Battle Beyond the Stars Review

Posted on August 18, 2024 by dreager1

This movie is definitely like a cross between Star Wars and the Seven Samurai. It’s really about recruiting a bunch of people to fight the enemy overlords and then we get to the big climax. It’s a good movie that is bogged down by some terrible writing. This may be the first time I’ve had to say that in a while but yes the writing is absolutely abysmal at times. You’ll see what I mean as we go through this but ultimately I would still give the movie a thumbs up. It may not be the best sci-fi out there but it does a lot of things right.

The film starts off with the evil emperor Sador deciding to take down another planet. This time he is after a peaceful planet that has no real fighting capabilities. They don’t want to go down without a fight though so Shad is sent off into the vast universe to find people who will help fight off the powerful villains. It’s going to be a tough sell because they don’t have any money or priceless artifacts to give up. Anyone who helps out will be doing so out of the goodness of their hearts…yeah. That’s not going to be a great way to get the best help out there but Shad will do his best.

Okay so here’s where the biggest glaring issue of the film comes in. They are absolutely desperate to get some bounty hunters to help. Truly desperate, Shad is asking everyone he meets if they can help. We’re talking from drunk Cowboys to random aliens who share a consciousness. It doesn’t really matter just how good they are, he just needs people. So about halfway into the movie we have Saint-Exmin show up and she is stoked to be a part of the crew. She is begging to join even so that she can fight and even if she dies, then she will have died in the line of duty in an honorable way. It makes a lot of sense so…Shad will let her in right? She is from a warrior race and her entire ship is built for combat.

No, Shad tells her to get lost and thinks she’s annoying. He figures she is weak and they’re better off without her. It’s gotta be one of the dumbest things I’ve heard in a long time. It made absolutely no sense and throughout the film he is a jerk to her for absolutely no reason. Yeah he finally apologizes near the very end but it felt like there must have been a few scenes left on the cutting floor or something. There was absolutely no reason for what he was doing there. It was virtually film breaking because it goes against the entire plot and this is the only time that Shad acts like this. It still makes no sense.

I can’t say I liked Shad much as a main character even aside from that whole thing though. For starters, he is a bit too oblivious about everything. He doesn’t really know anything about romance aside from breeding and is super slow on the uptake. All of the flirting and romance in the movie is painful to watch as a result. You are waiting to just get onto the next plot point each time. Nanelia also doesn’t know much about romance and since she is the main heroine that doesn’t bode well for either of them. Saint-Exmin at least tries to pass on her knowledge so I appreciate that. It may be a bit too bold for some but being bold is the best way to move forward within reason.

Saint-Exmin was actually a solid character. Would have been nice if she wasn’t used for fanservice all the time but her core personality was solid which is what counts. Meanwhile Nanelia wasn’t all that interesting. It felt like she was more of a nothing character who didn’t have any big ambitions or goals of her own. It would have been good if she could have had more to do in the film considering that she is one of the first ones to join in on this whole rebellion.

The characters recruited later on all have more of a role. You’ve got the Cowboy who shows up early on and gets a whole subplot. At first he doesn’t want to fight since he figures its a losing battle and doesn’t want anyone to look up to him but gradually gets his courage back and does really well. He’s someone you can count on when the chips are down even if at first he was really hesitant. That was definitely a pretty uplifting moment for the guy and by the end he was one of the more heroic ones.

My favorite helper was Gelt who is basically the world’s strongest bounty hunter. This guy was a serious threat and definitely not someone to be underestimated. His whole intro is really cool as we learn how everyone else was exterminated. He’s the main reason the heroes can even stand a chance against the main villain. Gelt earned his title and I would definitely be down for a prequel film about this guy. It would definitely be loaded with action and you get the feeling there is more to his past than what he is letting on.

Finally we have the 5 aliens with a shared conscience. They’re not bad, I definitely don’t envy them though. Imagine someone else constantly being in your head 24/7 at all times without any way out of that? That would be absolutely brutal. No privacy taken to the extreme. You could probably use this in some creative ways in a battle series but that’s not exactly what this movie is all about. They do a good job of filling in the last roster slots but that’s about all I would say for these guys.

The film spends so much time recruiting the heroes that we don’t have much time for the villains though. There are some mini villains scattered throughout the film but the main villain himself? He’s more of an obstacle to be defeated than a full fledged villain in his own right. He actually had potential with the solid design and everything but winds up being forgettable. I do think that does a disservice to the film since there was a lot of potential there. It’s another reason why the film doesn’t have good writing to me. It’s not paced correctly with characters being left out and of course I went over the main reason why I didn’t care for the writing. The film is still good and enjoyable all the way of course but yeah you’re left thinking that this could and should have been even better.

The special effects are definitely solid though. I appreciated all of the effects for the lasers and fights. The alien costumes looked good as well. Everything felt like it was crafted very carefully here. Even the ship felt extra real with the various rooms. It reminded me of the Enterprise from Star Trek. The ship basically being sentient with the A.I. was really the cherry on top there. It wasn’t afraid to take shots at the main guy on several occasions for being too timid and messing up on the controls. The ship was right by the way, this guy would choke under pressure every time he was at the command stations. You definitely don’t want him as your captain because he’ll never fire in time.

Overall, This is a film that is fairly memorable which tends to be a good thing. It may not be a match for the top tier sci-fi films out there but it is still at least trying to do something interesting. We got a lot of world building and a bunch of varied characters. I would like to see another film tackle this premise with better writing and it could really be a smash hit. In the meantime this one still has enough whit and good action scenes to keep it on top all the way. That’s definitely nothing to sneeze at, that’s for sure.

Overall 6/10

Mars Attacks! Review

Posted on August 15, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a pretty crazy film that has a lot of fun with itself and the premise. It’s fairly long and gets to really explore a lot of the dynamics of what would happen in a possible alien invasion. While the whole thing is satire, I actually do think a lot of things could play out the way they do in this film. It may lose a little steam by the end as most of the fun parts are in the build up but this is definitely a title that I could recommend.

The film starts by introducing us to a massive amount of characters. You’ve got the president, the army, the advisors, TV reporters, a guy going off to the military, an old lady, people asking for peace, corrupt casino owners, etc. They have so many different plots going on and that’s the fun of it. We find out that aliens from Mars are about to land and so everyone is preparing. Some are nervous, some are thrilled, and the President just wants a good photo op for his ratings. That may seem absurd, but I can picture it. The army of course wants to blast the aliens away but they’re not getting support on that. Unfortunately these aliens are out for blood!

This may seem a bit odd but a lot of times I tend to enjoy building up to a situation even more than the actual payoff. There’s just something really fun about seeing the characters preparing for something and a good movie can really get you right to the absolute peak of intrigue. You just have to see what happens and so the initial fighting and everything is amazing. When I say the film starts to recede by the end, it’s natural to an extent. How can you really top this? The opening of the film can be as comedic and crazy as possible but by the very end it has to start getting a little serious. So the movie is at its best when it is just making fun of everyone. I had a really good time with all of this. I thought it was all good natured fun.

Basically everyone is looking after their own self interests and that seems about right. Others just aren’t smart enough to see any of the big dangers here. When the Martians show up and start blasting everyone, you’re actually happy about it. Humanity just seems so lost in the woods and out of their depths that they absolutely had to be kicked down a notch. They had gotten so complacent in this era of peace that nobody was united or anything. It was really not what you would have expected from the main characters of the universe if it had even just been a few hundred years ago.

I think one of the funnier gags is how the aliens rick them twice though. After the first mass murder event, they actually get the humans to show up and get decimated for a second time. Like are you kidding me? That’s absolutely crazy. They just played on the egos once more and pulled out the W. Like I said, they outplayed us at every corner. Then the final trick was the most embarrassing as they pretended to be a super model to gain access to the president. It was not a very realistic cover up to be honest but I suppose that’s the point. The humans had completely lost their way.

The special effects for the film are actually pretty good. I liked all of the lasers everywhere and the Martians looked funny. This may not have been played very seriously as a whole but the sets and everything could hold their own with an actual disaster film. The writing is also good as a lot of the scenes are genuinely witty so the movie gets full marks there. While the humans were intentionally unlikable, I thought it was done in a way that was legitimately funny so that’s also a big thumbs up.

President James is my favorite character personally. He is just so full of himself and has that loud confidence that I like to see. He’s constantly condescending and really just wants people to say something that he agrees with. It would be real interesting to have someone like him in the White House, that’s for sure. The president’s advisor is a close second though. He just keeps on smoking even as everyone is being blown up. The guy really thinks that it was all a big misunderstanding all the way up to the end. He had some of the best comedic moments because the timing of each scene was absolutely impeccable.

