Mashle Review

Posted on March 10, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to dive into the world of Mashle. A lot of comparisons were drawn to One Punch Man when this came out because the series is about a guy who is extremely powerful physically to the point of having a lot of absurd feats. I would even say his feats start holding their own against Saitama for a little while there but aside from that general part of the premise, it’s not actually all that similar. The blend of humor and action work really well here.

The story starts by introducing us to a world where just about everyone has some kind of magic. If you somehow don’t get this then you will be in a lot of trouble and unfortunately Mash is one such kid. Fortunately as a baby he is taken in by a kind man who raises him for year, Regro. He has done his best to raise Mash in an isolated cabin since then so they are away from the outside world but one day the cops catch on. Mash will now have to enter magic school and pass the exams to become a Divine Visionary. It’s the only way to keep him and pops safe, but how can he compete with these students who all have crazy magical abilities? Well, that’s where the strength comes in!

So with that part it starts to sound a bit more like Black Clover and that’s probably the best series to use as a comparison. No wonder this series is so good right? A lot of the magical abilities are also very creative and powerful so by extension when Mash is taking them on, it makes him look even stronger as well. One thing I’d note right away though is that Mash is never presented as being unbeatable or anything like that. He is super strong but gets damaged and comes close to losing a few different times. He’s always able to think of something in the end but it does ensure that the stakes are high throughout. Mash can be destroyed if he isn’t careful.

There’s also the social stakes of everyone finding out that he doesn’t actually have magic but that’s more for the comedic element. Mash isn’t the smartest guy around and is a terrible liar so more often than not he is practically giving that secret away anyway. He also makes friends rather easily and so they aren’t about to give the secret up. So many people know the secret as each episode flies by that you figure it may not matter as much as everyone thought it would anyway.

What I like about the humor for Mashle is that it’s quite quick witted. There are a lot of great physical gags with Mash doing things that shouldn’t be humanly possible but then you also have the more out of the blue ones that tend to involve creampuffs. One is that no matter what Mash cooks or what ingredients he uses, it always ends up becoming a creampuff. It’s like a curse, but a beneficial one since that’s his favorite food anyway. The gags tend to be really funny with this one and there is a good variety of jokes to be had here so it never gets repetitive or anything like that either.

The show tends to lean a bit harder on the action than the comedy but it executes both really well which is the important thing. When the show wants to get serious, it definitely nails the tone. The fights are really solid and very creative with the abilities like I mentioned before. Mash may occasionally undercut the tone with a gag but for the most part if it’s a serious fight then it’ll really stay that way.

Fortunately the animation is up to the task. I wouldn’t call this a particularly high budget show for the most part but they knew their priorities. For example the average scene of standing around or moving through different locations won’t look great. The animation tends to be a tad spotty there but all of the important fights quickly dial up the intensity quite a lot. Any plot important fight will generally look great so the show knows how to turn it up when necessary. That’s important because you need to look good to properly convey the serious feats happening here.

Then for the soundtrack, that part’s a little more forgettable. I wasn’t a big fan of the opening. I feel like it was trying to feel like One Punch Man to encourage discussions and comparisons but it just didn’t work. It wasn’t particularly catchy. Then the show itself had some decent tunes but none that really stood out. I’d like to see the soundtrack improve in season 2 because I do think of it as a bit of a weak point right now. Nothing that would seriously hurt the show of course but it’s certainly not helping it either.

One of Mashle’s strengths is how each character really stands out. Part of what makes them so memorable are the striking colors for each one. While the animation may not always be super sharp, the colors always stand out. The character designs are on point and the show is just very bright. It has an early 2000s vibe to it with everything being so vibrant and the show is really easy to watch. It’s the kind of title you can pick up and play at any time, although it’s not like there are a ton of episodes so it’s not something you can watch too often for now unless you want to really get it played out.

Now let talk about the characters. First I do have to note that a lot of characters get off a bit too easy here Yeah forgive and forget is all nice and good sometimes but these guys go very far. Like Brad, one of the police officers was definitely going to murder Regro and would have murdered Mash if he wasn’t so weak. The guy has clearly been abusing his power for a long time now and so he should be in jail after that. Ultimately the show is more comedic in nature so these things tend to get overlooked but when you really think about it….it just doesn’t work. I can’t say I ever liked Brad much. He sticks around as a supporting character but never gets better if you ask me.

Regro doesn’t get to do much but he gets a lot of points for looking after Mash for so many years. He’s a good guy and really did his best. That’s the whole reason Mash is so motivated in trying to succeed at the magic academy. Meanwhile Mash is a solid lead. He may not be quite as charismatic as some other Shonen leads and isn’t exactly the most fired up character that you will see. However, his gags do tend to be funny and he has a solid amount of rage moments for when it’s time to protect his friends and I can always appreciate that.

Then we have another petty character in Claude. Again, the show could have been harsher with this guy. He was actively blackmailing a student and then kept trying to get in Mash’s way. He’s a straight up villain the whole time and I’m not super convinced that he is suddenly going to be a big hero going forward. I just don’t get those vibes from him but hey I could be wrong.

The main heroine of the show is Lemon but she never actually gets a super big role. She doesn’t look good initially as she makes the wrong calls but ultimately she gets better…at least a little bit. The problem is that her main personality trait is that she’s in love with Mash and that’s about it. So that doesn’t really make for much of a complete character. It just means that she will be really one note for most of the adventure and she also can’t really fight that well which knocks her out of most situations.

The same can be said for Finn who is a support mage at best. He’s always really nervous and can’t keep up with the other characters’ shenanigans. He’s just not my kind of character. I prefer to see characters with a whole lot of unwavering confidence who grin in the face of evil. Characters who aren’t afraid to mix it up with the villains and all of that. You know that they’re building something up for Finn but it’s going to take a while and so right now he’s on the lower end of the cast.

We’ve got another petty bully character in Lloyd. In a way that’s how you can describe all 3 of the first villains. This guy likes picking on the weak and that’s about it so as you can imagine Mash makes short work of him. There’s not much to like about this guy and he’s fairly forgettable. Fortunately the villains get better as the show goes on because that’s definitely a rocky start. Another villain who is more on the annoying side is Lauren. She basically uses her magic to make guys fall for her before Silva goes and knocks them out. It’s definitely not a magic that will work on most of the stronger fighters in the verse so that really knocks her out of the running early on. Nothing particularly interesting about her either.

Okay now we get to the bigger characters. First up we have Lance who is a pretty strong rival type of character. He challenges Lance early on and gives him a really good fight. It’s probably the first time in the series that Mash has a really solid challenge in combat. His character’s gimmick of being obsessed with his sister is definitely overplayed and annoying though. It’s his one bad trait and otherwise he’s one of the most intense characters in the series. You can always count on him dealing serious damage and all of his fights are a blast. Definitely one of the standout characters in the series to be sure.

Then you have Dot who is a lot more talkative and rather loud but unfortunately he is very easy to trick. The guy lowers his guard a whole lot and tends to feel really bad for himself. I’d definitely like to see him man up a bit more often. He does get his big moments of course but they are usually outnumbered by him being humiliating. He is one of the funnier characters which works in his benefit but definitely expect him to eat a lot of Ls. It’s too bad because he’s the character with the fire type magic so you could say that he takes up that lot there.

Another hero is Rayne although he doesn’t show up until later. Also, he’s one of those guys who doesn’t like those without magic to the point where you could argue that it basically makes him a villain as well. He was absolutely ready to take Mash down and would have if he was stronger. He’s the kind of guy that’s great to have around to fight the villains but you can’t trust him at all.

Then there is the headmaster of the school Wahlberg, but I can’t give him too much credit. Part of the problem with this guy is that he’s a nice enough guy but he still has people that he answers to. This means that he will make compromises even if he knows that it’s not the right thing to do. It’s a big issue in any series because in my mind you have to follow justice no matter what. If that means disobeying direct orders and such…well so be it. That’s just how it has to go.

His evil counterpart Innocent Zero gets a lot of hype but doesn’t really do anything in this season. You can definitely see that they’re building up to a big confrontation like an All Might vs All For One kind of deal so that will be fun. Likewise one of his top subordinates is a guy called Cell War who hasn’t had a chance to do a ton but in his brief screentime we see that he is incredibly powerful. Another true threat to Mash so the hero will definitely have to watch out. The season ends with a lot of intrigue for part 2 so you definitely want to stick around.

For the villains who are in this season though, Silva is a pretty solid one. He’s definitely a villain who plays dirty and uses every trick to win but he’s also very powerful. Even without his cheap tricks he would be able to defeat a lot of opponents. That’s part of what helps him stick out. If he was weak then he would come off as more petty than anything but like this the guy is on point. He leaves a real impression on you. Anser is another decently solid villain. The guy is the brainy type although that is also used against him as the guy’s main gag. I enjoyed his fight a good deal he ends up being a villain who can stand out. He’s not one of the most powerful by any means but he can hold his own.

Then we have Abel who is a really big deal. The guy’s ability to use many puppets at once is really impressive and he’s actually someone who did give Mash a run for his money. The guy looks great right from the start and also lasts for a little while which makes him stand out more. He’s got his own reasons for fighting and ultimately while he is a villain from the start, he’s fun to watch. He even plays off of Mash’s gags a bit here and there.

