The Goodbye Girl Review

Posted on April 28, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a rom-com that’s definitely got a good amount of drama in it. One of the main messages here I would say is to be careful who you decide to date because things can easily move sideways. Ultimately the film is entertaining and you’ll have a good time but you can’t really buy into the romance considering how much both characters hated each other for a while there. Well, mainly it was on Paula’s side towards Elliot but he didn’t really help matters.

The film starts by introducing us to Paula who has had a rough time of things. She and her husband divorced so now she takes care of her daughter Lucy by herself. She meets a guy named Tony who seems all right except for the fact that he is already married but Paula makes the terrible decision of getting with him too. Inevitably he ditches her shortly after. Additionally, he ends up renting out Paula’s apartment over to his friend Elliot. Paula has to vacate the place immediately and well she’s not happy about that. So when Elliot moves in, Paula decides not to move out. Can these two manage to get along?

Now both characters are jerks to each other for a while there but I will say I am a bit more sympathetic for Elliot here. The guy actually did pay for the apartment for several months in advance so yeah he does own the apartment. legally. The whole time Paula is giving him a ton of attitude but he’s actually being very tolerant since he really could have her kicked out. At the end of the day he is a good guy who doesn’t actually want to kick her out mainly because of the kid. I do think he’s restrained a whole lot so as not to make things tough for Lucy.

Yeah during the movie he retaliates a whole lot but I can’t blame him for that. Additionally he was expecting to have the place to himself so he could do whatever he wanted and now he basically has roommates. Paula starts giving him a ton of different house rules right out of the gate. Elliot quickly comes up with his own rules, some of which are a bit much I’ll admit. The morning yoga with burning incense comes to the top of my mind. Playing the guitar during the night isn’t a big deal if you ask me though.

Basically he’s trying for a reaction at times and Paula makes it really easy since she has a big reaction to everything. As for Paula, she’s been through a lot so you feel bad for her. You’d expect her to be a little less aggressive to be honest since she doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on here though. If she ever gets Elliot really upset he could really just kick her out since their whole temporary agreement isn’t legally binding in any way. She’s certainly been jaded by the men in her life but it has also removed her tactical experience. Every time Elliot messes with her she reacts in the wrong way, it’s almost funny how badly she is losing the battle initially.

Lucy is used as a contrast here where we see how she isn’t bothered by anything that he does. Elliot playing guitar through the night? Lucy doesn’t notice. Elliot starts chanting in the morning? Lucy notices but doesn’t care. Every single time Paula looks to Lucy to have a comrade in arms who is really upset but Lucy has already fallen asleep again or doesn’t really care. So Lucy does well I would say. She’s also very reluctant about having another man in the house and I don’t blame her since the last ones have all struck out. In that way I’d actually say she is being more sensible as well. The whole roommates to lovers thing just seems like a weak foundation for a romance if you ask me. Both of them are just charmed in the short run to have someone nice to talk to but that’s about it. It’s probably why Paula has been running through relationships.

Now I should say for a romance like this where both people are fighting, there are ways to make this work. Basically you can’t have either character go too far with how much they dislike each other. You establish that part of it is a defense mechanism and for the most part there should not be any prior baggage. Part of why this one doesn’t work is because for Paula at minimum this is the third guy. The squabbling romance works better when it’s an initial romance. Additionally it just doesn’t feel like there is any reason for each character to fall for each other because of all the bitterness here. I would say Elliot does put in most of the work here though. While Paula is still being rather rude and petty at times, Paula does his best like helping out with expenses and not intentionally messing with her. Aside from his early trolling with the yoga, he typically doesn’t start any of the fights. It still doesn’t make the romance work any smoother but I can at least say it’s not quite as fast as some other movies where it happens immediately.

As for each character’s individual plot, Paula is trying to become a dancer again but the problem is that she has been out of the game for too long. She’s gotten a bit too old and dancing is really a young person’s game. Ultimately she tries and it doesn’t work out which does make sense. It’s hard to compete with other dancers who have been doing this their whole life. When that doesn’t work she tries other jobs like being a car salesman but things don’t go too well. She is trying so you have to give her some credit there, it’s just tough to really get into a job sometimes with no prior experience at the ready.