Not every subplot is going to be equally funny of course. The rich lady with her dog was a bit on the weaker side. Basically she’s super ditzy but there’s not a whole lot more to her than that. The old lady who’s going senile is also one that’s fairly generic and not really trying to be different. With such a large cast that is to be expected though. I dare say there are probably at least 20 named characters running around and that really helps you to make the invasion feel real. Films like this should have a large cast and I know it can be hard to balance them but it’s definitely worth the attempt.

The movie doesn’t manage to get by with 0 mistakes though. There is a little animal violence at one point as the aliens do blast a pair of dogs and a bird. The film has them using disintegration rays that are painless and there’s no blood involved so it’s not nearly as bad as the average moment. I would argue it’s still unnecessary though and those don’t really work as jokes. When you tell as many jokes as this film, you are bound to mess up a few times of course but on the whole it did land them more often than not which is the important thing.

I would put this on a fairly high level for an absurd comedy like with Airplane. Now, that is still the greatest comedy of all time and is completely unmatched but this one had that same energy at times with the jokes. The writers had enough knowledge to attack pretty much anyone without ever feeling mean spirited or like it was just targeting one group and I’d say that’s the key to a film like this. As long as you aren’t too sensitive, you’ll be able to have a good laugh at the whole thing.

Overall, Mars Attacks is a pretty fun film. As long as you tend to enjoy humor that borderlines on the absurd then I don’t see you having any problems with this one. Lets face it, we would probably get wrecked by Mars anyway so it’s fun to see them out strategize us at every corner. They were ready for this adventure and were not about to back down. I can definitely respect that. It’s a very long film but one that has a lot happening so you shouldn’t get bored. Trust me, it’s worth the watch.

Overall 7/10

Solo Leveling Review

Posted on August 10, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to talk about one of the biggest Manhwa out there. Solo Leveling really took the world by storm when it came out for the extremely solid artwork and top tier fights. This was a series that definitely held nothing back there and I would say this was consistent throughout its entire run. Even the epilogue managed to throw in a bunch of battles which was definitely cool. It may not have lasted as long as the other big manhwa I’ve read but it holds its own.

The plot follows a guy named Jinwoo who is your every day teenager. His father vanished a while back and his mother is in a coma though so he has to look after his younger sister on his own. In this world there are gates which appear throughout the planet and so hunters are the people who deal with them. When you become of age you can have your power level tested to see just how strong you are. Your power level can’t really change from that point on so it’s really any deal. For example if you are an E rank fighter then the best you can hope for is cleaning up after the real hunters and picking up materials.

Still, you’re better off than those who have no energy since you can still earn some decent money this way. Jinwoo is an E rank and known as the weakest hunter in history. People mock him all the time but he needs money for his mother’s bills so he keeps his head down and gets the job done. One day a dungeon he is in ends up being a little too powerful and almost everyone dies. Jinwoo dies but is them resurrected somehow. He now has video game status windows that appear around him.

In effect Jinwoo is now the first ever hunter who can actually level up and get stronger. His days of being an E class fighter are finally over! As Jinwoo gets stronger though? He feels his humanity beginning to leave him. Does this absolute power come at a price and if so…was he better off being the weakest guy around? They say it’s lonely at the top…time to see if that’s true.

I’m just gonna say it now, the power is obviously worth it! The whole losing humanity plot really starts to vanish early on as well so it’s not really a big deal. It’s good for some quick drama but that’s about it, I wouldn’t think on it too hard. The only real drawback is that he ends up being in way more fights over and over as he takes everyone on but that’s still better than just being immediately murdered. If Jinwoo had stayed weak then everyone would ultimately be dead so that should answer the question on if it was worth it or not.

The character cast is rather small in a way. Technically there are a lot of characters but many of them are one shots or quickly get written out for being too weak. For that reason you don’t really remember too many of them all that much. There are a select few who really stand by until the end but they tend to be the exception. I dare say this is the smallest cast I’ve read for a series of this length but that’s not really a bad thing. The most important thing is having strong villains and a good main character. Fortunately this series has both of those things.

The artwork is top tier like I mentioned before so no worries on that. Each fight gets better and better and you could really just enjoy this as a top quality picture book if you want. It’s one of the few titles where it can almost be hard to imagine how the anime will be able to do it. Still, at the end of the day you know a good enough studio can pull it off as needed. It does have to be a high end studio though. You’d be wincing if an anime adaption ended up using a bunch of stills or anything like that.

The world building in the series is also great which is definitely key. We learn a whole lot about how the ranking system works, the demon realms and how they function, etc. Then as the series goes on you learn even more like who is behind the leveling up system, the true cosmic/demonic forces at work, etc. You get satisfactory answers to basically every question in the series which is really nice to see. Even with a sequel that started pretty much right away, they didn’t decide to just hold off on you here. The sequel will tell its own story but this is really a complete adventure all the way through. It doesn’t end on a massive cliffhanger or anything like that. It’s the kind of ending that can (and did) absolutely lead to a sequel but it doesn’t have to if that makes sense.

This might sound a bit contradictory but while Jinwoo blows past most of the characters and makes them irrelevant there are times when he doesn’t look quite as strong as you expect. There were a few times where he spared with the heroes and didn’t obliterate them the way I was expecting. Yes, it was sparring but the fact that any of them could keep up at all had me a little puzzled. I would argue Jinwoo surpassed everybody even sooner than the series seems to acknowledge this. Maybe I ended up being caught up in the hype I guess.

Either way he is a great character though. You could say that perhaps he is a bit basic but he gets the job done. He has a lot of confidence in himself and even before that, his underdog self wasn’t bad. His internal confrontations with his old self were pretty good. Jinwoo can at times act a little bit too villainous so I can’t cosign just everything that he does but for the most part he is someone you can count on. He has a whole lot of presence.

We’ll go through a bunch of the cast now and who better to start off with than one of the most iconic characters in the series? Beru is easily one of the standout characters here and he is just a blast to root for. His sheer loyalty is awesome on its own and then throw in the fact that the guy can fight and you have a winner. He’s one of the strongest fighters that Jinwoo has by the end of the series and only continues to improve more and more. The fact that he can wipe the floor with over 90% of the verse is really impressive. When you stop and think about how many fighters Jinwoo has in addition to his own skills then you start to appreciate just how broken the main character is. It’s really quite impressive. There are few characters like Jinwoo and it’s why his reputation is absolutely deserved. So having a great captain of the guard like Beru is important so that Jinwoo doesn’t have to waste time with weaker opponents. Beru really keeps these guys in line.

Now lets talk about the S ranks. You know how I was saying earlier how a bunch of them are completely irrelevant? Well you know it’s bad when a bunch of them don’t even have a photo on the wiki and a bunch of others basically didn’t get to do anything. The term S rank ended up getting cheapened early on because of how many of these guys there were. They just couldn’t keep up and in the end even the strongest ones were quickly surpassed without any real effort. Still, there were a few that I liked, so I’ll go into those guys first.

The first one’s a girl actually. Cha is one of the first S rank hunters that we meet and her abilities were definitely considerable. She has good sword skills and overall movement speed. Her gimmick of finding everyone’s natural scent to be gross aside from Jinwoo is definitely an odd character quirk to be sure but it basically stops being a thing after a while. While her abilities get surpassed early on, she maintains a fairly big role for most of the series and was a fun supporting character to have around.

Thomas is an S rank who really does live up to his power the whole time. This guy is near the top of the charts for good reason after all. He is actually able to give Jinwoo a good fight and is relevant for far longer than most fighters. I liked his confidence and while the guy may not always have the best friends around, he is loyal. He’s someone you can count on to have your back at all times. Without him the S ranks would definitely not be the same so he’s someone to keep your eye on.

Liu is another one of the top S ranks to the point where he was a nation hunter but unfortunately he doesn’t get to do a whole lot. He’s caught in that awkward spot where he was introduced but then didn’t get to do anything until it was too late and he could no longer put up a great fight. I think the series should have given him a key fight earlier on to really establish him among the other characters. There’s nothing wrong with his personality after all. He has everything in place to be a quality character and I still liked him but the guy is very forgettable.

Then of course we have Jinwoo’s father who doesn’t get to appear a whole lot but gets a pretty good role when he does show up. The guy is a top rank fighter after all but I didn’t think the reason for him vanishing was all that good. You feel like he could have done more to prepare Jinwoo and the others for the attacks. It’s a fairly common kind of subplot where the series doesn’t convincingly show me why a character vanished for so long. So he is cool and strong but I wasn’t a big fan because of that.