Abyss comes in later and strength wise is easily one of the most impressive. He can use arrows in the air much like Medusa to speed himself up and he can also use them to mess with his opponent’s movements. It’s an incredibly difficult spell to work around because you will be really disoriented the whole time. All it takes is one big mistake and then you are gone. Almost any fighter except for Mash would have lost this battle which just proves that point. Abyss is a very complete villain with a lot of solid development.

For some more minor villains who were pretty hype, next up is Shuen. I ultimately thought he was fun. The guy even made his opponent Dot jealous because of how good he is. That’s a fight he probably should have won too, I had my doubts on Dot really being able to turn things around there. He may not really get to do anything going forward but he made for a good villain. Likewise Jon was solid with his kitchen themed attacks. A good gimmick goes a long way so even though he may not return to do anything, it was a good appearance nonetheless.

Love, Wirth, and Milo fall into this camp as well. Each one appears for a quick fight and looks good. I liked their designs and overall confidence. They may be very minor villains almost by definition but they definitely trounce the average oneshot villain. Mashle really excels when it comes to making enjoyable characters like this. There are other characters but these are the main ones. The show has already done a lot of solid worldbuilding and set things up well for the second season so we’re in good hands.

Overall, Mashle was definitely great. It’s the kind of show that just feels good to watch with a lot of quality humor and good action scenes. You will definitely never be bored watching this one and the action is always a lot of fun. If you were worried about having to compare it to One Punch Man, you should still check it out anyway. Obviously I’m on Team One Punch Man overall but both shows definitely have their place here and I look forward to seeing more of Mash’s adventures soon!

Overall 8/10

Dr. Stone: 4D Science Review

Posted on February 4, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for the return of Dr. Stone. After the series ended a while back, it returned briefly for a 3 chapter mini series. That was a pretty nice surprise particularly since it actually does add some more context to that controversial ending involving the time machine. Retroactively it adds a lot to the lore as well although this may have been a bit too ambitious for a 3 chapter series. The first chapter has a massive cliffhanger after all and the second one ends with some mysteries but the third has to wrap things up rather quickly. I’d say it feels rushed but I’m at least 99% confident this was meant to be a 3 chapter miniseries from the jump so I suppose that was intentional.

The series starts by having Senku remember his first time trying to make a time machine. He was a kid at the time and so he knew he couldn’t actually build one but what he could do was test to see if a certain event would happen in the future. For example, hypothetically if you built a time machine and did find a way to travel through time, the best way to prove it would be to leave something for your past self to find right? Well nothing happens so Senku gives up on it but in the present they decide to try again. To their surprise something does happen…they discover a message from Senku’s father implying that he was able to master time travel but how is that possible? It’s time for the scientists to work on one last case!

I do want to say that this experiment is the most logical way to test time travel and it’s also why I’m confident that it will never be discovered. In theory there would be some evidence at this point from people going back in time. I know a few counter arguments for it is that they’re really careful about changing time so that only the outcomes are noticeable and since that’s our present reality we would not be able to tell. I’m not sold on that but time travel’s always an interesting subject. So for the heroes to get a message from Senku’s father, that’s pretty big.

It’s a great hook from the first chapter and the only problem is that there are a ton of really fun scenarios you can make from that but the series doesn’t opt to go with any of them. It’s a shame because I think that would have been great. Perhaps a little “Jump the Shark” in nature since it would be way less science based but it would be fun. Instead the series opts to go with the cop out ending as in it ends before we see exactly what happened. The series allows you to decide for yourself if the time travel worked or if it didn’t. Me personally? I’d rather know one way or the other. The author needed to take a stand here and just tell us. Putting off the decision of what happened feels like the author was just playing it too safe.

Perhaps one day we will get a sequel to this that explores the ending because at least if the ending goes one way then there is plenty of room for a sequel and that’ll definitely change things in a big way. Beyond that the art is really solid as always. I like the realistic style that is always used for Dr. Stone. The writing is also good as you would expect with all of the characters making plans and it’s good to see that Senku really hasn’t changed a bit. He’s still a super logical person who doesn’t let anything get to him.

I did appreciate that Ryusui also got a really big role here. He’s the first one to pick up on something and the series hasn’t forgotten that he can compete in intelligence with everyone else. Perhaps not as a pure scientist, Chrome, Xeno, and Senku are definitely superior there but in overall intelligence and picking up on things, it’s hard to beat him. He was also doing his best to shield Senku from taking any emotional damage which I appreciate. The characters are really a close knit group at this point and even with society back, you figure they will always stay great friends and won’t drift apart.

There’s one emotional subplot in here that sort of comes out of nowhere though. At best you just don’t really care about it and at worst it feels like just a way to nerf a character. The all powerful alien cube beings apparently have emotions and just hide them behind logic. Why is this even a thing? It just doesn’t make sense to me and it has this whole emotional goodbye to everyone before going back into its emotionless mode. So why is his basically filler? Because if you skip that chapter, the status quo hasn’t changed. It’s back to being emotionless and in theory the emotional outburst will never be mentioned again. So…..yeah there just wasn’t much of a reason for this. I can’t say I felt bad for it either since the being creates a lot of the drama in this miniseries for no good reason. If it just talked things through with Senku that would have been way better and Senku would have understood since he is a scientist at heart. There are some twists of course since this miniseries is part mystery so I won’t go any further into the nitty gritty of what’s going on there.

Overall, This was a fun mini series. At only 3 chapters long it’s really a blink and miss it kind of title. You’ll be done with it so quickly that it almost feels like a one shot but in volume format it’ll be a fun way to see the cast again. Each character gets a quick moment to contribute and we also get a classic building roadmap which was always fun in the series. It’s a little too short to really go into too much detail on this but there’s still enough for you to feel the nostalgia. Outside of the cop out ending which is a little iffy, there’s nothing bad here so there’s really nothing to dislike. Particularly within the context of the 3 chapters limit I’d say it did a good job.

Overall 7/10

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Review

Posted on January 30, 2024 by dreager1

All right it’s time to talk about the legendary Shibuya arc! Well this season covers more than just that but it is the big deal that people had been hyping up for years. You’ll have seen people throwing around the case that it is the best are in Shonen Jump history. That’s pretty bold words and Hueco Mundo would have a word with that but the arc was absolutely epic and the anime does it full justice. This is a season 2 that does end up defeating the first and I dare say that it is the absolute peak of Kaisen. Unless a certain fight ends up being a movie, I don’t see any single product beating season 2. This had too many highlights.

The show is really split up into two arcs. You have the Hidden Inventory saga which deals with Gojo’s past and then the Shibuya saga. I’ll talk about each one. The first arc is fairly short. Gojo and Geto are tasked with protecting a young girl because she is destined to be the vessel for Tengen. This does mean that she will ultimately lose her sense of self and so the heroes are reluctant about this mission. Additionally, assassins from various groups around the world are intent on taking her life. Usually there would be nothing to worry about with Gojo on the case, but the world’s most dangerous man, Toji is also around.

This was a pretty fun way to start the show. Fun may be an interesting term because the arc has quite the dark end but before that you could say that in a lot of ways it’s the most cheerful that the show will ever get. You actually see the characters having fun at the beach, playing basketball and just having a good time. It can’t last of course but it was a fun change of pace. Right away the show is able to show off the animation although I’ll get into that more later on. It’s just a really fun arc with some good fights in it. It’s got a good amount of replay value as well.

Then we jump into Shibuya and in a lot of ways you could say that the arc is just a bunch of nonstop fights. Right away you have Yuji thrown into multiple encounters and of course Gojo is dealing out some damage. Basically every relevant character in the series up until this point gets some kind of fight and it’s the big culmination of everything the show was setting up. In some ways it feels like a final arc and we just got it early. Due to how Jujutsu Kaisen is, you also don’t necessarily know which characters are safe and which aren’t which definitely amps up the danger. I’d argue that there are a number of fights here where you really don’t know who will win.

The anime also extends some fights like Mahoraga vs Sukuna which was an excellent move. I’ll always approve of making a fight longer, particularly when it’s two strong fighters going at it. It makes absolute sense that this would be a really long fight. Now’s a good time to talk about the animation in general, it is absolutely top tier. Some of Mappa’s finest work and it will hang in there with any other top tier anime title. Yuji vs Choso and Sukuna vs Mahoraga are my two personal favorite fights in terms of animation but Gojo vs Toji and Yuji vs Mahito are right under those.

Few anime can boast of having 1 fight of this caliber, let alone 4. I still enjoy season 1’s animation a whole lot and haven’t turned on it like many, but I will acknowledge that season 2 definitely wins. 1 I would say had the better artstyle but in pure animation this just can’t be stopped. When it clicks, it really ends up clicking. Gojo’s abilities really shine here and a fancy fight like Jogo vs Sukuna couldn’t stand out in quite the same way without all of the bright animations. It just wouldn’t be as hype and this arc deserved all of the hype that it could get.

The soundtrack is also top tier and in this area it does obliterate season 1. Again the first season had a great ost but this one is top 10 of all time good. It’s up there with Digimon Data Squad and Yugioh GX. There are so many different battle themes, remixes, epic themes, etc. The ost is so large and there are so many different battle themes within it. That’s the most impressive part for me because plenty of shows have a big ost but many fill it with slice of life themes and such while this one is mainly all action.