Meanwhile Elliot’s definitely got a tough road here as well. He is an aspiring actor about to finally get his big role but the problem is that the director’s kind of a hack. He wants to butcher a production of Richard III by completely changing his character and personality. All of Elliot’s previous training and rehearsing has completely gone down the drain now. I’d be upset if I was him as well. Unfortunately the director does have way more power than the actor in this case. He tries to make the best of it and ultimately does get a few concessions from the director.

Overall, The Goodbye Girl is a film that’s fun enough. It tend to land more on the comedy than the romance though so the first half ends up beating the latter. It’s actually a decently long movie so at least there is plenty of time for the fun comedy before things get serious. With films like this it is always inevitable that the main two are going to get together no matter how improbable it is. You’ll be rolling your eyes a bit at all of that but the banter before then is handled well. I’d say the writing is on point as well and so this is a movie that I can recommend.

Overall 6/10

Toradora! Review

Posted on April 20, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to jump into one of those big romance-comedy titles from a while back. This one definitely goes all in on the comedy right from the jump as the first episode launches quickly with the main heroine punching the guy’s lights out and then breaking into his house. That really set the show up on a good pace and it’s definitely a really fun title. Usually the weakest part of any romantic comedy tends to be the ending as the comedy part eventually has to give way for the serious romance and this one is no exception. The ending is a bit of a trainwreck at times but that’s less than 10% of the whole show so either way I am able to solidly recommend this title to anyone regardless.

The show starts off by introducing us to Ryuji who is your average teen except for the fact that he was born with a really scary face. So everybody thinks he’s a big delinquent and that makes it tough for him to approach the love of his life, Minori. Well, this school term is his chance to get past that but unfortunately he is in the same class as the Palm-Top Tiger. A legendary delinquent whose short stature doesn’t stop her from beating everyone up. Sure enough, she knocks him out early on and it turns out that she lives right across the street from him. There is one thing that connects them though, Taiga is in love with Ryuji’s best friend Yusaku and Taiga’s best friend is Minori. So they decide that they will help each other obtain true love but what if they end up falling for each other somewhere in the process?

Now I have to admit that if they didn’t fall for each other in the end I may even bump this up to an 8 because that would be completely unheard of for this kind of show. You want to talk about plot twists? This would be the biggest plot twist in the anime industry. Regardless, for a show like this the process is more important than the outcome. After all in a grand sense you know how most stories will end. It’s just all about the execution on just how good the story will be and the execution here is pretty fun.

Right off the bat you see that this show isn’t afraid to have some slapstick in the mix. When Taiga’s not slapping Ryuji, she’s punching, headbutting, or just pushing him around. She’s definitely a really tough character and the show can be super expressive. There’s always some comedic violence going on and the gags work very well. I do tend to enjoy Tsundere type characters in just about all anime but of course it also depends on how the writing goes. This was a very well written character and the rest of them are very different from Taiga so it’s also not like this will get repetitive. She’s actually the only openly violent character.

I would also say that another strength to the show is that each character gets a whole lot of depth. Rather than expanding the cast with the show getting over 20 episodes, it mainly sticks to the main cast from the first part so they all get their own character arcs. Yeah there are a few side characters who don’t do much but they didn’t have a ton of potential anyway. The show’s at its best when Ryuji and Taiga are trying to come up with a lot of plans and just failing miserably the whole time. After the final episode there is a bonus episode involving school bento lunches that takes place early on and it easily clobbered most of the final episodes because of this.

It’s a series where you get so invested into the comedy that you don’t even want the plot to return. Of course, the fact that the plot exists is why the comedy can be good so you can’t really go without it. It’s like a mystery series, you have to allow for an ending even if you feel bad because you wanted more of the intrigue. The ending/reveal is a necessary weak point for these kinds of genres so you just have to get ready and accept it. In the meantime though you get to really enjoy the comedic moments as they come in.

Fortunately the animation is also very high end and is able to complement the humor well. We even get a fight scene that actually looks rather good in one of the classrooms. We’re talking about some real physical blows being thrown around and a lot of movement. There’s also a brief slapping fight later on during a trip and a nice attention to detail was that the stronger fighter got a much more powerful sound effect for each slap. The show was always ready to pay attention to each detail which was good.

As for the soundtrack, this is one area where the show definitely went above expectations. There are a number of really catchy tunes in the show. The first opening is also really solid. I’m not as on board with the second one but it’s okay. Unfortunately my favorite theme in the show seems to be hard to find on Youtube so I suspect it’s a small part of a track so I need to listen to it more carefully to find this one. It’s got some nice randomness to it that fits the moments.