Then we have Jinwoo’s son who is solid enough. I don’t see him being as cool as Jinwoo to be sure but he likes fighting and is a quick study so that’s a good thing. Definitely a lot of potential for that sequel series. In the meantime he gets enough screentime where I can say that he’s good. We have the blueprint so we can see if he continues to be this good later on.

Christopher Reed was one of the cooler S ranks but he also got the unfortunate fate of not really getting a whole lot to do here. He’s really used a lot for shock value and to establish just how dangerous these new villains are. He talks tough and puts up a good off screen fight but ultimately that was game over for him. Still a cool scene though and it was hype enough where you won’t forget him. So he definitely made the most out of his limited appearances.

Go is the chairman of the hunter’s association and so for a while there I was worried that he would end up being all talk despite some early hype. Fortunately that is not the case and we actually get to see him doing things later on. He has a really good fight and was definitely a real likable character. I definitely appreciated seeing him around and he was easy to root for. The guy actually talked sense and was willing to bend some rules to help Jinwoo out. This guy properly understands the stakes here and how to protect the world. If everyone was as smart as he was then there would probably have been less casualties in the series.

Goto was a pretty interesting S rank because he was one of the only ones that I would call a straight up villain. He wants to murder other heroes and so there’s no other real way to frame that. He’s not someone that you could trust to have your back at any point. His abilities were still considerable to be sure though and he was a nice wild card. I thought he was a good character for his role and I tend to appreciate having some dark hunters as a change of pace from the monsters. It’s why I really enjoyed Jinwoo’s first fight against the dark hunters so much. It was just really different from what had happened earlier.

Dongsoo is another example of a dark hunter and definitely not a very smart one. I know I tend to enjoy loyalty in a character even when they’re a villain but this guy was just too much of a punk/bully for me to take him too seriously. The guy was basically asking to get absolutely crushed the whole time. He also loses massive points for the underhanded tricks he used when going after Jinwoo’s sister. That is something that will always lose you a whole lot of points for me. Tricks like that show that you just don’t have much of an honor code here. So yeah I didn’t have any real sympathy for this guy.

Min Byung is definitely one of those tragic characters who didn’t really want to stick around in this dangerous world of being a hunter but ultimately came through when humanity needed him. It can be tough having a strong conscious and doing the right thing but ultimately that’s just how it goes. Definitely a fun character all the way around though and he just seemed like a nice guy. We don’t actually see a whole lot of healers in the series so that skillset was still rather rare.

Then we have Baek who could partially transform into an animal. He gets quite a lot of screentime and was really handy in a fight. He may not have quite been in the top echelon of fighters but the guy was persistent and got his share of wins. I know the series would be too long if everyone got this treatment but this is exactly what a bunch of the other S ranks needed in order to stand out more. They would have really become way more full fledged as a character if that was the case.

Finally to wrap the S ranks up we have Choi. His fire abilities were super handy so he was always fun to have around. The guy gets a big role during the insect arc and was definitely super determined. He could really get a whole lot of opponents all at once. He slowly starts to vanish as the series goes on but had a good impact while he was around. There are many other S ranks of course but most of them don’t get as much of a role.

Joohee is one of the characters from the intro who was a good friend to Jinwoo but ultimately stopped appearing. She was nice enough and always healed him no matter what happened in the dungeons. Ultimately he just kept getting stronger while her trauma didn’t really go away and she retired. I definitely get why, unless you absolutely need to fight in order to survive, only the craziest of souls will go through that whole ordeal. Also there will always be the knowledge that there could be a double dungeon so there isn’t such a thing as a super safe dungeon anymore. I thought she was nice enough so I did miss her a little.

Jinah is Jinwoo’s sister and she’s a fun supporting character. She’s always looking out for him and he knows that she’s got his back. Jinah and Jinwoo have a good bond throughout the series and considering how powerful he gets, it’s nice to know that she is well protected. If anything she gets close to danger a little more than you would expect considering how good his reserves are. You can imagine that this doesn’t go very well for the villain. Jinwoo’s mom is also solid although she gets far less to do.

Igris is another one of Jinwoo’s top fighters and I always like seeing him around. He may start to get surpassed more as the series goes on but he just has such a great design. He will always be known for having one of the best fights against Jinwoo and he does it all with pure technique. He doesn’t have a bunch of fancy skills or super powers or anything like that. Igris just focuses himself and launches devastating attacks the whole time. That’s definitely the way to earn my respect real quick.

Then we have Kamish who is a super powerful dragon, the mightiest beast in the land. He ends up being really handy during the series for quick transportation. The guy had a lot of presence when he first showed up as well. In general he is a fun monster and Jinwoo has a number of super solid ones but this one isn’t often used in a combat way. That tends to be the job for the others like the goblin mage.

Esil was a fun character and whenever she would show up the series would actually allow itself to have a bit of fun. Usually everything was super serious with a bunch of fights and everything but she would add some levity to the scenes. She can fight well enough but never really has to. Esil’s the kind of heroine who can make friends easily and I wouldn’t have minded some slice of life shenanigans in the demon world for a bit although I totally get why the series couldn’t really pause there for very long.

Kim is another one of the characters from pre arc. He wasn’t ready for the opening fight of the series but then again nobody really was. It definitely wasn’t fair how everyone was jumping on him for what happened considering that he had the team take a vote first. He was a good leader all the way through and I thought he was solid overall. He may have left Jinwoo but he did it upon the lead’s request and saved the heroine. So even though he feels guilty early on, he doesn’t have much to be down about. He did what he could.

Then we have Jinho who shows up to try and make the atmosphere light like Esil. He’s the main comic relief but I like how the series handles this. He’s never inept or anything like that. The guy is weak but he knows his limitations and works around them with money and connections. He does a lot of work behind the scenes in setting up a base and working with Jinwoo. The two of them actually become real friends and it’s a pretty nice dynamic. Any scene with him was usually pretty fun.

Antares is definitely one of those big villains you don’t forget. He has an incredible design, great fighting abilities, and a good personality. He was a fun character to see fight throughout and he actually stays as one of the top fighters in the series. You can definitely respect him there even if it takes him a long while to show up. He works well in the final boss type spot and is one of the more memorable villains in the series. So stay patient as you read through the series and wait to see him.

Ashborn is another really solid character. His plans were definitely very detailed and convoluted so you could call him a true genius. In just about any other timeline he probably would have come out on top. He’s got a great design and great powers so you really can’t ask for much more than that. Definitely one of those characters that really pops out of the page the whole time. He also gives us a lot of important lore near the end of the series so you’ll want to get that memorized. He really helped to change the whole game of what was going on.

Baran was definitely the least impressive of the Monarchs to the point where I forgot he even counted as one until checking the wiki. This guy’s okay but not as good as he should be. I suppose he was probably nerfed during the fight but even so, Monarchs tend to set a really high standard and this guy definitely couldn’t keep up with that. He’s a solid villain but definitely not one of the great ones. I won’t really be thinking about this guy much after the initial appearance.

Rakan was a pretty solid villain even if he didn’t go out very well. The guy had a lot of strength and he did have the presence of a Monarch. He’s one of those fighters who was lucky to have a true fight before going up against Jinwoo. You never want to fight the hero first because often times that will end very badly. So this worked out super well for him and helped the guy to stay really memorable the whole time. He also has a good deign so this villain really had everything that you could ask for from an antagonist.

Querehsha isn’t super impressive but again it’s a timing thing. She just took too long to act so Jinwoo had the advantage from the jump here. She had some potential and overall I do think she is a decent villain but not one of the top threats to be sure. Likewise Legia isn’t all that great either. I like his attempts at trickery but the fact that he spends most of his time tied up doesn’t exactly help his case either. How is a Monarch gonna be tied up like this? Definitely not the kind of thing that makes the most compelling case for the character.

Tarnak is more of a whiner than a fighter so I wouldn’t rank him all that high. He has a cool design but doesn’t have the confidence or presence that the stronger fighters have at their disposal. This is what will keep him from really climbing to the top. He’s just not that memorable and doesn’t really have the skills to change any of the outcomes either. So in the end he was just really doomed no matter how you slice it.

Sillad was one of the better villains though. I liked his abilities quite a lot and this guy was strong. He lasted a long while and really pushed Jinwoo. It’s clear that he was really comfortable with his abilities and had long term ambitions. He was really a threat from all sides which is what you would expect from a villain like this. I definitely wasn’t going to forget him afterwards, this guy was really cool. Definitely looking forward to seeing his fight animated some day.