The show keeps up the nonstop action at all times and the plot is super engaging. Kaisen has really earned its reputation of being around the top. I’d also like to note that it is still really good about avoiding fanservice as well. I won’t say that it’s nonexistent, but it’s borderline nonexistent. It doesn’t fall into that trap and the writing is all on point. So this is solid on all areas. Now with this much intensity you can probably imagine that there are some slight issues.

We get a metaphor type scene where we see Wolves chasing a rabbit and it ends up breaking its foot while the others are about to get eaten. It’s 100% unnecessary and while it is fairly tame animal violence next to other titles, it’s a tad bit annoying. The show doesn’t hold back with the violence either. Most of it is in a full combat context so it doesn’t really matter much. In the fights I’d say it doesn’t go too far but when the civilians get roped in it can be a bit much. Get ready for tons and tons and tons of civilian deaths which all tend to be rather brutal. They seriously could not catch a break here. It’s part of the villains’ plan to be sure but you should expect a lot of violence here. Not enough where we enter Attack on Titan level or anything but enough for it to be fairly noticeable.

I had a slight power levels issue on the occasional fight that wasn’t given a big budget. Most noticeably in Nobara’s fight against one of the weakest villains in the series. The anime didn’t do a good job of making me believe that she would have any trouble here. She was just moving so slow that it didn’t make sense and came across like a rookie. I would blame this more on the animation than the writing because if you just had her move quicker or the villain attack faster then it wouldn’t be a problem. It’s a rare instance though.

Okay now let talk about the characters. First off is Yuji who is certainly put through the wringer here. He isn’t always able to stay strong among the events going on here but I give him credit for fighting through as much of it as possible. Things really don’t go his way and he is always put in impossible situation. The guy’s toughness keeps him going in fights but he is often outmatched. He has to go up against guys like Choso and Geto here who are considerably out of his league. Even Mahito would have been way too much for him one on one. Yuji is painfully aware of the fact that he’s not the strongest but he still goes out there and fights.

He may not stand out as much as some other leads but overall I do think he is a very good character. The final scene of the show implies that he’s got a new power depending how you interpret it but either way he’s going to need a whole lot for the next arc. His rival Megumi’s role may be a bit smaller but he still gets his share of fights. I really liked his team up with Yuji against the old man. It’s an underrated fight and it’s always great to see the duo team up. In most Shonens you have to savor the moment because the lead and rival won’t team up often. It’s also a fun fight because you don’t necessarily know who will win. The villain could claim victory since it’s not the most important fight after all.

Megumi does look good the whole time though and is willing to sacrifice himself to win. That always takes a lot of guts. Nobara absolutely gets the short end of the stick here though. She talks a whole lot of smack and does her best to contribute but the show presents her as being massively weaker than the main two to the point where she is an active hinderance at times. She lets her guard down and can’t react to the situation very quickly. I give her points for effort and I always like her personality but this was really not a great season for her.

Nanami meanwhile has a small role but really makes the most of it. He really is portrayed as a really mature fighter the whole time. He knows his limits and makes the most of his abilities to deal damage. It’s like someone with a skill level of 70 but using it to the max vs someone with 100 who keeps fluctuating. The fact that he was able to tank some attacks from Dagon was impressive and he did beat his share of monsters. I’ll always enjoy Nanami as a character, he’s a fun mentor.

Mei Mei and Ui Ui are more on the annoying side. The less said about them the better. They make for a good duo and can fight but never seem to contribute all that much. The last scene absolutely kills them as characters though. There’s an obvious angle that makes them look bad but also just running off is the worst. It means they have no internal fortitude and I wouldn’t trust them at all to have my back. The series has always been presented as a hyper realistic one and yeah you can picture that some people would do this. Doesn’t make them any more sympathetic or likable though.

Maki’s role isn’t particularly big here and like Nobara she doesn’t look great. She basically spends the season being outshadowed by everyone and not really being able to do much of anything. She desperately needs a power up. Outside of Todo, this was basically the fate of every sorcerer from the rival school as well. When Mechamaru was saying how they had almost no shot of surviving, you absolutely believe him because they’re so weak. Mechamaru at least looks powerful. Does he look good? No, because I lost a ton of respect for him based on something he does near the beginning of the season. Way I see it you can’t really come back from that. So I appreciate his power but I don’t like the guy. I’d also argue that he didn’t play the situation very smart at all. He put himself in a position where there was no way he could ever come out on top.

Then we have Riko from the early arc and she’s a good character. She risks a lot in the adventure and ultimately steals herself for what is to come. She should value her life more if you ask me but I understand that she wants to do what she feels is right. So I disagree with her choices but I wouldn’t lose respect for that. Would be nice if she could fight though.

Finally we have Gojo. The strongest sorcerer in history and he lives up to the title here. Every scene with him is the guy either unlocking a new power, or applying a new use to an existing one. It takes everything the villains have to try and create an opening even for a fraction of a second. I would argue that Gojo’s only mistake here is playing with his food. He tends to take too long to take decisive action even though narratively he does move right away. To an extent when you deal with a character this powerful, there will never be a way to resolve things in a way that doesn’t have some power level issues.

So I can see why you would want to get him out of the way because every second he is on screen is another second where the heroes have such a massive edge over the villains that you wonder how they could ever hope to make a comeback. He’s just way too powerful in every sense of the word. He is an awesome character even minus that though. Easily the best in the series and nobody’s ever passing him. He has a lot of style and is also a very practical character. If he needs to destroy his opponent to win then he will do just that. He mainly avoids it but when the stakes are high enough what can you do right?

All right, time for the villains. First just a quick shoutout to the Grasshopper. I really liked him as a villain, he may not be the most powerful villain but he has personality. He’s an example of a throwaway villain done right because he is immediately memorable and I really enjoyed the fight. That guy could actually fight. Compare him to someone like Haruta who has more screen time but is just really annoying. His whole gimmick is that he only goes after fighters who can’t fight back. That’s pretty lame even for a villain. Maybe if he was funny or something but nah you’re just waiting for him to get taken out the whole time.

Hanami is an interesting fighter because you remember her being so OP in season 1 and here she can’t do anything. It effectively shows the gap in power between fighting someone like Gojo or Yuji. In general I like how vast the power level fluctuations are here because it does show how without Gojo around, Jujutsu Society would have fallen immediately back in the day. So no shade to Hanami, but she literally wasn’t built for this kind of fight.

Then we have Dagon who has always been in the background but never got to fight before. After all of the hype, he does look good but isn’t as impressive as some of the others. He gains confidence in his true form which is good because in his intro form he’s nervous all of the time which loses some points. As a villain you always want to be as confident as possible.

The rest of the villains are all pretty high tier. First up is Choso. The guy hits way above his weight class and has a tremendous fight with Yuji. He’s fighting for his dead brothers from season 1 which is a powerful motivation. He may be evil but it gives him some sympathy points and you can get why he is fighting so hard. In that fight he had more to fight for than Yuji in terms of drive which really helped him out. Then he also gets an extended fight near the end of the season. His powers are very versatile and he’s just a lot of fun. I gained quite a bit of respect for him here and he ends up stealing the show.

Then of course there is Mahito who in a lot of ways feels like the main villain. He has the most to do with Yuji at the very least as the two absolutely hate each other’s guts. They have a lot of the best parallels here as they are each other’s complete opposites. The fights are always a lot of fun too since if he touches you even once it can be a fatal blow. You may wonder how he is never able to land any hits but the fights are very creative. I would even say the animators are at their most creative with him whether it’s showing how he can immediately turn someone into a sword and fight or how he reacts to instant teleportation.

His fights with Yuji are really a blast. It’s really one big fight that is broken up into parts you could say but each one is really excellent. I would say he may be the most interesting villain even if he’s not my favorite one. See, my favorite is Toji. He’s an ordinary human and yet he is able to go up against these gods and demons. In part that’s because of his heavenly pact which increases all of his abilities and in part it’s just because he is Toji. The guy has a ton of prep time and hand to hand abilities. He’s sort of like if Batman was evil. Any scene with the guy is incredibly hype.

Make no mistake, no matter what his last scene wants you to think, the guy is pure evil. He’s absolutely willing to murder anyone and I’m not going to let that slide. He’s a complete villain and in that role he is absolutely perfect. Then you have Jogo who is also a really good villain. He is noticeably scared of Sukuna which loses him some points. Yeah most people are scared of him but you have to hold your ground you know? The guy is always getting disrespected too which is the bad luck of fighting Gojo and Sukuna. So he’s pretty good and a great fighter but not as solid as some of the others.

Then you have the big man himself, Sukuna. As always the guy is really full of himself but he has the power to back it up so what are you going to do right? I like his confident demeanor, the guy even grabs some soda in the middle of a fight. He doesn’t accept any disrespect and even further, he demands absolute respect. Without it, he’s going to blow up anyone in his way. He likes having fun at his victim’s expense and the guy seems absolutely untouchable right now. A fight with Gojo would have been really awesome here.

