems to be just strong enough to accomplish whatever goal they need to. It just seems inconsistent as sometimes she is really strong and other times she isn’t. It’s clear that this isn’t an action series with how none of this is thought through all that much. I guess just roll with it as it’s not too important and it’s not like there are any traditional supervillains either.

The main supporting character from the government is Yuma and he’s an agent of Waste. (Yes that’s the main organization’s name so Reisuke can’t help but make a pun about Trash later on) Their job is to watch over the Earthchild and ensure that he/she is able to complete the mission. In the first chapter this guy is ruthless and almost insanely aggressive as he starts to force Reisuke to lose his memories and is tossing out insults left and right.

Then Reisuke gives a speech and he immediately switches up to being more of a soft spoken nice guy. It’s such a dramatic shift that even Reisuke comments on this. For the rest of the series Yuma is actually the encouraging member who tells Reisuke to believe in his marriage and drive to save Kareri. He’s all on board for helping people and making Waste less of a shady organization. It’s all just such a drastic character change that they should have removed his role in the first chapter. We even get a flashback from his POV for chapter 1 later to do some damage control but I wasn’t buying it.

There are two next door neighbors from Waste in Todoroki and Kasuya but even though they’re introduced as if they will become big characters, they don’t get to do much. Maybe they would have been bigger if the series had kept on going. They seem decent enough even if they’re trying to get Reisuke to give up his kid as well. These guys are definitely relentless that’s for sure.

Now for the first character who is actually rather solid we have Albert. His gimmick is that he thinks the world is one big adventure and that makes him the main character of the story. He believes that he is the true main character but to a lesser extent everyone else is the main character of their stories. He has some very minor abilities which were used as a big cliffhanger but after that he never looks as impressive with them again. He is mainly here to give Reisuke some encouragement when he’s feeling down but at least he is actually convincing with it.

I can actually get behind this guy and root for him. He wants to help people out too but isn’t as wishy washy as Reisuke is. Albert also has the saddest character backstory in the series by far. I have to say that his brother was also a terrific character and I would say he’s the best in the series if we count him. The guy only appears for a chapter after all but he was great. That’s definitely the right way to complete your mission and defy destiny.

After that we’re introduced to Maromi who is on the space station and she’s a super whiny character. She literally writes in a journal about how Earthchildren are unfair because they can do whatever they want and she has to work hard to succeed. Maromi has barely met any of them and is still so jealous the whole time. You can understand why she is jealous to an extent but it’s a terrible first impression when that is her whole focus for her first chapter. Couldn’t she have had some positive character traits to balance that out? She never ended up growing on me but don’t worry, she gives Reisuke a pep talk later on as well.

That about wraps up the character cast from that arc. So lets head onto the final arc now which is really rushed but it’s interesting. So of course Reisuke saved Kareri and they were now at peace so we get a time skip of around 6 years. Mamoru is older now and can use his powers. They’ve also figured out that Reisuke is an amplifier with the power of love. Physical contact with his family makes their powers stronger and likewise the farther away he is, the weaker they get. So he has to be around at all times and the 3 of them stop threats together. One person doesn’t like this though…Earth.

Earth appeared earlier briefly but the planet takes the form of a high school girl as its avatar. Basically she explains to Reisuke that he’s getting in the way since she controls destiny and Kareri was supposed to die. This is the scene where she keeps murdering him but he keeps reviving because of the power of love. So she returns for vengeance and is once again trying to murder him. The climax of the series is the 3 characters fighting Earth but they have to be careful because if they destroy Earth….well they’ll have destroyed Earth.

That said, she’s shown to be far above them so that’s not much of an option anyway. She can cause natural disasters on a whim and her avatar is for visual purposes but can’t really be hurt anyway. Earth also points out that she has time on her side and can attack 24/7 for years and years until they die from exhaustion. Realistically I don’t see them being able to fight for more than 3 hours nonstop with how much power she had. Of course this leads to the power of love and the climax is…a family meeting at the dinner table with Earth invited.

It’s a very cheesy ending but I was expecting it since the series is all about sitting down and chatting. Earth was also shown to be way too powerful to be stopped. Regardless I did like the arc because it was interesting to have Earth itself as the main villain. I thought that she was a very fun villain. The whole thing is a bit contrived though because you can’t tell me that she couldn’t have found a way to bump Reisuke off during those 6 years. Just have a big piece of hail randomly fall down while he’s walking one day or an Earthquake happen to murder him. There are plenty of opportunities given how many powers she has.