So yeah the writing is really solid and that helps the series be a lot of fun. The main cast is generally really solid as well. As for the romance….well yeah get ready for a lot of rebounds. Naturally the romance will usually be the weak link here. I did smirk a bit as the romance went on because at first the show is at least trying to make you think that this won’t turn into one of those titles where everyone likes the main character but at the end that is also something that’s difficult for the genre to dodge. So I can’t say I was behind the end game pairing here. I wasn’t particularly rooting for any of them but naturally the best girl does lose since that’s always how it goes with these things.

The reason the climax fails a bit for me though isn’t even directly related to the romance. I felt like a few of the story beats weren’t developed enough so you were almost rooting against the main characters. For example towards the end Ryuji gets upset with his Mom for trying too hard to make everything work out without relying on him. So he then decides to run off which doesn’t solve any of the issues and really just makes him look super ungrateful. I wasn’t on board with him at all here. It’s at least a little understandable for Taiga but even then it feels too drastic. You never got the feeling that things were as dire as the main two made it out to be.

Then the final episode plays out a bit too melodramatic in some ways. There was no reason for Taiga’s final decision which just put a lot of heat on Ryuji for no reason. I guess the ending throws you a bone but it just felt unnecessary. So the final 2-3 episodes started to feel a bit off and the plot developments feel random at best but like I said, the rest of the journey was on point so that’s really what counts. There’s also a big difference between an underwhelming ending and a downright bad one. Like it’s not enough to lower the score or anything like that. Now lets talk about the characters.

First up is Ryuji who is super addicted to cleaning. He actually gets excited when he sees that a place is messy since it means that he can get in there and make the place look perfect. This gag doesn’t appear very often but I’d say that it’s a good character gimmick. Meanwhile he’s a nice guy who does his best to look out for everyone and make things work out. He doesn’t always make the right calls and makes a few mistakes particularly when the parental figures are involved but at least he means well.

He has enough courage to try asking out Minori several times which is more than a lot of other main characters. Things tend to not go his way which are usually due to stuff he can’t control. He also does his best to look out for Taiga even when they were just neighbors. I’d say this shines through a lot more on his side than Taiga’s to be honest. For most of the series he is helping her out without much in return for himself and he seems to genuinely care. He is the kind of guy who will really help anyone out.

Then you have his best friend Yusaku who can be a little more on the annoying side. His main character flaw seems to be trying to ignore what is happening in order to avoid conflict. That means acting oblivious whenever it suits him. He looks really bad in his mini arc as well when he starts to act out. I would definitely say that was his worst moment by far and it was hard to recover from that. From the main cast he was definitely the weakest. Still not a bad character I’d say but yeah he mostly worked as an obstacle/antagonist rather than amping up the main cast.

Then on the heroine side we have Taiga as the main heroine and she definitely brings in a lot of the heart for the show. She’s a little out of her depth on how the whole romance thing goes and so Ryuji has to help her a whole lot. Half the time it feels like he set things up pretty well for her but she wouldn’t have the nerve to go along with it and would mess things up for him. So again, you have to give Ryuji a whole lot of points for effort here. Taiga’s toughness is part of what makes her so much fun though. At one point she isn’t sure how she can help emotionally so she takes out her sword and just starts beating someone up.

As the show goes on she gradually learns more though and stars to become more aware of how to act on her emotions. In a way it helps her move on when she sees that she’s not the first choice. Of course that doesn’t work with the rebound that comes in later on but she definitely changes a lot from the start to finish. She tries to go down the noble route of just letting the guy she likes go so that she doesn’t wreck another relationship. Ultimately after a lot of pressure she isn’t able to hang on but it was a good attempt.

Her constant banter with Ryuji is always a lot of fun and she’s an entertaining character. Taiga is very much a bold kind of character who goes and tries her best at everything she tries. Then you have her friend Minori who is also a great character. Minori always believes in trying really hard at everything in life. She joins tons of different clubs and jobs and pushes herself to her very limits. She also believes in always having a great attitude and never gets down about things.

Minori even faces her fears right away in the first episodes without backing down. So she’s really fun and is another selfless character who is willing to throw away her desires to help someone else out. This can sometimes turn into a bit of a Martyr case where these things just start to build up but I can still admire this part of her. Eventually when her buttons are pushed enough she will cut loose but it takes a whole lot to get to that point. It’s never that she’s fake either but she tries to just tune things out that would cause her to lose her focus.