Needless to say if you’re a Sukuna fan then there is a whole lot to enjoy. He gets multiple fights and shows why everyone should be scared of him. I also have to bring up Mahoraga because he has one of the best intros for any character in the season and also possibly has the best episode here. His fight is really a blast all the way through and also just starts so quickly. You wonder how anyone could have ever managed to tame the guy in a previous incarnation because he’s so unbelievably strong. This may be the only series I can think of where a summon is easily in the top 3 strongest in the verse. At least by the time this series ends I would say that is true.

Then we have Geto who gets a lot of screen time here between the first and second parts. It’s interesting to see him as more of a hero in the original parts. After going through what he did, it’s easy to see why he would turn though. I think the trickiest thing about a hyper realistic series where even a lot of heroes are corrupt is that it makes it much easier to imagine why someone would turn evil. Geto definitely went over the cliff but you can see why he would. Even Gojo contemplated just becoming a mass murderer on a whim.

Nobody would miss the guys he would have taken out but that’s not really the point anyway. At that point it becomes a question of when do you stop. Geto certainly made his choice there and actually has an answer, but the line that he has drawn is a rather large one. In terms of power set, I don’t find him super impressive yet though. He relies on summons with tons of monsters but none of them seem that crazy yet. Powerful to be sure and he could clear most fighters but you also don’t see him defeating the combo of Yuji and Todo or hanging with someone like Mahito. Based on his confidence you have to assume that he could but I need to see more out of him.

Oh yeah there’s one more hero in Todo. That guy is a lot of fun as always. He really inspires confidence in the allies around him and his Boogie-Woogie technique is so good. There are tons of applications for it and the opponent is forced to respect this as an attack option at all times. It’s part of what makes him such a dangerous character but he can also fight well in hand to hand. He sort of appears out of nowhere here and vanishes just as quickly but the role is really great. There are a few more characters like Panda and the ice girl at the end but this covers most of the main ones. Watch the season to see them all!

The ending also sets up the next season nicely. If I have a minor nitpick, it’s that the final episode does drag on a tad. I think they overplayed their cards of setting up how empty everything is. I would have cut those scenes a bit and also played the Yuji scene early. I’d absolutely end with the big guest star character. Why would you not make that the final scene? I don’t really get it because on a hype level that has to be the most hype moment without anything even being a close second. Like I said though, pretty minor stuff because I’m hyped regardless! That kid wasn’t very smart about walking towards an obvious monster though…

Overall, Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 lived up to the hype in every way. I would absolutely recommend checking it out when you have a chance. It’s a top tier anime that can compete with anything. It’s the full package with great themes, animation, fights, and characters. The story is great too and there are some solid twists as well. I hope that third season comes sooner than later because I definitely need this to continue!

Overall 9/10

Black Clover M: Rise of the Wizard King Review

Posted on December 9, 2023 by dreager1

Okay it’s time to jump into the latest mobile adventure! This game got a ton of hype when it was announced. I feel like we had to wait months and months over in America for it, but this was definitely worth the wait. It’s a very ambitious title and one that should last you for a very long time. In a way the fact that it is so ambitious is why I didn’t last very long though. It’s the kind of game you would want to sit down and play for hours but you will have to dedicate a whole lot of time to it and I wasn’t prepared to do that just yet. I played all of the available levels but I won’t be sticking around for the next few years of updates.

The game covers a good chunk of the Black Clover manga and it’ll be interesting to see when it passes the anime. I suspect it will be a very long time since the game is very detailed so far so it covers the content rather slowly. Usually this only gets more and more noticeable as the game goes on to buy even more time. Even titles like Pokemon Go do this by holding onto the Pokemon and only releasing a few at a time. So yeah don’t expect this to go all the way to the end any time soon but the more content the better right? Black Clover fans can rest easy knowing that everything will be adapted here.

The gameplay is your classic turn based combat title. You have several attacks to choose form and you can use synergy to attack with combo moves. The gameplay is fairly simple and it’s also customizable so you can turn attack animations off to save time or have the computer play automatically for you. Of course the drawback there is that the AI is intentionally not very good so they will often make a whole lot of mistakes. It’s the price to be paid for convenience I suppose. You will get the hang of the game very quickly although mastering it is another story entirely.

See this is where the game gets a little too fancy. There are so many things to customize that it’s hard to know where to start. Characters have their gear to equip, attacks to level up, attacks to equip and leave on the bench, character ranks you have to use in order to get further level ups, bond ratings you have to improve, food, stats for the pyramid, etc. It just keeps on going and the UI gets very cramped very quickly. I think this could have absolutely been presented in a much clearer way to avoid all of the clicking. You’ll be clicking around through the menus constantly and it gets really distracting after a while. Particularly when you keep on getting collectibles and EXP at a high rate so you have to enter again and again and again.

There needs to be some shortcuts and such to make this faster. Fire Emblem Heroes for example still has the cleanest menus for a busy game like this. I was never confused or clicking on the wrong icon. Dragon Ball Legendz was another good one. I think Clover’s devs need to take some time to make the menus more polished. It’s great that they want to have so much content and for the people who take the game very seriously there will be a whole lot of depth to the gameplay. It’s just overwhelming for the casual gamer. I wouldn’t even call myself casual and it was a whole lot to take in.

I can already see how the game is poised to make a ton off of micro transactions with so many ways to make your characters stronger. If you want to style on your friends and beat people up then just pay some money and you can immediately get stronger. It’s that kind of game but that’s really all gatcha titles to an extent. So you can absolutely still play this as a freemium player and have access to all of the tools and items. It will just take you a little longer of course.

The graphics here are definitely impressive from start to finish. The game’s animations are very faithful to the anime and make good use of the CG character models. You won’t find much better looking graphics on the mobile and especially with the sheer number of cutscenes that are here. It almost feels like a full remake of the anime just with CG. The soundtrack is also very good. There are a good amount of tracks in the game although it would have been awesome if they could have grabbed the anime’s openings and ost in general. The cutscenes here don’t hit quite as hard without those.

It also goes without saying that as a mobile game there is a near infinite amount of replay value here. You could play this for years and likely not get to the end of the gameplay. That’s just how much content there is here and it’s an area where mobile does tend to dominate the competition. Gatcha games can only succeed for as long as they can churn out more and more content with the developers are quite aware of.

Overall, I do think this is a great game. It’s clear that a ton of time and resources was put into it. It could seamlessly make the jump over to consoles to be honest as there are so many cutscenes and such a big cast of characters. In a way that’s why it’s hard to do as a mobile title though because those games I am typically just playing a bit here and there with the exception of Pokemon Go which was made to be an outdoors experience. So I absolutely recommend this game but definitely treat it like a full console experience and you’ll be all set.

Overall 8/10

One Piece: Episode of Sky Island Review

Posted on October 9, 2023 by dreager1

It’s time for the next One Piece special on the docket. This one is about Skypiea but I guess they went for Sky Island to keep it a little more vague. Additionally Enel is now called Eneru….I prefer the old version but hey it’s a pretty minor thing. The special is good and does a decent job capturing the arc but it doesn’t work as well as the East Blue special because this one really goes out of its way to skip the fights. It doesn’t nail any of the really emotional moments as well as the show did and so what you get is an arc that is wayyyy watered down next to the show version. This is still nostalgic though.

The special starts with Luffy and gang heading to a small island where someone explains that there used to be a guy called Nolan the Liar. He would lie about everything including seeing an island floating in the sky but this guy is a direct descendent and believes that the stories are true. So now he continues to dive underwater in order to prove it, but this ain’t easy. Well Luffy and friends are going to pay a visit to the sky island but they find that it is being ruled by the god of lightning, Eneru. Can they defeat him and save the local islanders?

So there’s a lot to enjoy here since this is a big One Piece arc but at the same time it does lose a lot of the powerful moments and I will explain. For example, one of the biggest scenes in the show is when Enel made a huge lightning blast over one of the strawhats and it was one of the first times we saw him use such a big blast. The scene went in slow-mo and it was all very tense because we could see the damage it did. That scene straight up doesn’t happen here.

We also miss out on Zoro’s entire fight against one of the angels which was unfortunate because that was a really fun battle. Even their big battle with Eneru was very short. I guess it wasn’t a super long fight in the main show either but this felt like a blink and you’ll miss it kind of moment which is definitely not what the original was like. Even the Luffy vs Enel fight doesn’t feel quite as long or grand as it should be. It does at least get way more screentime than anything else though so you couldn’t ask for much more there.

Chopper only gets a quick instance for his win as well which doesn’t show you much. There was a lot going on with the whole island survival game but the whole thing is basically shown in quick stills as everyone is wiped out. That’s what should have been expanded and I feel like the runtime should have just been extended a little. The special goes by quickly and considering that it’s a whole arc we’re dealing with, making it around 2 hours would have been really nice. Especially since this arc gets more important each time.

Now a common topic to think about is if Enel would still be a threat in future arcs. I’d say at best he gets up to the CP9 saga but that’s it because his speed wasn’t enough to dodge Luffy’s attacks while in Gear 1. So as good as you think his lightning may be, his speed isn’t at a level where he could seriously be a fierce opponent to most. I’m sure he will get buffed a lot if he ever does reappear in the manga but I do have my doubts on that. Of course it would be awesome but the series is slowly getting to the very end of its saga so in that case it’s probably over.