I also like how the lollipop she is always eating is a mini version of Earth. Just a stylistic thing that’s kind of fun. So that’s the series in a nutshell and as you can see I had quite a few problems with it. It also has that annoying tendency to have someone narrate from the future the whole time. The narrator is confirmed early on to be their kid Mamoru. You can see why this is bad right? It confirms that he survives the first arc since he’s talking from the future and we even flashback to the future a few times. From the way the dialogue goes we can also confirm that at least the father dies but with just a little bit of analysis you can see that they both lived.

Considering that the “will they live?” question is supposed to be massive with the constant cliffhangers, this removes all of the tension. I never liked future narration as a concept and it doesn’t work at all here. The other big negative as I mentioned is that the romance isn’t written well at all. It’s one of those romances that is super over the top with both characters constantly blushing because the other one said something so bold. Wouldn’t they get used to it after a while? No, every time they talk you’ll have Reisuke hiding his face in embarrassment because he said his true feelings or Kareri saying something nice and then blushing right away.

I might be spoiled from reading/watching romances that are a lot more subtle and feel more realistic but this one could be hard to read with those pages. There was no variety either, it’s the same gags for all of their dates and character moments. A lot of the dialogue didn’t make sense either like Kareri asking Reisuke if he was embarrassed to have her as a girlfriend when he panicked at her using her powers in the open. No…he just pointed out that people don’t know she has powers so that could cause an issue. It’s like she jumped to a really crazy conclusion there.

The writing in general is bad though. Like I mentioned earlier, in chapter 1 right after she seemingly dies, Reisuke has this inner monologue where he is stressed because now he has to raise the kid on his own and this kid is the future of humanity! Is this really what you would be thinking of right away? It’s a little bold to come to that conclusion too. There are too many speeches here and Reisuke is such an annoying main character even though he should be good. The series goes in circles a whole lot during the first arc and all of this add up to the series being cancelled early.

So, what should it have done to avoid being cancelled? Well, right off the bat I would say that they shouldn’t have killed Kareri off in the first chapter. That just destroys the premise and makes no sense. If you’re going to do that, do it much later in the story so we can see the dynamic first. If you have to bump her off though, rescue her by chapter 10. Cut out the visit to the parents and training the baby at the abandoned beach. We go right to a plan to save her with the other Earthchild and then we jump to the time skip with Earth’s revenge. Fast forward after that and Waste can be the main villains as they try to weaponize the fighters.

You could then jump into their shady history of speeding kids up from the age of 1 to 11 and all of that other stuff. It would make the series a bit more fast paced and cut right to the action. It wouldn’t resolve the writing issue as you would just need another writer for that but I think it could have captured people’s attention more. Now this probably sounds like a brutal review with all the shots I’m taking here but I wouldn’t call this a bad manga still. It’s basically a 6 on the large scale.

The reason for that is that it’s still an interesting manga and an easy read. I blasted through the whole series in one day. Well, it’s only 27 chapters so that’s not super impressive but still it was enticing enough for me to keep going. It also helps that the art is really solid. There are the occasional moments where there’s a small mistake or a character is off model but for the most part I was quite impressed. This looks more like a veteran manga than a new one.

While this wouldn’t fit the bill as an action manga since there aren’t a lot of fights, it can still be a good adventure. I liked a lot of the concepts that were brought in like Earth which could have gone into more interesting things had the series kept on going. Death’s waiting room is also an intriguing concept although it probably brings more problems than fixes when you really think about it. There would have to be more of a plot twist about Reisuke for me to ever accept how he kept defying death like that.

One thing that also earns it points is how the series is very anti-destiny. Every time the Earth talks about destiny or other characters do, Reisuke just keeps yelling that he’ll defy destiny and all of that. He never takes no for an answer and keeps on fighting until his family can have a happy ending. That’s always the right approach to me because someone talking about destiny shouldn’t deter you at all. Call their bluff and keep on fighting, it’s the only way to go!

Overall, Earthchild was definitely very different than I imagined. If it ever bothered to stick to the main setup of the two parents raising their superpowered kid then this could have actually been solid. The series just got a little too ambitious before immediately backpedaling and then being caught in a circle. I don’t think I’ve seen a manga so unsure of what to do before but maybe that’s part of what keeps you reading. You’re just wondering how long they can possibly stick this out for. Personally I was expecting the rescue to take up the whole series by the end. The script is also so cheesy that you may get a few chuckles in there at times. I absolutely see why it was cancelled but reading it as a mini series, it’s a good read. I’d recommend this if you’re looking for a fun sci-fi romance to check out. Just don’t read it for the actual romance but instead for the emotional journey of seeing how far Reisuke will go to save his wife.

Overall 6/10

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