So she’s another really solid heroine here and of course the more solid characters you have, the more tragic the ending is going to inevitably be. The most tragic would have to be Ami though who is also the most mature character. Everyone expects her to be super mature too which is the tough part since she has an image to maintain. If she lets it slip at any point then it starts to turn into trouble. At first she’s a jerk but gradually gets nicer as the series goes on.

I give her the most credit here because she successfully keeps in her feelings at all times. Even by the end it’s not clear if Ryuji ever got what was going on. Ami made some fair attempts but when they didn’t work, she never tried to get in the way of the other relationships or cause trouble. In her own way she even helped out her rivals a whole lot. It’s the tragic kind of romance that is one sided but that’s what makes it fun to root for if you had to pick a pairing to go for. Can she get ahead of the other characters? It’s not always easy though and if someone’s not into you then that’s really where that ends. There’s not much that you can do about that.

So Ami’s a character that was doomed from the jump and you feel bad for her the whole time. She really stuck the landing though and never took things the wrong way. She ended up being the best character in the show easy and that’s saying a lot since the cast is generally pretty good. Then we have a few minor classmates but they tend to be weaker or just don’t get much to do. First is Koji who is just annoying the whole time. I felt like he had no real purpose in the story other than to be annoying. Seriously he doesn’t add anything to the story at all and he’s just not that funny. I guess he serves the role as the hopeless flirt who is out of his league.

Then there is Hisamisu who gets a sudden romance plot with Maya at the end but it comes in way too late. It’s also crazy how late he is to the party as he tries to ship Taiga and Yusaku well after that plot had already ended. Meanwhile Maya was trying to get Ryuji and Taiga together so she could be with Yusaku but nothing really came out of this either. Maya was at least a fun character though and if she had appeared more I think she would have been able to add to the dynamic.

Then we have Ryuji’s mom Yasuko who has a medium sized role here. While the show is mainly good about not having too much fanservice, it does feel like that is her role for the most part. There are other moments for other characters here and there but the camera usually gets dicey when Yasuko is around. I feel like this even fools the writers into forgetting just how tragic of a character she is. Yasuko has to raise Ryuji all by herself and works nights and picks up as many part time jobs as possible to support him. She is really working hard and doing her best at all times yet the show kind of turns against her in the end. I didn’t think anything about the ending was justified against her. They call her immature and everything but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

She sacrificed a whole lot to help Ryuji and it makes sense that she wanted him to focus on his studies. So this was one plot where I definitely disagreed with the direction that the show went in. We understood why Taiga’s dad was a big villain as he kept on breaking her heart over and over again. The Mom didn’t get enough to do so that’s a bit harder to tell but at least we could reasonably say she wasn’t being very helpful. This just wasn’t the case for Yasuko.

I’m not really sure what their pet bird Inko added to the show though. I think it went a bit too far in trying to make his character design look really ugly though. They could have made him look a little cooler. Then you have the teacher Yuri who is okay. You feel a little bad for her too though since her high school life definitely left her wanting for more and now she feels like she’s too old to really do anything. That’s got to be rough. She is absolutely too harsh on herself though.

Finally there is the student council present Sumire who doesn’t appear for long but she has a pivotal role in one arc. She was a solid character who handled the situation pretty well. I guess making a joke out of the guy’s confession towards her was not very nice but the setting for being asked out was pretty bad. Never ask someone out in front of a huge crowd and put them on the spot like that. Ultimately I can also see why she was a bit disillusioned since Yusaku took the news of her leaving so badly. I think she could have even been a good addition to the main cast as another strong member who could handle anything if she had stuck around.

Overall, Toradora is a pretty fun series. You’ll definitely get a solid amount of laughs out of it and the pacing is on point. The characters all get a ton of development to them and you really feel the progression from each of them. None of them are really the same as they initially started which is the sign of a solid show there. The status quo was definitely changed quite a few times and the show is long enough where it gets to take its time in each one and we can see the characters just interact. You really feel like you know all of the characters very well by the end. A sequel could definitely be fun at some point although the ending is fairly definitive. I also think it’s hard to match the school setting since in College they will all be split up but I suppose then it’s up to the writers to come up with a bunch of fun new characters.