The special has a pretty emotional ending with Luffy and the gang proving that Nolan wasn’t a liar. I’m also glad that the people in Skypiea had realized this too because otherwise the whole flashback would have been pretty tragic. I mean it definitely was still tragic either way, One Piece doesn’t hold back on the feels. There was some hope though and it could have all been a lot darker. So like this I was pretty satisfied. I’m naturally a lot more interested in the present stuff though and the flashback gets a ton of screentime which is also part of why it doesn’t stand up to the East Blue saga where the vast majority was about the Strawhats.

In terms of animation the special looks good enough. I don’t think it looks nearly as good as the East Blue saga though and it’s clear this one wasn’t super high budget the way the other special felt like it was. The soundtrack brings in the classic One Piece tunes which is nice enough. One of these days the specials should bring a whole new soundtrack even if it takes away from the nostalgia feel a little. Just switch things up to really make everything pop out. It’s One Piece so to an extent it will always be very good no matter what happens but this would help to really take it to the next level.

Overall, This was a really fun adventure. It just feels like they left a whole lot of meat on the bone. While nothing will beat the original source material I’d say the idea behind these specials is to give you something more or less comparable so you can just enjoy that instead of redoing the whole saga again. That doesn’t work in this case because you’re just missing out on too much action. So now you have to watch the show again which unfortunately does destroy the point of this. It’s unfortunate but that’s just the way that it is. Still good though so I’d recommend checking it out if you’re an experienced One Piece fan but I’d probably deflect people unfamiliar with the series to the TV show instead.

Overall 7/10

One Piece: Episode of East Blue Review

Posted on October 9, 2023 by dreager1

It’s time for one of those classic One Piece remake specials. This one has to cover a lot of ground since it’s going over the whole East Blue saga but it definitely pulls this off really well. In a way it’s like a template for the live action series. While the general audience would probably be a little confused if it had been adapted exactly like this, I feel like it worked really well. It’s a great special and really reminds you of the classic days of One Piece.

The special is divided up into 5 sections told through flashbacks from each crew member. The first one is naturally Luffy as we see his very first adventure. Of course this involves getting his devil fruit and Shanks saving him from a giant monster. It’s a pretty good origin that has stood the test of time. Yes you may still wonder why Shanks didn’t awaken his advanced haki in order to stop the monster and how he got speed blitzed by a random joe with the help of a smoke bomb. All very valid questions but it’s best to just acknowledge this as a quick fumble and keep it moving. At the end of the day that is all we can really do. It’s still a very tense opening.

You also see how Shanks and friends were true pirates. When the going got tough they did not spare any prisoners, they straight up murdered their opponents. It’s a brutal reminder that as nice as they are, they’re still pirates and aren’t about to serve as marines in arresting everybody. Seeing Luffy come into his own as a pirate makes for a solid conclusion and you’re reminded how far he has come. So all in all that works as a really good way to start this up

Then we get to Zoro’s segment. His origin is still extremely emotional the whole time and definitely one that you won’t soon forget. I do think he probably didn’t handle the situation very well in terms of allowing Axe Hand Morgan to capture him though. That’s just way too risky even when it is intentional. Once he joined Luffy then it was all uphill though. They also included his big battle with Mihawk which is still an excellent fight. They even extended the choreography and made this a true fight from start to finish. Of course he was overwhelmed but the production values were on point and I dare say that it is the best looking moment in the special.

After that we have the Usopp arc. He lied so many times that eventually nobody believed him which has to be a rough situation to be in. He definitely shouldn’t have lied so often though, this was the only way that it was going to go. Captain Kuro still makes for a very imposing villain along with his teammates. We get to see Luffy shine and of course Usopp does man up in the end. It’s easily the weakest of the 5 segments in the special but of course it’s still solid either way. Usopp just wasn’t ready out of the gate the way that the others were.

Then we have Sanji’s story which is a lot of fun as you would expect. I like how bold he was in attacking anyone who got in his way and this is back from when he was a lot more charming and wasn’t being overly flanderized with the flirting. So this version actually had a lot of dignity about him with a clear vision on finding the All Blue. His flashback is also another really sad one and of the main 5, probably the most brutal aside from Nami’s. They also really extended his fight with the minion that he fed.

The fact that the villain actually beat Sanji was something I really forgot unless the victor was changed here. Sanji was completely overwhelmed the whole time and didn’t stand a chance. It’s a reminder that while Sanji is very skilled, he wasn’t quite up to the level of Zoro here. Some really good determination moments for Luffy in this arc too though, when he punched through the spikes that was really intense! Moments like that are why he is the captain here.

Then we have Nami’s arc which of course ties into the famous Arlong Park saga. We get her origin story which was really intense and her Mom was a really fantastic character back then. She really never wavered and did her best to stick up for Nami and her sister. Then in the present of course we get the famous scene of Nami asking for help and Luffy really dishing out the pain to Arlong. That’s what you like to see from the climax and it’s still one of the most iconic moments of all of One Piece. It works really well having this as the last part of the special since it’s the biggest climax at least by that point in the series.

So there’s really nothing to dislike about this special. It’s filled with tons of top tier content throughout and constant action. The characters are all developed really well and the animation is really solid. The colors are striking and the choreography is on point. The soundtrack has aged really well and they brought back some of my favorite retro themes. The technical elements were on point here, now I just need them to do Episode of Marineford already. That one already looks awesome but I’m always down to revisit one of the best moments in the series.

Overall, Episode of East Blue is definitely a great special. It took a lot of really excellent moments from One Piece and brought them all together. The length is also pretty solid considering the amount of content here so it wasn’t super rushed. It is rushed of course to an extent because it would be mathematically impossible not to be but it all works out pretty well. I would say that a bunch of the fights do start to get skipped especially by the Arlong arc but Luffy’s fights all make it at least. I would like to have seen more fights because that’s my thing but I know others would prefer the story beats. All in all it’s a reasonable compromise/division of scenes between action and story. I would definitely recommend this to any One Piece fan, you’re bound to be in for a good time! Even to general anime fans you should be able to enjoy it.

Overall 8/10

Naruto: The Whorl Within the Spiral Review

Posted on July 16, 2023 by dreager1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 8/10

Black Clover Sd – Asta’s Road To The Wizard King Review

Posted on July 2, 2023 by dreager1

I wasn’t a big fan of the Rock Lee manga when it came out and I can’t say that this one was any better. With a series like Black Clover it’s always hard to picture anything short of pure brilliance but this series manages to go under my expectations time and time again. I dare say it has even more constant crude humor jokes than Pac Man which is absolutely crazy. You can barely go a page without something sad happening here. Yeah this is definitely a series to avoid at all costs.

The basic plot is the same as the main series. Basically Asta wants to become the Wizard King at all costs and he will do whatever it takes in order to achieve his dream. Along the way he has met up with many allies and has made a name for himself. Can he really become the king though or is that just a pipe dream? With only 13 chapters at the ready the series is over quickly at least which is really the only positive thing I can say about it. Otherwise it’s definitely brutal so lets dive into this.

The main negative of course is the comic relief as I mentioned. There are constant poop jokes in every chapter, the characters can’t seem to keep their pants up and the whole thing’s sad. The worst part about this is really just that it isn’t funny. At no point will you be cracking a smile or anything like that. You’ll just be wincing the whole time and I won’t even be able to blame you. That’s how sad this got after a while. A chibi spinoff or any comedic title needs to be able to generate laughs and this one just couldn’t pull it off.

The art itself isn’t even that bad. Technically speaking I think you could do some fun things with this style but the series never had any intention of being good. I feel like even fans of crude humor would probably get bored quickly since it is just the same joke on repeat for the entire series. Realistically who is going to have a good time with that? It’s also abridged enough where you will only really be following along if you’re a fan of the original Black Clover series so that narrows the audience (slightly) more. I’d have preferred a clever spinoff with fun references.

Think about Dragon Ball Sd for example. That was a really fun series because it actually throws in a lot of fun references and callbacks. You should be able to easily do that in any kind of homage because there are a lot of things to reference. Or give us some quality fight scenes for fun. I’ll always take that and maybe switch the timelines around so you can do matchups that we didn’t see in the main series. Basically any direction instead of the one that this story went in would have been a good idea.

None of the characters are remotely likable and basically they are all just one note versions of themselves anyway. It’s not like you’re reading this series for character development and depth anyway but at least give the characters some dignity. Without any character to like then there is little point in reading the series. You’re not going to get invested with any of the characters or what’s happening. I mean there’s barely a plot anyway but having good characters would have done a whole lot to get around that negative.

Because this is a gag manga there also just isn’t a whole lot to talk about. If there were funny jokes I could talk about that but there really isn’t. So after covering the crude humor which is 90% of the series anyway, and the art then that’s about it. This is absolutely a story that should be forgotten to time and I feel bad for the author who had to waste his time with this. This title only beats very few manga that I’ve ever read like Black Bird and Black Butler but otherwise this has to be in the runnings for the worst manga out there.

It stings even deeper when you consider how amazing Black Clover is. The Sd series should have been treated with respect like Chopperman and Vongola GP. Now those were chibi titles that really made the most of their runs time and time again. At least we got Quartet Knights a while back so the series had at least one good spinoff. I have to be grateful for that at least but then a part of me still just wanted so much more. I don’t think it’s too much to ask for.