The Architect is another really cool villain with a lot of aura. You never forget that confrontation at the very beginning of the series after all. This guy would strike fear into you immediately. He was an absolute beast in every sense of the word. I love the design and he is one of the most iconic characters in the series for that reason alone. The build up and resolution for this guy was absolutely perfect, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Finally we have Baruka who was a really cool ice elf. Definitely a very blood thirsty villain who would destroy anyone in his path. He was a real threat and really brought Jinwoo to the edge during their fight. The fact that he came closer to murdering Jinwoo than even some of the Monarchs was really impressive. I definitely wasn’t about to forget this villain and you’ll be unable to forget him once you see the guy.

Naturally there are even more characters out there but that’s a good amount to go over. There’s a whole lot that gets to go on in a series that is this massive after all. It was really a super impressive series all the way around. A title like this will ultimately run into a bunch of issues along the way like some scenes of excessive violence and animal violence during its run but fortunately manages to overwhelm this with the sheer flood of good moments. It’s a series I could really recommend to any action fan for sure.

Now some do criticize how each arc can get a little repetitive with the format. It always starts with the heroes running in first and getting demolished, then Jinwoo shows up and saves them with ease. Rinse and repeat for every single arc. I get that this could be annoying but the whole point is that Jinwoo is the ultimate fighter. I don’t really mind because in a power fantasy I would argue that this works really well. For sure it will be more on the annoying side if you aren’t a big fan of Jinwoo though but if you like the guy then you’re all set. The series shows us repeatedly just how good the guy is.

Most of the series is really a bunch of action scenes after all and it’s part of why I love the title so much. I wouldn’t say it has a huge plot either way. Yes, with the lore we definitely get more plot heavy for the back half of the series but the action scenes are absolutely the biggest draw of the series and it delivers on that front. I can’t imagine anybody saying that the series didn’t have enough battles or anything like that. That would be crazy. So in the end I didn’t really have any issues here.

At most, I think Jinwoo maybe went up through the levels a bit too quickly. He hits 100 so fast that they have to show levels after 100 later on. It makes things difficult on the power scaling to be sure. Ultimately once the level ups are removed then the series is able to have a bit more freedom again. I did miss the video game elements though as they appear far less from that point on. Also the ending definitely goes in a very sharp direction. Ultimately I wasn’t a big fan of the ending. I get the logic behind it but I never really enjoy any ending where characters within the story can’t appreciate the full thing. I can’t really say much more without spoilers but it’s not my favorite direction is all. At least the epilogue gave us a fan preview of what things will be like going forward.

Also it gave us more fights which is always worth it. I do really need to underscore that this series absolutely understands the rule of cool and uses it in every single interaction. It’s really a smart way to do it. You could probably pick out an amazing panel in every single chapter. There is always something happening and the pacing is really fast. In general one thing I like about Webtoons is how long each chapter feels. It’s probably in large part due to how much you’re scrolling through the series but it makes the experience really last and that’s a lot of fun. There’s definitely more I could say but if I haven’t won you over by now then it’s not happening. This is absolutely a must read and for once I can say that you don’t have to read it for the plot! Although I recommend that you do since the story is still super enjoyable.

Overall, Solo Leveling is a top tier title in all respects. The art really is as dynamic as everyone says it is and you’re really in for a blast here. While the side cast quickly become irrelevant, they still end up being likable while they are around. Ultimately it is all worth it for the big power fantasy, trust me on that. The sequel is now going so I look forward to seeing how long it lasts and if it can match up to the original. To really appreciate the sequel though you will definitely want to read this one first.

Overall 9/10

Universal Soldier Review

Posted on August 8, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a thriller about knowing when to break your programming and defy orders. It’s got some good messages to be told for sure but in the end this film isn’t all that good. The main character is a little too slow every time so the villain always has the edge. It’s pretty crazy stuff not gonna lie and nobody is smart at all here. It just doesn’t seem like a very practical project even by corrupt government standards.

The movie starts with showing us the end of a big battle and a village was completely destroyed. Squad leader Andrew completely went off the deep end and turned evil. He ends up executing a hostage for no reason and so Luke is forced to take him down. It’s a mutual defeat though and their bodies are brought back to the government for experimentation. They decide to revive these two as mindless soldiers that can be used to handle any threat. They do not feel emotions or any previous memories. In theory they simply obey all orders without question. So they will be a really good unit for any commander and if the test is successful they can mass produce these kinds of soldiers from dead men.

Unfortunately things go sideways as you could have probably guessed immediately. Andrew is still as crazy as ever and enjoys murdering people a little too much. A local reporter named Veronica does some snooping with her partner and Andrew murders the guy even though it is against the rules. So Luc quickly takes her to safety and the government orders Andrew to pursue. But wait Andrew can’t be trusted because he’s already showing clear signs of a personality and violent tendencies right? Yeah the government barely cares at this point so Luc better run real fast.

Luc is still not his old self though so while he has some memories and such he doesn’t have his personality yet. This means…uh oh he basically has amnesia. One trope I never love is when the main character doesn’t know anything and gets into a bunch of misunderstandings. That happens here as he doesn’t know what money is and why he has to pay for food, he doesn’t know what his body is supposed to look like, etc. I don’t even get why we needed this part of the plot. For the most part I don’t think it would change much about the film if he was totally himself. The main villain basically got his whole personality back after all. Luc deserved better.

So the film’s attempts at humor here really didn’t do that well. Meanwhile I didn’t really care for Veronica all that much. You know the type of character they are going for right away. She’s constantly yelling and panicking and making the wrong decisions the whole time. It’s pretty clear that Luc saved her from getting shot but she still complains for a while and it takes a minute before she really gets on board with the fact that he is the only reason she’s alive. I would have thought that was rather obvious to be honest but it is what it is I suppose.

The film tends to be rather excessive on the violence as well. People are really getting blown up here and the villain collects ears from his prey. It’s definitely a good way to show that the guy is a psycho but I don’t think that was really enough justification. Also, the girl in the intro having to see her boyfriend/husband get blown away right in front of her was absolutely crazy. Then after all that she still doesn’t survive? That’s not really a great way to start the film, I was certainly salted the whole time at the very least.

Also considering who the main actor is, I was expecting way more hand to hand fight scenes. We really don’t get much of that at all though. Aside from the gunfights we get a mild skirmish at the start, a little mixup with the cook later on, and then the final fight. They really didn’t make the most out of his talents which is a shame because I know that the fights would have been really good. Perhaps they would have even elevated the film. Without them, you have more time to really focus on all of the other elements of the film which aren’t nearly as solid.

Now on to the government, the film just makes them look way too inept. They often underestimate the villains and get themselves into trouble but this was a bit much. So by this point in the film they already know how absolutely insane the main villain is. This guy absolutely must be stopped at all costs but they will keep using him since he’s the only one who can stop Luc. Okay fine but then they figure they should reset his memories just in case. So they tell him to go inside the freeze room. Andrew first threatens them a bit but suspiciously complies. So the guy walks in there with the needle before the ice can really do anything and naturally he is violently murdered. That’s just really dumb to be honest.

I don’t get why the government couldn’t do more to stop both Luc and Andrew if they were serious to be honest. It’s not even like you’d have to worry about outlasting them because both characters have a massive weakness where they overheat just by existing. So you just keep fighting until the two of them start melting and then you have the massive advantage. Case closed right? That’s also such a random weakness but I am cool with it because I think it’s only fair that a super soldier would have some kind of downside. It’d be a little convenient if there was none.

Aside from the over the top violence and the lack of hand to hand fight scenes the film could have done with more likable characters. Again you’re looking at a duo of a semi mindless main character and a main heroine who doesn’t seem to understand the danger she’s in for a while there. This doesn’t really let the characters have any banter either so while I generally would say that the writing is pretty good here, it’s really nothing to write home about either. It’s trying to survive in spite of the main characters when they should be the ones trying to prop it up.

Overall, Universal Soldier was a bit of a letdown here. I like the idea of the film but it’s not exactly a fun watch and throughout the film you are waiting for the heroes to do more. The government have no idea what’s going on and it feels like the villain has way too much control here. There’s no way he should be making it nearly as far as he does and so in the end everyone looks real bad. Not really a film I would recommend to anyone looking for their quality action title.

Overall 3/10

Naruto Shippuden Review

Posted on July 28, 2024 by dreager1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 7/10

Elysium Review

Posted on July 28, 2024 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

Elysium is one of those films that you may think will be okay since it’s sci-fi in nature and takes place in the future. That being said, it ends up feeling more like one of those gritty dystopias that defeats the purpose of the sci-fi angle since most things are fairly low tech. The characters aren’t all that good and some of the plans are even worse. Ultimately this is a film that you can definitely skip and you won’t really be missing much of anything.