Overall, Black Clover Sd is awful. Truly horrendous on all sides and you should absolutely skip this one. It makes for a very hard read because you’ll be cringing the whole time which can’t be good for your face. At least the series wastes no time in wasting your time because it starts off rough right from the very first chapter. It’s not a bait and switch where it started out good or anything like that so I can’t even say that it fell off. This was probably the worst route it could have gone with but the series decided to go through with it anyway. It’s a shame but sometimes that’s just how it goes.

Overall 1/10

Shaman King Review

Posted on June 25, 2023 by dreager1

Shaman King is one of those Shonen Jump titles that was really big back in the day but then it basically just fell off. So much so that even when we got this big remake of the show that would adapt the whole thing I didn’t see it mentioned much except for when it got mocked on occasion. Well I have to say that this is a title where a lot of people missed the boat on it because it’s amazing! I have a ton of good things to say about this one but in short, it’s a title you should check out.

The show focuses on a kid named Yoh who wants to one day be the Shaman King! He wants to live an easy and carefree life and realizes that becoming the King is the only way to pull this off. After all if someone else becomes the King then it might make things even tougher. Additionally this way he will have the power to protect those close to him so it’s really a win/win when you think about it. He makes friends with a kid named Manta and together they get started on their journey. Along the way they’ll meet many other allies and enemies alike as they go forward to the goal. Can they possibly succeed though?

Most of the show is basically a large tournament of course but before that we do get some pre arc adventures. Right off the bat I’ll say that the animation is really solid here. I enjoyed all of the big battle scenes and seeing the character use their oversouls. The author really had a lot of unique designs and seeing them in motion was definitely cool. The attacks stand out and you always looked forward to the battles.

Then there is the soundtrack which is actually the most impressive part of the show. It’s not often that I say that…in fact it may be the first time. Still, the music here is incredible! It has a lot of rock themes. Agni’s Song is one of the really standout themes and plays during the series’ best moments. You always know something’s about to happen when it starts. Then there’s Anna’s Resolve which is an incredibly emotional song that always fits the scene it plays in. It captures the desperation of each scene really well.

Now the pacing is fast since there’s a whole lot to cover and little time to do it. I remember feeling like it would be impossible to get all of this into one shot without going to 100 episodes or so but somehow they pulled it off. Now granted, I haven’t read the manga in so long that I wouldn’t really notice the fights/scenes that were skipped. I would probably take that a bit more personal if I was super familiar with the content but at least this way I can say as part of the general audience that it’s not super noticeable. You won’t have a bad time feeling like you missed out.

Yoh makes for a fun main character as he’s very unique. I can pretty much guarantee you have not come across many main characters who are as laidback as he is. Yoh takes this to the next level as he always says things will work out no matter what. It might be easy to think he has no drive as a result but I would still say the motivation is there. After all his goal can only be attained by becoming the King so he works hard at it. He just doesn’t stress about how things will play out which is a key distinction. It’s something easier said than done but that I would say is the right approach. Why worry about things that you cannot directly control right?

Like I said it’s really difficult to do that but it actually does make a whole lot of sense. At the end of the day there are times where you can try your best and it just won’t be enough. That’s just life after all. As long as you know you did everything that you could then you shouldn’t sweat the small stuff. That’s really a big theme later on when one fighter appears with abilities that are so good they’re basically unfair. You just have to acknowledge that there was nothing else you could do and then it works out.

The manga goes in a very interesting direction for the ending. It’s definitely not one I would have expected prior to reading the series but I do like it. I wouldn’t want this to become the norm of course but it’s a great way of writing around a powerful villain and not allowing any power level hax at the end. Trust me the author would have been in a tough spot if he wanted to end it traditionally. I would have just had a very hard time buying into it no matter how convincing he tried to be. That just wouldn’t have been easy. Now there are a lot of characters here so lets start diving into them.

Anna is an excellent main heroine who even gets a whole flashback arc to herself. Right away that speaks volumes since you wouldn’t get that kind of attention otherwise. She’s a very tough character who always makes sure that Yoh keeps up with her training. Despite her tough demeanor she always looks out for the side characters as well and protects Tamao as well as the little kids when the villains are around. I really enjoyed the fact that she could hold her own in a fight all the way through to the end of the series. Anna may not fight physically but she knows how to make the most out of her summons.

Manta is the human in the group so he sort of represents the general audience. He doesn’t know anything about spirits or what’s going on here so gradually he begins to learn all of this by hanging out with Yoh. I can’t say I ever ended up liking the character all that much though. Sure he’s nice enough but he can’t really fight and basically ends up being a hostage at times. His father was actually a lot more interesting as he actually used his money to get weapons and results enough so that he could try and threaten Hao. Obviously that doesn’t go so well but I liked the attempt. If Manta used his money more for things like that then that would be awesome.

Ren is a great character as you can probably guess. He’s basically the rival in the series and has the classic arc of starting off evil and then turning good. They really go far with this though and he gets a ton of development beyond that. He tries to own up to the crimes his family has committed and doesn’t waiver. He continues to get stronger and even by the end of the series he still has his confidence. Now yes, he does get completely surpassed by Yoh but that was always going to be inevitable. The fact that he lasted so long was still impressive and I just love rival type characters like this.

I would make the case that he’s one of the more complete rivals in league with characters like Vegeta than the average ones. Meanwhile Horohoro is sort of like the second rival but gets more of the shaft. He tends to be treated more like a joke when the going gets tough which is rough for his fans. He is still very powerful but becomes irrelevant a lot sooner. To make up for this he does have a power up near the end but by then it’s already a bit too late to compete with the others who kept on getting stronger and stronger. At times Horohoro can lose his head but he’s definitely someone that you want in your corner at all times.

Ryu is a character who grew on me a little more in the anime but I still don’t like him much. He’s one of the weaker members of the cast both in terms of personality and strength. He’s always lagging behind but at least he does have the determination to keep on fighting. He definitely has his moments where he stands up and receives a lot of punishment but he’s also just not that funny. His redemption arc was fairly decent but he really could have stood to be cooler. His gimmick of always whining about wanting to be with Lysberg got old fast.

Then you have Faust who is my least favorite member of the group. He tried dissecting Manta and I never forgot that. It’s just too much to come back from. At that point you might as well just make him a villain because that was just completely diabolical. From then on he is supposed to be a hero you can root for but I just couldn’t do it. It may sound crazy but sometimes a single scene is enough to hold you back. From that point you just can’t move forward and that’s what happened here.

Joco is next and he was okay. Also not someone I was a big fan of (I guess I liked the side characters more than the main ones at times) but at least he’s better than Faust. Joco also starts off as a villain but gradually learns to respect human life more and becomes someone who can be handy in a fight. He sacrificed a whole lot for power, a bit too much if you ask me. But temporarily the reward was that he was one of the most powerful characters in the series. He doesn’t get to fight much after that but he leveled up really quickly.

Finally there is Lysberg who is a fun character. He’s desperate for revenge against Hao and won’t stop until he’s taken the guy down. The problem is that like Angel’s grudge against Apocalypse is futile because of the power difference, Lysberg is leagues weaker than Hao. He has no way of enacting revenge which makes him more and more desperate. I actually liked him quite a bit in the show when I didn’t like him much in the manga so his character was handled well. Ultimately he learns to work with his rage instead of letting it control him and that was a really good message to put out there.

Yoh’s father Mikihisa gets a decent role by the end of the series but you do have to wonder where he was the whole time. It’s great that he finally appeared to train Ren and the others but if he was this strong then he should have been helping out in the whole fight against Hao from the start. I didn’t buy any of the excuses for why he was gone the whole time. Nah I just don’t see it, he knew that there was danger and didn’t step up. That’s not something you can really do.

Then of course we have the big gun himself, Hao. Hao is a very interesting villain because in his own way he does believe that what he is doing is just. He murders people all the time and amasses a lot of power but doesn’t see himself as cruel. He just thinks that he is above good and evil. I would say he definitely had a firm evil slant initially but the more he talks with Yoh and friends, the softer he gets. He just doesn’t like humans but quite a few characters in the series don’t and I can see why. Hao easily has one of the most iconic baby scenes in all of anime as he fights and talks tough when he was just born. That’s really impressive and he only gets stronger from there.

He’s a very layered villain and one who doesn’t come off as pretentious. I always looked forward to seeing him show up and dish out the damage. Hao is absolutely a highlight of the whole series and I really enjoyed his brief team up with the heroes. Admittedly you couldn’t take the cliffhanger seriously since the humans were completely doomed but it was a really cool moment anyway. His theme is also one of the most iconic in the series and you’re interested in what he’ll do after the series is over.

Tamao is a character that I never ended up liking all that much. She’s super shy and likes Yoh so you know that she’s doomed the whole time. She has her moments where she tries to get stronger and I do like how Anna is still very friendly with her. Anna still considers Tamao as a friend and on one hand it’s almost tragic for Tamao that Anna doesn’t even regard her as a remote threat but it’s much better than this turning into some kind of triangle which would have been awful. Still, make Tamao tougher and that would have been cool.

Then there’s Ren’s sister Jun who starts off as a villain but also gets better. I still think her dynamic with Pairon can be a little odd considering that her family completely ruined his life but I guess he’s good about moving forward and not letting the past drag him down. Jun doesn’t get a ton of screen time but makes the most of it. Yuan makes for a good villain but he’s a character who lost all his edge once he turned good so I didn’t like him as much after that.