The movie starts off by explaining that in the future, the humans messed Earth up as expected so all of the rich moved to a sky country known as Elysium. There they can ignore what is going on and live their lives in peace. Every so often some people will try to sneak over there and get shot out of the sky or captured. Delacourt is the head of security but she is frustrated with how lax the government is being so she makes a deal with the head of corporate known as John. They will stage a coup and take everything over. He will be even richer than he already is and then she will have control. There’s nothing that can stand in their way…nothing except a guy named Max.

Max is a guy who is rather down on his luck right now. He used to be one of the best criminals in the game but he was caught and is trying to live an honest life now. The problem is that all humans are basically slaves on Earth now and everyone continues to mess with him. He finally has enough when he gets stuck inside a server room and nearly burns to death. In fact, he will be dead shortly because of the crazy amounts of radiation. This causes him to go back to his old crime partner Spider. He will help the guy with whatever he wants to do in exchange for a ticket to Elysium. Spider agrees to this but is this a smart move?

Now, right off the bat the film does give Max a whole lot of reasons to do this. We see how his life is completely hopeless right now and it is not going to get any better. Even if Delacourt takes over, she is going to continue the slavery system. Max really just needs to find a way to get into Elysium and live a new life but that’s not very likely either. He actually criticized the whole system early on about how the attempts to break in would always fail so what would be different now? Well, not much but you might as well get shot to death instead of slowly dying by radiation.

The mission doesn’t go great though and now Max has the secrets of the world in his head. He can effectively override everything set up across the planet and Elysium. Here’s where his plan gets really bad although I admit I don’t really know what alternatives there are. Keep in mind that Max is dying any day now either way. His only chance is the medical technology of Elysium but any kind of cure will probably mean rendering him unconscious for a while. You see the dilemma right? The secrets in his head are the only things keeping him alive so he has that as a bargaining chip but he then has to trust the villains at their word when they say they will cure him.

There’s no shot that will work so….yeah this isn’t a great situation to be in. I think Max’s only move right from the start was to shut everything down and start a global panic if that’s what he wanted to do, or let himself get taken to Elysium without being cured. Then he can at least live out his final days in relative comfort in a more beautiful environment. Those are his only calls and ultimately he is forced into a decision by the end but I didn’t think that any of his decisions were all that great. He was in a bad situation but he kept on making it worse like going inside the server room.

It’s easy to Monday Quarterback the situation from the sidelines but that’s just how I see it. I did enjoy Delacourt as the villain quite a bit. She seemed to be someone who was actually rather reasonable and saw the big picture on things. She was harsh and would do whatever she needed to in order to protect the civilians and that’s what you would expect the commander to do. She held onto her post well and that makes for a good villain. She was fighting for her ideals and everything.

John’s only ideals were corporate greed but in a way I can sort of respect that too. He didn’t care about the internal struggle for power or anything like that. He just wanted his money up front and whoever could do that would end up being his ally. It’s a simple motivation but he represents corporate really well. It’s just what they do after all. Kruger was a decent wild card as someone who was hired to do the tough jobs. Obviously he’s not the kind of guy you ever trust but every solid shadow government needs someone off the books to help out when they’re in a pinch. This guy absolutely ends up covering that base.

The fact that the villains still let their guard down around him is absolutely crazy. We also have the main heroine Frey here as another important character. She comes in clutch to help Max on different occasions and was a good person. She helps to add in the emotional punch to the film as more incentive for why Max can’t just give up. If he does, then her daughter is doomed since she is also very sick and of course nobody on Earth ever gets any help. There’s definitely a lot of suffering going on and it’s why this would definitely be considered a failed timeline. The rich won and the poor lost.

The film has a happy ending at least. You imagine it won’t go quite as smoothly as it might appear but at least people have a brief moment to relax and take a break. Ultimately some of the themes in this movie are ones that you could see playing out in real life. Certainly the idea of minimizing benefits as much as possible is a big one and with robots around, you could see them handling a lot of jobs down the line. They can’t be reasoned with and so that will get rather difficult for the humans. Naturally I never see things getting quite as dramatic as they are in this film though.

It would have been nice if the film could have just focused more on the sci-fi. We get a brief fight with Max taking on one of the droids once he has the exo suit but that’s about it. This is definitely not an action film first and foremost. There are a number of shootouts and the film can even get rather violent at times but most of this is more about the journey. Where the film really falters is that most of the characters aren’t likable. Hey it sucks that the humans have to put up with all of this and it’s understandable that most of them would become cruel or jaded as well but it doesn’t make them likable at all. The fact that the villains are more charismatic than the heroes is a bit of a problem for them. Not saying you root for the villains but you can also see how the humans would wreck the setup.

Overall, Elysium could have easily taken place in the past and not much of the story would really change. That’s why it feels like a waste of the futuristic setting. Yes, we do have robots running around and all but most of the environments are still really run down to show how bad Earth has gotten. The premise could have been a lot more interesting. At the end of the day the film just isn’t much fun to watch and that is the golden rule of any movie. Check out a different futuristic movie instead like Star Trek.

Overall 4/10

Megaton-kyuu Musashi Season 2 Review

Posted on July 27, 2024 by dreager1

It’s definitely been a while since I checked this one out so lets dive into season 2. I really enjoyed season 1 with the awesome music and fights around every corner. In a lot of ways season 2 does keep up although I would give 1 the slight edge. I thought it had a better climax and wrapped things up a little better. This one gets a bit too ambitious towards the end so some things have to be rushed like the two cosmic beings and one of the main characters looks horrible here. Still, we do get the big fight scenes which is always a plus and the soundtrack is still great which is what counts.

After the events of the first season, Arshem and Yamato are split off into two different plots. Arshem is helping a resistance group get their bearings as she still works to become leader of the aliens. If she can do this, then she will really be in a good position to stop the war once and for all. The main problem is that their commander right now is Grieffas who is not about to listen to her and wants to conquer the remaining humans. She will inevitably have to fight with him at some point about this.

In the human plot, Yamato is still blasting away at the aliens but his heart isn’t quite as into it anymore. He used to want to wipe them all out, but now that he knows a lot of them are just ordinary people, it’s not something he can put all of his heart into in quite the same way. It’s not like he is a mass murderer after all. He just wants to defend his right to live. He also sees more of the shady dealings that his own government is doing, this will not be easy.

Yamato is a great character as always. He still has a lot of fire within him and is always ready for a fight. He hasn’t lost that enthusiasm. He may have less time to show off his punk side but near the beginning of the season he does get to fight the new transfer student which was fun. Yamato is definitely not someone who will go down without a fight and you can always appreciate that. I was a little surprised when the first season threw in a bit of a romance for him and season 2 doesn’t shy away from it either. His romance with Arshem is treated as a legitimate plot point that actually comes up and get focus on numerous occasions. It can definitely be really dramatic at times to be sure but it’s definitely handled way better than the average one. It helps that they are both quality characters.

This is one of those romances that I can actually point to as a great example on how to do this. Both characters liked each other without any rebounds or other people getting in the way. We get a lot of time so it’s not like they fell for each other immediately, etc. There were just a whole lot of positives to be had here. The series tries out some other romances which don’t work quite as well since they weren’t the focus but when you manage to do the main one right, the rest all comes into play.

Arshem is also a great character here with good ideals. At times she may feel a bit naive with her hopes for world peace though. The fact of the matter is that there can be no chance for peace until there is a cure allowing the aliens to live peacefully on Earth. Without that, they will have to keep relying on the injections over and over again which isn’t a long term strategy. If anything it is just something that will make the forces uneven which will breed more resentment. So finding the cure is really the first step…or just gaining absolute power and that’s really the route that she went. So her goals were good but I do think she was missing the big picture.

On the human side we also have Ryugo as one of the original main characters but I wouldn’t say he gets a ton to do after a while. His abilities are fairly low compared to the rest of the pilots. He pulls his own weight and everything but it always feels like he is lagging behind the other characters when it counts. He works well enough for the banter but it would have been great if he could have gotten some kind of a power up at some point.

Teru is the brainy type of character and he was solid in the first season but he really falls off a cliff here. The character doesn’t have enough strength of will to make the right decisions effortlessly. Instead he has to actually wonder what the right call is even when it’s obvious. He had a kid and isn’t sure if the kid should be alive? That’s rather crazy and he doesn’t do much about the experimenting for a while.

Then at one point he attacks a cleaning maid because it looked like the girl he was in love with. Teru’s absolutely deranged and he ended up being one of the most annoying characters. I was sort of rooting for his downfall for a while there. It’s just crazy how you can fall so hard after being a rather sensible character.

Reiji is still a solid character with his super abilities. It would have been nice if he could have used them more though. It felt like there was a lot more to that plot point that never really got addressed. Later on Yamato seemed to be able to use similar abilities so it’s maybe something that humans just have innately as opposed to it needing to be artificial but I dunno, it wasn’t given quite as much focus as you’d expect. Reiji does have one critical battle near the end where he holds off a top tier though.