There are a ton of Patch members running around and a lot of them do get a role in the final arc but for the most part Silva’s the only one with a big role. He works well as the mentor figure and I’m glad that at least he was trying to do something about the Hao situation. The others were just going with the flow which is not what you want to see out of the organizers. They should be the ones up in arms trying to do something right? Perhaps that was hoping for too much. Silva ends up delivering with a really good fight and I liked him more in the anime viewing than in the manga.

Then we get to the X Laws which was a really fun group. They made for an excellent third party to the mix and while the power creep may have surpassed them fairly quick, they were memorable. In particular you had their leader Jeanne who had a really high power level and a unique moveset. You don’t want to be her opponent because those attacks looked like they would reallllllly hurt. I would have liked her to have gotten at least one more fight but since her role remained large it worked out.

Next up is Marco who was also a standout. He understands his role as the leader and never misses a beat. He can be harsh in his training but you understand it with the stakes being so high. At the end of the day he’s someone you can trust and by the end of the series he’s surpassing his limits and fighting with the best of them. The guy has a lot of honor and believes in his convictions which makes him a very tough opponent to defeat. There is also Hans who works as a secret weapon of sorts but I wish he could have appeared more. I think he would have been a really good ally to Marco.

The biggest missed opportunity is Sati to be honest. So she’s the leader of the third group of god level fighters. The problem is that this group shows up way too late to the point where you barely get to know any of the characters. They show up when the tournament is already winding down and so we know they’re really tough but you don’t get to see it. It makes the characters feel like empty hype which is no good. Sati for example has a good design and a solid amount of hype. Her first appearance was really good but it’s hard for me to say that I actually like the character because she vanishes so quickly.

Then we have some of the villains here like Opacho. This villain’s a total kid so he never ended up being one of the big ones tbh. I see him more as emotional support for Hao, someone the villain could really trust. I did like how they basically had a family dynamic going there but it would have been more fun if Opacho could have fought at some point. You’re always limited as a villain if you can’t fight.

In contrast Luchist was an excellent fighter and someone who really held his own throughout. His debut appearance left a great impact and his evil angel spirit made for a really cool mecha. In general all of the mechas looked really great but this one really stood out. He’s also a fairly complex character who still kept a lot of his mystery by the end of the series. He’s certainly a villain but a very compelling one and one of the best antagonists in the series.

The BoZ Brothers weren’t quite as hype. Sure they actually held their own against the heroes which was impressive and the music was sort of surreal to see but on the whole I wasn’t big fans of theirs. They weren’t that tough and I never saw them as a threat. They were just around to stir up some trouble. Peyote was a little cooler maybe because of his final scene. It’s sort of like a double edged sword since on one hand it doesn’t make him look too smart but on the other hand he becomes way more memorable that way. I really wasn’t expecting his plot to end the way that it did so that was intense. I guess you really do have to watch out for the quiet ones.

Quick shoutout to Dracula whose role was way small but he had a very memorable design and character moment. That’s about it for him but hey Dracula’s in here….sorta. Bill ends up being more memorable because of the Football motif and the fact that he actually returns for more fights. He’s low key fairly strong, he just showed up at a point in the series where everyone was really strong. Otherwise he would have done a whole lot better in the matches.

Then you have the 3 witches group in Kanna, Marion, and Matilda. They’re a decently fun group although I don’t think I was as big a fan of them as most. They were big enough to get their own spinoff after all which is impressive but they wouldn’t have been my first pick. Ultimately it’s not like they’re super strong either and most of the heroes could take them down rather quickly. Likewise the two kids Redseb and Seyram are heavily carried by their Golem. Without it they would have had a really rough time of it. I did appreciate their revenge subplot though.

Shaman King tackles the whole cycle of violence really well. The kids want to avenge their father after they were attacked by a gang but if they murder the one responsible then that guy’s friends will go after them and it basically won’t end. It’s the tragic case of why it’s so hard to stop the cycle. After all it feels unfair if everyone got to have their revenge except you right? But at the same time someone needs to stop it eventually. Ultimately Yoh is definitely the main voice of reason here as you would expect.

On the spirit end, Amidamaru makes for a good ally. He’s got a good honor code and does his best to make sure that Yoh stays on the straight and narrow. The two of them get along very well and I like the dynamic they have. He feels like someone you can trust! Amidamaru is already a good character from the start so he doesn’t even need a whole character arc.

Meanwhile Bason is similar but I would say he shows the negative quality of how too much loyalty can be a bad thing. For example if Amidamaru disagrees with something he would tell Yoh while Bison follows all of Yoh’s orders without question. There lies the problem though. When you follow all orders without thinking for yourself and that includes criminal acts then you really become part of the problem and that’s no good.

Kororo is a nice spirit who doesn’t talk but is always there for Horohoro. There actually wouldn’t be much to talk about with her but we get a backstory later on that adds a ton of depth to the character. Ultimately I thought that she was really solid. If anything her story is a lot more tragic than what I had been expecting the whole time. For the most part Shaman King is a fairly lighthearted series. It does have its serious moments but not a whole lot of them. This was definitely one of the exceptions.

One main allied spirit I never ended up liking was Tokageroh. At the end of the day he was a villain back in the day and sure he’s mellowed out now but eh….it was never too convincing. He’s just not a very likable guy and you get the feeling that if Ryu ever turned evil again and gave him an order he would just end up following it without question. That’s something I couldn’t say for the others.

Eliza is very memorable because of the past but technically as a spirit she doesn’t do much. I just like the idea of a bond that transcends time and death so she’s still looking out for Faust. I may not like Faust at all but Eliza never did anything wrong and seemed like a good person from the start. Then we have Matamune who in comparison is one of the spirits with the biggest role. I would have liked an extra appearance for him at the end to really tie things together but he was still a lot of fun. Some of his dialogue was a little too cryptic to actually be all that meaningful imo, but at the end of the day he was always helpful. I also liked the fact that he could fight and that he lasted so long without a proper master to give him mana. He was super loyal throughout and always did the right thing even if it meant fighting his friend. It’s part of what made him such a tragic figure.

Then we have the Spirit of Fire who has an awesome design. No real character but that was enough for the shoutout. Personally I would have given the other elements different designs to make them standout though because otherwise they all start to blend together. Likewise the Golem gets a shoutout for looking really cool. I forgot how he had looked from the manga so it was nice seeing him here.

Then for the story arcs I’d say you can mainly divide the series into the pre arc, tournament saga, the Anna flashback, and then the climax of the series. The pre arc does a good job of introducing all of the characters and getting them onto Yoh’s team. In a way even once the tournament starts I still think of it as the pre arc until we’re at the team phase. Still, you get to understand how the spirit fighting works and meet the characters. It’s some of the only times you will get to see Yoh at school chilling out so enjoy the time while you can. It’s paced well so you don’t feel like the series is being held up in the meantime.

Then for the tournament there’s not much to say there beyond the fact that it’s awesome. The fights keep on coming and there are so many different powers and fighters in the ring. It’s really fun to see how they all match up. Towards the end the heroes start to easily clobber their opponents but at least for a while there it was close. In particular once Yoh got to a high level even multiple fighters at once couldn’t phase him. I liked when Yoh was on top like that though, it showed how far he had come.

Tournaments are a great way to increase the stakes and introduce a bunch of characters so that’s something this series took full advantage of. As we neared the end we also entered the big Anna flashback and it was a really good one. We really got to see what she had to endure back in the day and they are some of the most emotional episodes in the series. I would even say Shaman King is one of the rare titles to really understand romance and how to use it effectively. I was definitely proud of how it went and the slowburn style is the way to go. Additionally Anna never loses her fire. She is always ready to defend Yoh and jumps into the fights as needed. Her powerful summoning skills can’t be underestimated. I almost didn’t want to leave the flashback land because it was so good.

Then you get to the climax which was a classic boss rush as the heroes had to keep on climbing through the final tower. It’s a fun arc even if it’s a bit on the shorter side next to the others. While watching you kept thinking that some of the fights were going to have to be rushed because otherwise there were too many enemies and not enough fighters. Considering that, they did a good job of still giving most of the members complete fights that actually went on for a while. The last bit is definitely rushed but otherwise it was still solid. The fight scenes were fun and we got to really see how powerful this group was.

Ultimately there is a classic epilogue involving a timeskip but that part’s less exciting mainly because I don’t really like any of the redesigns. Perhaps I would get used to them someday but they just don’t look very cool. The main characters all had very signature styles about them that worked well within the context of the series but as adults they all just look rather bland. It’s really just not the same.

If the show has any weakness it’s that the humor can be a bit desperate at times. Particularly Tamao’s two spirits who basically show up just for comic relief. They go so over the top you can barely believe what you’re watching. Still, they barely appear so you can easily get by them. Additionally there’s basically no fanservice here which is nice as well. The series is just very tasteful and that fits in with its very calm atmosphere. This is really a very different action anime and it succeeds on so many levels.

Overall, Shaman King was an excellent show. I have to say that I was really impressed all around. It was fun getting back into the Shaman King franchise after this like I quickly went and checked out the sequel as well as some of the spinoffs. The franchise has built up a whole lot of great characters and lore so there is no shortage of content. In a way the sequels might be getting too ambitious but that would be going off into a tangent. Either way I would say to watch this right away. It’s got a good blend of action and emotional moments so there is something here for everyone.