Jun is always a super fun character. She enters a bit of a slump later on when she suffers some PTSD but the whole plot is actually handled rather well. It’s not rushed and we are given a lot of time to see her fighting through this and trying to get her old confidence back. Once Jun pushes past this, she goes back to her fun moments of banter and messing with everyone. It can be hard to get a read on when she’s joking vs being serious but that’s part of her charm.

The Queen gets a rather big role here and she is another character who was handled super well. She had to make the really hard calls as the leader and accepted the role as villain. She still is a villain to be clear and there’s no real way to explain her wanting to murder Arshem. So she ended up being too far gone and no amount of damage control could fix that. That being said, while I will continue to criticize her for that, taking down the Earth seems like a reasonable strategy from her perspective. There’s no way any planet will willingly give up to another and additionally, if they wanted to accept the aliens, that wouldn’t be possible either since the planet isn’t big enough for the two of them.

She decided that with all of this in mind, she may as well launch the first strike and knock them all out immediately. There was only one flaw with her plan which is that she couldn’t destroy all of them without finding the method for being able to breath in Earth’s atmosphere. If not for that, she could have finished the job and that would have been that. I do think you could make the case that they should have captured more people then and there are different ways you could play this. At the end of the day, the humans pulled through anyway.

Grieffas is a more extreme villain. He believes in the first place that the aliens should not have run away when they were being annihilated by Adam and Eve. So under his leadership the whole race would have been wiped out before this series even began. That would have certainly been one way to go. I definitely sympathize with not wanting to run away but it’s clear that the gap in power between the two races was extensive. There’s nothing that could have been done. Then he gets obsessed with being together with Arshem and is madly jealous of Yamato the whole time.

He goes way down in this second half for basically being a creep and spending all of his time on the throne. In season 1 he was fighting and at least getting stuff done. In this second part his main priority was Arshem at the cost of his own plans and ultimately he went down like a chump. Definitely not the way you want to lose when the stakes are this high. The other villains in the show all ended up being a lot more fun. First off you have Zaskar who actually doesn’t get a whole lot to do. He is introduced as one of the top fighters on the villain’s side but he shows up super late into the game. He would have gotten more to do in the end but the show didn’t quite get to that part. Still, I always enjoy the elite villains like this and the guy has a very serious attitude that is appropriate for a fighter of his station.

Then we have Yugra who starts out as a villain that just follows orders so that he can prove himself. From there he ends up being a really solid villain overall who questions his orders and follows his heart. His character arc has to go through rather quickly but it was a good one and he ended up being likable. The same goes for his partner Miysis although it takes longer for her to really join the heroes side. You sort of feel like she just came along for the ride for a while there but in the end as long as you join the heroes I suppose the reason itself isn’t quite as important.

Veloa is another villain who starts out as being evil and then sees the light. When you think about it, quite a few of the aliens were ready to turn good and I think it helps to support the overall premise of both groups not wanting to be evil. At the end of the day they committed the murders under the Queen’s orders but before that they were never a villain group like this. So going back to their old ways will end up being normal. There are still a lot of grudges that will never go away but that is to be expected. So this guy gets to prove his worth of why he is a good bodyguard even if he does lose his main fight.

Then we have Dixenberg who is a reasonable villain. He’s basically an old guy who can’t really fight so you do have to keep that into consideration. What I like about him is he represents the corrupt humans who will always show up from time to time. He plans to take advantage of the chaos that arose when 99% of each race’s population was wiped out. Now he can be king and rule over it all! It’s truly an ambitious plot and so I get that. Ultimately it’s not like you ever think he would stand a chance against anyone but he is still fun enough.

Kojiro is more of an intense villain because he gets a big backstory and a lot to do in the present. He has trouble with a second personality that takes over and makes him murder people all of the time. It’s definitely tough to make friends that way and he really starts to crack by the end. I thought that he was a reasonable rival but the low willpower definitely did hurt him in the end. He sort of holds the heroes back for most of the series and only gets it in gear by the very final part of the climax. Better late than never though.

We also have the other human resistance group led by Victor. He’s a solid character who has a big backstory. I give him massive amounts of hype for being able to survive in the wilderness while the entire planet is covered in poison. That’s a really difficult thing to have to put up with and yet he took it like a champ. So definitely kudos there. He could have introduced himself to his daughter a lot sooner though. He really took his time there.

Then there is Masamune who gives us one of the most enjoyable fights at the start of the season. I like the idea of a pro agent being thrown into the mix. He may not be a street fighter like Yamato but his skills still translate themselves into the battles very well. He gets his own romance plot which is rather rushed I have to admit but all in all he’s good. Near the end of the series he lets his guard down and gets stabbed which is a really cheesy scene. There’s no way the villain should have been able to land a hit on him there. That whole thing felt rather forced.

Shizuka gets the least to do by far. She’s good at covert ops and infiltration but we don’t really get to see her fight. She’s a solid member of the team either way and pulls her own weight but the first two undoubtedly get a lot more to do. It feels like Shizuka needed a friend or family member of her own so that she would have a relevant plot going instead of just waiting around on the sidelines.

Finally we have Adam and Eve who are rather huge as you would expect. These two are villains with cosmic abilities that are vastly above what you may expect from anyone in this series. They usually don’t get to actually show these abilities off though and that’s in part because they don’t do anything until the very end. Just one of their mechs gives the whole crew a tough fight and they can create millions of them. Only a very specific kind of ability is able to negate this and they happen to fight her. Still, I really enjoyed Adam and Eve. They make for a good team and the only shame is that they didn’t appear more. There is absolutely still a whole lot you can do with them. Considering that they wiped out the aliens so easily who wiped out the humans with the same lack of difficulty, the power creep was intense.

The show perhaps bit off a little more than it could chew there. I don’t think it is always able to handle the power level concerns that come up when the characters start introducing stronger and stronger mechs. That being said, the show is still very interesting all the way through. There is never a shortage of action so you will have those scenes in every episode but at the same time there are much deeper plot threads going on the whole time. The series really dives into topics like the cycle of violence and why wars need to be stopped.

The animation is definitely really solid. I would say it’s very consistent between the episodes and I always really enjoy the hand to hand fight scenes. The robot fights are a lot of fun too of course and there are more of those but that’s why the human fights stand out. They happen so rarely that you really feel the impact. Then for the soundtrack, we have a number of lyrical songs that pop up and the usual battle themes which are really good. They all balance out really well and so there is a lot of variety here. You won’t be feeling that the osts are too overused or anything like that. This is a show that will keep you guessing.

There are some themes that the show does gloss over a bit that I would like to see addressed in a sequel though. One of these is of course the fact that the “heroes” are brainwashing all of their civilians so they don’t panic. That still doesn’t justify the whole time. If people are going to panic then your job is to minimize that, but mind controlling them is just taking away all of their agency. This was never really addressed and we see that the humans really got desperate when they were almost wiped out. Ultimately they had a lot of flaws that just weren’t really acknowledged so that’s something I would like to see more beyond all of the extra fighting that I would want to see as well.

Overall, Megaton is a great show all the way around. It may be a little under season 1 but I still had a really good time here. There are a ton of characters to root for and a lot of action scenes to keep your pulse racing. The animation and soundtrack are good and there is a whole lot of ground that is covered here. I can definitely recommend it to any mecha fan or anyone who even just likes a good romance plot. There is a whole lot of screentime for both things and the show does a great job of juggling all of the plots. A story of two people from warring factions falling for each other is always a classic after all.

Overall 8/10

Kaiju No 8 Review

Posted on July 25, 2024 by dreager1

Kaiju No 8 really became a big thing when the manga came out. One of those titles that was being mentioned everywhere. How could you not like it right? We’re talking giant Kaiju, big action scenes, etc. The anime started off on a rocky note with people doubting the character designs and animations when it was first announced. Could it really capture the manga’s raw art? Well, I think it’s fair to say that the anime isn’t nearly as intense and isn’t leaning as hard into the horror type imagery but still works as a solid adaption. I was satisfied with season 1’s direction both with the animation and soundtrack.

The series starts by introducing us to Kafka who has been trying to join the Defense Force for a very long time but always gets rejected. The guy just has absolutely no luck with this and he’s not getting any younger. This is his last chance now and it’s not looking great but he ends up swallowing a Kaiju and gains super powers. He is now Kaiju No. 8, one of the most powerful monsters in recorded history. If he can hide these powers just right, perhaps he can finally join the group? Kafka’s ultimate goal is to work alongside his childhood fiend Mina who is now near the very top of the organization. Until he fulfills that goal, he will not give up!