Overall 9/10

Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King Review

Posted on June 17, 2023 by dreager1

I’ve been waiting ages for this film. When they first announced that Black Clover was finally getting a movie I was definitely hyped. This is one of the best franchises out there and the king of Shonen Jump. There’s a reason why we call it G.O.A.T. Clover. Getting that on a movie budget was certain to be an all star product and the film does not disappoint in any way. It’s basically a lock for film of the year so you can basically skip everything else. Nothing’s touching this and now I just need to wait until we get the next season already.

The movie starts by showing Conrad’s fight against the magic knights. He puts up a terrific fight but ultimately Julius manages to take him down with time magic and he’s locked away. Julius’ eyes even flash black for an instant when he uses his ultimate spell which was intense. We fast forward 10 years to where a tournament is being held and Yuno will finally be able to fight against Asta. Ultimately this isn’t to be though as Conrad shows up in the present along with 3 other Wizard Kings from the past. The 4 of them have decided to destroy the entire world so that they can remake it as a better one. Asta won’t let this happen though and he commands the magic knights to unite and fight. Can they really defeat a whole squad of Wizard Kings though?

One of the hype parts about this of course is that the enemies are all Wizard Kings. They’re characters who are well fleshed out with their own goals and desires as well as being ultra powerful. To become the Wizard King you need an incredible amount of power after all so it’s not like just anyone can do this. Sort of like how I said Naruto surpassed the Hokage at least by the Pain arc at worst, Ichigo surpassed the Captains by the early part of the Arrancar saga, and Luffy surpassed the admirals by Marineford, I would say Asta surpassed the Captains fairly early on. You could say Yami is an exception but he wipes everyone else out pre time skip. Now this is where the rubber meets the road and we can see exactly how that turns out.

The movie doesn’t cop out with their abilities either and each king looks fantastically strong. Sure they do have the advantage of unlimited mana thanks to the super sword running around but even without that their individual techniques are on point. The movie is close to 2 hours and almost the whole thing is the big fight scene. This is what I love to see, the pacing is nonstop with action around every corner. Not every movie could handle something like that and it’s fairly rare because a lot of time you still need to develop the OC characters and have a lot of time to regroup. Here you hit the ground running.

There are numerous times in each fight where the villain or hero is about to lose and then the second wind comes in. That’s super hype to be sure because these Wizard Kings have determination on their side as well. They’re not going to give up so the heroes have to completely put them down. I’ll go more into their goals later on although it’s not as convincing of a case as even someone like Thanos. It’s a more surface level argument for world peace that doesn’t have too much nuance since the film makers likely didn’t want you to doubt the heroes at all. Probably for the best but of course the side effect is that these Wizard Kings do feel a little crazy.

Another really strong part of the film is the animation. Even outside of the fight scenes everyone looks really crisp. The character models are really on point and this is a full 2023 film on all sides. It’s just great how smooth everything is and it’s the kind of film I could quickly re-watch right now. The replay value is incredible and the choreography is on point. The super form for the main villain is also great and they didn’t hold back on the beam effects. By the end this feels like something out of DBZ.

Then we have the soundtrack and I think it goes without saying that this is going to be another 10/10 ost. You have the insert song from the anime, a song that I believe was new, and then a ton of battle themes. The soundtrack is very fast paced which fits the film since it was very fast paced as well. The production values were really high throughout and of course the writing and story is very good as well. Asta gets his usual inspirational moments and Noelle also gets her moments to shine. You can’t help but be inspired during their speeches.

Okay so lets talk about the villains. First up is the main villain Conrad. So he wants to make the world more equal because he’s seen how mean the nobles are in how they pick on the commoners. They murder, insult, humiliate, and basically enslave those without magic and right now the kingdom isn’t doing much to change that. As he’s mentioned there have been incremental improvements but it’s always small things and the world itself doesn’t change much. The main TV show has delved into this as well and so he figures that at this point they just need to end the world. It does mean to an extent that he did give up though.

Now you do get it because in a lot of cases things don’t always get a lot better even when the hero wins in the end. Look at all the crazy stuff that still goes on in Naruto. I do think Asta will do a better job of changing everything because that has been such a huge topic in the forefront as opposed to being a subplot but yeah that’s Conrad’s ideal and motive for this. I liked that Asta also engaged him on the actual points of this like how nobody will accept the end result after watching their comrades die in front of them.

Even if you could absolutely guarantee world peace, if it involves a massive genocide like this, then it will never end up convincing people. You’re doing more than cracking a few eggs, you’re basically just being the villain. At the end of the day I’m always about saving the 1 person over the 100 as a philosophy. You must never sacrifice anyone and of course this isn’t even a subtle case, it’s just him murdering a whole ton of people and so you’ll never waver as you root for Asta. I’m sure that each of the Wizard Kings saw some super twisted things in order for them to agree with Conrad like this but at the end of the day it all comes down to them losing hope and giving up when they shouldn’t have.

Conrad’s abilities are pretty handy with his key magic. It feels a little broken if anything with how long range it is but that’s probably why he became the King. It may not be fair but having a super cool ability gives you a huge push towards becoming the Wizard King and that’s how it’s always been. His final form is epic and the whole time he really puts up a good fight. He has a solid plan as well and shows good tactics throughout the film. I’ve said this a few times already but the movie never forgets that these are Wizard Kings that we’re dealing with and so they get a lot of respect.

The only Wizard King who was a bit off was Jester. Mainly because this guy just seems super evil and unstable the whole time. Sure he agrees with the plan for probably the same reasons but he just feels evil throughout. His dialogue is what you would expect from the Midnight Sun, not someone who used to be the leader. His abilities are still really handy with the barriers though. Barriers have a whole lot of positives to them like how agile you can make them. They’re flexible and can keep on adapting to attacks. This guy really doesn’t give up either and from all of the Wizard Kings you could make the case that he’s the only one to never really lose. He could have absolutely kept on going.

Then there is Princia who I dare say is the most powerful out of all the Wizard Kings. Take away amps like the swords and put all of them together in a fair fight and I’m going with her. First off she can summon an army of really powerful fighters and then once you get past them, it turns out that she is a close quarters fighter as well who can hold her own with the country’s strongest, Mereoleona. The fact that the fight was so close there really showed off what she could do. I don’t think any of the others would have been able to have held their own in quite the same way. She was also a fun character and had a solid personality. You could actually see why she was a good person at one point and ultimately just got jaded.

Finally we have Edward who is probably the weakest. Mainly because he relies on summons and ice but has nothing else once you get past that. This is relative of course, he’s still an incredibly powerful Wizard King but not as intimidating as the others. He has a good code of honor and isn’t just going crazy with power so I can really respect that. He has a good exchange with Noelle and ultimately keeps his honor to the end. He doesn’t crack or go crazy at the end which is really good because a King should maintain grace to the end.

As for the heroes, everyone gets something to do here but of course some get more screen time than anything. For the Black Bulls, I thought Finral actually looked really solid here. His reaction times were good enough to block a hit from Conrad and he was critical throughout in getting the heroes out of danger. Of course Noelle looks fantastic in showing off her high power level and also making an impassioned speech to remind Edward of what he stood for. Noelle doesn’t give up and the series continues to do a great job of keeping her in the same conversation as Yuno and Asta.

The various captains all get to fight but Yami is really the only one with a sizable role and even then it’s a bit smaller than you would expect. He doesn’t look quite as powerful as you might think as well but I guess at this point he’s finally being surpassed. His fans should still be satisfied with his appearance here. Mereoleona looks excellent as expected. She’s the most impressive grownup here from the heroes side. Her powers continue to get more and more intense every time she fights and it’s clear that she has no upper limit. She will just continue to fight until the end and almost no other character can burn as brightly.

Yuno looks great here as well as he saves Asta on more than one occasion and keeps going after the villains. He has enough stamina to outlast all of the Captains as well. I would say that even in the film it feels like Asta has left him in the dust to an extent because Yuno just doesn’t have the KO power that Asta has but his normal abilities are still do good that he can continue to hold his own. As always I like Yuno’s confidence and his positive rivalry with Asta. They really do a good job of building each other up as always.

Finally I’ve already talked about Asta but just to confirm he is amazing as always. His speeches really land and he’s the kind of guy that you want to represent your kingdom. He’s the last to go down and will keep trying to make the world a better place. Naturally there are a ton of other character helping out including a cameo so watch it for yourself to see all the fun characters. This feels like a true event movie in the best ways with how high the stakes are.

Now lets talk about the negatives of the film. Well…yeah I had no issues with the film so that’s it for this section.

Overall, Sword of the Wizard King is a film that I highly recommend you check out. They did a fantastic job of showcasing the skills of all the heroes while establishing these villains as top tier threats. The Clover Kingdom is so loaded with powerful fighters that the enemies have to be able to hold these own and that wasn’t a problem for these guys. The movie really goes by in an instant so you need to watch this as soon as possible. The only rough part is having to wait for the next product which can still take a while but hopefully not too long. When the series comes back though, I will be ready!

Overall 9/10

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Tag Archives: Shonen Jump

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Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King Review

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