Now I will say right off the bat that I know some people were disappointed that Kafka didn’t get to stay as a clean up guy who supports the team rather than being the main fighter himself. I get it, but I have to disagree because it wouldn’t be very exciting. I want to see a lot of fight scenes and the best way to do that is always to have the main character be a top tier fighter. At the end of the day that’s the only way to really proceed. So I’m fine with that part and Kafka makes for a reasonable main character. In terms of personality I wouldn’t say that he’s great or anything but I’d say he is average.

He gets the job done when it counts and has some good moments. I think what really keeps him from rising up is that it never felt like he really tried to achieve his dreams as hard as most leads. He basically gave up for a long while there and while he trained a bit, we just didn’t see that very much. It felt like he was half heartedly chasing his dream to be by Mina’s side for a while there instead of going full blast. Getting the Kaiju powers was basically lucky for him and from then on he had it made. I would have fought the government more near the end but most main characters would have done what Kafka did so I won’t blame him there too hard.

He tries to act like the younger main characters despite being old so in a way the age never really becomes a factor the way you would expect it to. His sidekick Reno is the more interesting character though. He wants to be a big Defense Force hero as well and has been training hard for many years in order to pull this off. He may not have super powers but he is able to unlock a lot of power out of his suit right away. If he wasn’t in a historic year of geniuses then he would have shined even more. He’s a good friend and ultimately Reno is the kind of hero that you definitely want to have on your side.

As a quick interlude here, the series maybe has a little too much fun with making everyone a prodigy. The only other series to do this quite as frequently is World Trigger and I would say that show did a better job of it. It’s just a bit harder to buy in Kaiju No 8 with everyone setting records and dominating. Shouldn’t humanity be doing a little better against the Kaiju with all of these heavy hitters around? And yet, there are other times where you wonder how they have been alive for so long otherwise. Without Kafka stepping in, most of the Defense Force would have been wiped out within the season. So it feels like the series can never really decide on just which team should have the advantage here.

An ongoing plot point is that the villains are getting stronger lately so you could say it’s just an ever increasing amount of power escalation that is going on within both sides. I suppose I can get behind that but I dunno it could have just been set up a little better. Either way with Kafka on the team the world can be saved real fast now. You know that the Defense Force had to be desperate for some kind of trump card with all of their fighters constantly being destroyed all the time. It would be really dumb to try and get in his way right?….right?

Well the government always falls beneath the occasion and of course they try to arrest Kafka. I don’t even know that I need to really go into this to explain why it’s such a bad move but I may as well. So Kafka just saved the entire team from an extremely powerful Kaiju that was going to wipe them out. Clearly Kafka is stronger than everyone in the room and could have murdered all of the humans in the room. The fact that he didn’t, means that he is definitely one of us right? Why hold him at gunpoint and get the guy arrested?

I say this for 2 reasons. First, lets assume that Kafka is actually evil and he’s just trying to gain their trust. Immediately saying you don’t trust Kafka and getting aggressive would just force him to act and murder you all. This is a bad strategy because it fails if you are right. Then if he’s a good guy, threatening him isn’t good either because what that means is he may have to fight you in self defense. Even if he doesn’t wipe anyone out, he’s going to have to go into hiding for a while and may not be able to help as freely. The only real option here would have been to get his help.

I’d also give Hoshina some grief for attempting to destroy him early on for the same logic. Even if you don’t want to take a chance and figure you should murder every Kaiju, only do that once you’ve wiped out all of the obviously evil ones. Otherwise you are risking your life in vain. Hoshina is a great character otherwise though. I like him as a senior rival of sorts. Someone who was a prodigy of the previous generation who can still hold his own against the current characters. In fact by the end of this season he is probably still top 5 among the heroes. I’m not counting Gen yet since he only appeared for under a minute.

Then we have his boss Mina who is a fun character. She is really serious to be sure and definitely doesn’t really do much of anything to help Kafka out. Mina intends to give him the same treatment she gives everyone else so if he wants to be by her side, he will really have to work as hard as possible. Mina might take this a little far but from her perspective Kafka has been disappointing for a long while so I’m cool with her being a little irritated at this point. In the meantime she continues to shred Kaiju left and right. Her projectiles are incredibly powerful to the point where even numbered Kaiju will have a tough time with her attacks.

Mina is strong and fast. She’s really the ideal soldier for the Defense Force and someone who will definitely not be going down anytime soon. Then we have Kikoru who seems like she will be the next generation of Mina. She is another prodigy who is easily excelling past all of her comrades. The way Kikoru fights is different though as she is a close quarters specialist who fights with a big axe. Kikoru continues to excel more and more in the fights despite dealing with some issues from her past.

It probably comes as no surprise when I say that she is the best character in the series. I always like that tough talking kind of character who is always ready to get into fights and mess with everybody. It’s part of what makes her such a fun character. I look forward to seeing her continue to take on more powerful fighters. Right now only Kafka seems to be able to do anything against the top tiers but these characters won’t give up until they can help.

Finally from the humans you have Isao who is the head of the Defense Force. I should say, he is the head of the fighters but there is still an executive council of directors who are basically around to have bad takes and sabotage the whole operation. I like Isao, but exclusively as a villain. It’s always hard for me to acknowledge him as a hero because he’s a bit too extreme. Ripping out Kafka’s rib for example to test if he would go berserk was crazy. Yeah I’d go berserk and take Isao out at that point. He just goes too far even if it is to prove a point. It’s not the way to do things.

I do respect his abilities though. The guy is the leader for a good reason as his abilities are really a clear cut above the rest. He can move with tremendous speed and dominates anyone who makes the mistake of getting in his way. I can picture him taking out almost any other Kaiju with ease. It also helps to have a leader who can fight like this because it instantly wins the respect of anyone who is around him.

There are only two main villains so far. The first one is Kaiju No. 9 who is a mastermind. The guy masters online games with ease and wants to remove Kafka from the board. He’s the only Kaiju who is really seeing the big picture and trying to change the world. So right now he is the villain you are looking at as opposed to the many Kaiju who look imposing but don’t actually have any dialogue or plans beyond just trying to crush the heroes. I’m not super impressed with No. 9 in a strength sense though. It’s the risk of putting in your big villain so early on since he loses to the main character and then sacrifices a bunch of hype.

I liked Kaiju No. 10 but of course he doesn’t actually do much here. The guy technically goes down fast but the design was really memorable and he did have a real character. So that automatically makes him rather memorable as well. The guy was fast and his main mistake was deciding to sacrifice that speed for more power. It’s a gambit that rarely ever works after all and should serve as a cautionary tale for other characters to be more careful.

The fight scenes in the show definitely look great. I like how fast paced the animations are and you can feel the power behind the characters. The coloring is on point as well and so in the end I definitely don’t have any problems there. Like I said at the beginning, it might not get as intense or spooky at times but considering that the anime is going more for your classic action tone, I would say it ends up landing rather well. Then we have the soundtrack which is good. I’m not really a big fan of the ending but the rest of the tracks are fine. The opening is super disappointing animation-wise, but the song isn’t bad. I don’t think it’s quite as good as it could be, but I appreciate the tone they were going for here. That is like something out of a horror title.

The humor can be a bit weak to be honest though. It might be that the characters just haven’t grown on me yet but Kafka just doesn’t handle the jokes very well. When he’s in Kaiju form we have some crude humor which was rough and in human form he maybe tries too hard to still be like a young person. This isn’t a show that is really built around humor though so it’s not a big thing. I also think some jokes are definitely funny like Hoshina messing with Kafka and making fun of the guy.

Right now the cast is rather small so I’ll be looking forward to more of the characters showing up. You already have enough good ones to satisfy me though. The series tries to expand the roles of Kafka’s other teammates but for now I don’t really care about them that much. I think the problem is that they all feel irrelevant already since they just don’t have the abilities needed to help. You could argue that Reno falls into that same camp but it’s already clear that he is improving very quickly so the foreshadowing is there.

Overall, Kaiju No. 8 is a pretty fun show. It may not reach the level of great for me yet but there is a lot of content left to cover and I’m confident that future seasons will be able to break into that territory. There are going to be a ton of battles coming up after all and with the character introductions out of the way, it can really focus on that right from the start. Yes, fans of the series can definitely rest assured that a lot of good things are coming their way. In the meantime I would recommend checking this title out and getting yourself ready for the sequels.

Overall 7/10

Megaton Musashi W: Wired Review

Posted on July 23, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to look at Megaton, a game that was on a pretty good sale for the Switch. That was when I knew it was time to pick this one up and they did a superb job with it. It may be Level 5’s best game yet. There are an incredible amount of fully animated scenes here and the story is intense. Mix that up with excellent gameplay and you really have a super well balanced title.

The story starts out by explaining that aliens wiped out 99.9% of the human population. Humanity now only exists in a small town where they brainwash their own citizens into now knowing what is going on so that there is no panic. Select people ae chosen to be “Pilots” who use their giant mechs to take down the alien invaders. The thing is, we are heavily outgunned and outnumbered. Survival appears to be impossible but Yamato is ready to try his best. He won’t stop until he has murdered every alien. That was the plan at least but then he falls in love with an alien girl named Arsham. Is it possible that there are good people on both sides?

The story is over 20 hours long so you can imagine that there are a ton of twists and turns scattered throughout the game. We get multiple time skips and you play as many different characters. This version of the game is also the complete experience so it merges both versions of the original game as well as adds on a 2 chapter epilogue. So the point here is you are absolutely getting the max amount of bang for your buck. The game does not hold back on any area either.

We get to tackle a lot of themes like war and the ever lasting cycle of violence. The aliens have very solid reasons for attacking Earth and likewise the humans have good reasons for fighting back…like wanting to be alive. There are over 30 named characters running around and they each get pretty complete plot lines. They even throw in Adam and Eve near the end to mess with everyone. I don’t generally go into the story much for game reviews so you can look to the anime review more on that (With season 2’s review coming eventually) but yeah there is definitely a whole lot going on here.

The soundtrack is really solid with a ton of great themes. My favorite theme is definitely Yamato’s KENKA Rock song which shows up a few times in part 1. Sadly as the tone gets more serious and dramatic, the song vanishes completely. Still, there are a ton of big opera themes and other serious battle themes that show up to help counter this. The final boss themes are excellent, the danger theme is really solid, etc. There are no shortage of great themes to be found in this adventure.

Then we also have the graphics which are really solid. Like I mentioned, there are a ton of fully animated scenes that really go hard. There are no more once we finish where the show went up to, but before that you can expect a good amount of them in addition to the standard cutscenes. The battles have a lot of great special effects and really pop out at you for the added effect. So that makes for a really good balance.

As for the gameplay, it’s a 3D robotic shooter so you can’t really go wrong with that right? It gets a bit detailed as well with every attack and part having a type, so then you have to factor in which type is good against another and all that. To be honest, you could probably remove the whole type effectiveness chart and I’d be cool with it. Still, it’s interesting and I made sure to focus on only using the attacks that were useful for each fight. You always have a bladed weapon, blaster weapon, and 4 special attacks. How many arrows were next to each one will determine how good the attacks are.

You also have super attacks that show up occasionally, but usually they only appear for battles where you are supposed to use one. So you will get the notification and then you’re ready to use it. You can also use your boosters to zoom around the arena and even start to fly near the end. The controls for flying can be a little tricky but for the most part you can button mash and you will be okay. In general I wouldn’t say that the game is very hard. In each battle you are given 6 lives and by logging in for a few days you get 10 continues which turns into 60 lives. So it’s unlikely that you will be losing here but if you don’t keep up with the customizations it is possible. Worst case, you’re so weak that you barely deal any damage, then the battles will last a while.

The game has some marathon battles which also show up and those tend to take a very long time. You have to win numerous battles in a row so be prepared for that. It only shows up 3 times in the game though so it’s pretty rare. In addition to the main story that is 20+ hours long, there is a decent amount of replay value if you want to try getting every part and beating every side mission. Perhaps not an incredible amount of replay value but probably enough to boost this up to around 30 hours or so.

The game’s not super expensive or anything though so either way it’s a great game. Additionally, you are playing at least in part for the story which is really high tier. It’s a full RPG level story which is not something you are expecting to see in a robotic game. Low blow? Eh maybe but it’s definitely rare for the genre. It’s a shame we’re not getting more Megaton games, the story definitely ends with a lot of things you can still do in the future. That said, it’s a satisfying ending that even has a romance I can get behind. Not all of them really land if we’re being honest here but the main one does which is the important thing. They get so many montages and insert songs that the game just really nailed the dynamic. This feels like a true AAA title in a lot of ways and higher budget than I would have expected. It can hold its own with just about any RPG out there and it’s why I can recommend this game even if you aren’t a big fan of mecha titles. There’s just a lot more depth to this than just that genre.

Overall, Megaton is definitely a really intense game. You won’t want to miss out on this one and should get it as soon as possible. You can also have fun with the customizations which is something that I didn’t really dive into all that much. The A.I. sets you up well enough so either way you can beat all of the story missions but if you go in depth with it then you can get significantly stronger. It’s all about how you allocate the resources after all but if you do it right then you’re set. It sets the bar really high for mecha games.

Overall 9/10

Journey to the Seventh Planet Review

Posted on July 14, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a film that mixed in the themes of sci-fi with temptation and the importance of willpower. You may think that you don’t need any willpower in space because you’ll just be with your friends but what if you run into aliens? The characters didn’t think about that and so unfortunately you’ve got yourself a very weak group right here. All they do is hold each other back which is definitely not good since negative peer pressure isn’t exactly helping things. The film has an interesting idea and reminds me of Star Trek a lot. That being said, I didn’t think it succeeded nearly as well as it could have thanks to the characters not being so good. That really makes a big difference in the end.

The film starts off by introducing us to the main crew as they are heading into space to check out the 7th planet. Unfortunately they all black out at the same time. When they wake up, a whole lot of time has passed but hey they have made it to their destination. Instead of a dead planet though, they’re on a pretty nice one that even has houses and stuff. It’s all really weird but they start investigating. The weirdest thing? Girls from their past have started to show up. It’s hard to say how they arrived in space before them but the researchers are pretty hyped. Can they keep their head focused on the task at hand though?

Okay so naturally this is already looking bad for the scientists but it gets worse. Early on they are able to figure out that obviously the girls are not real. Some kind of entity is using their memories to get to them and make sure they either don’t leave the planet or that they take it with them. This should make the whole thing fail right off the bat but instead they are just so happy to see these ladies around that they ignore their senses the whole time. Talk about acting crazy right? It’s a really bad look for them but also I didn’t like that the entity doesn’t have much of a plan for a while there.

Towards the very and I mean very end of the movie the villain finally starts some sabotage attempts and everything but it’s way too little too late. Taking them all out early on would have been super easy. The film has a nice twist ending at least but for the most part you’re just wondering what the point of all this is. If you have as much power as the entity and it clearly had a ton, then you should just take the humans out. They all should be getting bumped off with how weak willed they are. Turn this into the first space based horror film as the girls separate the guys and then take them down.

Yes I know there have been other space based horror films but none quite like this. It would really be about the characters being unable to confront their past and fears so they are easily overpowered. Then just have one or two characters who don’t fall into the trap and actually stand by their guns. That would definitely be the best way to handle this. This gets worse when you realize that the entity actually has creatures and stuff at the ready but doesn’t bring them out until later on. I know the main plan was to take control of the human bodies and use them but why not do that right from the start?

The entity clearly has enough power to easily knock everyone out while they were on the spaceship and they were apparently knocked out for a very long time. If you can do that from long range then you can probably do that from short range as well right? So just do it again and keep doing it as long as you need to in order to take over the body. Now it’s possible there is some restriction that the film mentions about his needing to be right next to the victim or to be in contact for this to work. I don’t think so but throwing that out there in case I’ve forgotten something but even then, knocking them out first makes the most sense.

Ah well, while the film may not be super exciting or action packed, I still enjoyed the writing. It has that old school dialogue that I always tend to enjoy and of course the pacing is solid. It’s fast and goes by real quickly. You definitely aren’t wasting any time here and even if I didn’t think the film was all that good, I like the vibes. The idea of going to a planet where you have to literally face off against your memories is interesting. I think a better film could easily do wonders with this kind of premise. Unfortunately it just ended up being wasted here. So you can watch it to think about the premise or skip it, it’s really on the fence.

Overall, Journey to the Seventh Planet is not the most exciting film. It would have been nice if the characters could have had a bit more agency here and not just fallen for their desires the whole time. After a ton of in fighting and everything they eventually get their act together but it took too long and by all rights they should have been dead by then. So I’m definitely massively skeptical about the whole thing. I was entertained at least but yeah this could have been more dynamic. Have the girls start bumping the guys off or something to increase the drama like I mentioned earlier. Now that would have been interesting. Instead you are just reminded how the average guy in these old films was super desperate and seeing a girl was enough to shake him to the core. They are definitely not ready for deep space and any tough alien would immediately be taking them down for the count. They were literally not built for this.

Overall 5/10

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