Overall 7/10

Lycoris Recoil Review

Posted on April 20, 2024 by dreager1

I remember this anime being massively popular when it first came out. There were clips of it everywhere and it looked like a pretty fun show all around. Well, I have now gotten to dive into it and it is a fun experience. I’d say the dynamic between the main two heroines is definitely one of the stronger ones and is a big reason as to why the show is fun to watch. It’s also the only time I can think of where you have one character who is a prodigy and then the other is a super prodigy to the point where the first one even looks super weak. The power scaling here gets pretty intense.

In this world, there are a group of girls who fight to protect Japan from behind the scenes. They are the Lycoris. They operate in complete secrecy so nobody even knows that they exist. Because of this, the world believes that Japan is basically crime free because their citizens are just that good. They’re literally built different and it gives people a lot of security. You feel safe while in Japan. The main heroine is Takina and she is the best agent in the group. She completes all missions with ease and while this has stunted her emotional growth, she is effective. Unfortunately on one mission her partner gets captured so Takina rescues her by going in guns blazing but she had to defy orders in the process.

Takina is demoted from the main task force and sent to a little Lycoris cafe in the middle of nowhere. Since Takina has trained all her life to be the best, this is a huge blow for her and she wants to get back into the elite squad at all costs. It won’t be easy though as she will have to work together with Chisato, the problem child of the group. What Takina doesn’t realize is that Chisato is the greatest Lycoris agent to ever live. She has uncanny reflexes that allow her to dodge any attack and she does all this while keeping up a no murder policy. It’s going to be tough getting back to the main squad when working with a troublemaker like this. Takina may be at odds with Chisato for now but will she slowly learn how to just be a normal civilian?

I’d say in a lot of ways that’s the main plot here. Takina put her whole life into being a ruthless killing machine but now she gets to do some normal stuff. Operating a cafe for example may be low key but it does force her to learn some actual conversational skills. Chisato helps her learn how to dress fashionably and take life less seriously as well. It takes a while for Takina to really start dropping her defenses but that’s what makes the dynamic work. I think it wouldn’t have worked nearly as well if Chisato wasn’t so unbelievably strong so it’s good that she was the top fighter.

The concept of the Lycoris group is also pretty interesting. I feel like it probably doesn’t hold up if you think about it too hard though. Like when they’re murdering all of these villains and hiding the evidence, what happens to the families? They’re told some kind of accident happened and they aren’t allowed to see the body? No matter what tricks you go with here, it feels like they wouldn’t be able to work indefinitely. The more that things keep being weird and having unexplainable circumstances, the more that it’s going to raise some flags. There’s also a second secret assassin group made up of the guys but they’re a lot weaker and not much of a threat so you can ignore them.

The animation here is very solid as you would expect. It’s all very smooth and the action scenes always bring out the best in the series. There are a lot of quick movements and the opening is also high budget. Basically any time Chisato is fighting, the series dials things up quite a bit. It helps that this is the best way to show her bullet timing abilities so she gets to dodge a lot of hits all the time. The gun fights and also just the general movement around town tend to be good as well. The colors are striking and so I have no real negatives here.

Meanwhile the soundtrack is good as well although it’s a lot more subdued. The opening for example is great but from the ost within the show, you will likely be forgetting about it fairly quick. None of the tunes there were super memorable but at least they would fit the scene so I still wouldn’t say that the themes are bad or anything like that. Then we get to the characters. The cast isn’t all that large but considering that the show is only 13 episodes that makes sense. First up is Takina who is of course a great main character.

It does feel like her confidence doesn’t always line up with her skill level though. She may have been the best among the active Lycoris but when the going gets tough she does not do well against the main villain Majima and several times seems to be holding Chisato back. Still I like her personality and I tend to enjoy characters with high levels of confidence. Takina is always talking tough to anyone in her way and she does try really hard to learn every lesson that Chisato gives out. So you have to give her a lot of credit there. Like I said before, she is one of the big reasons why the show is good.

Then you have Chisato who definitely steals the show here. She has a lot of confidence and is always upbeat. She’s not the kind of character who will do much bragging but her confidence shines though in subtle ways. If there is a big fight where everyone is sweating and stressing, she’s just casually dominating the fight. She is quick to defend Takina as well and is also the most heroic member of the group. Unlike everyone else who are content to murder as many villains as possible, Chisato takes them all alive. She even loads her gun with pepper spray instead of bullets to further make sure that she doesn’t go too far by mistake.

Chisato definitely has a serious plot ongoing here involving a mystery that she has to solve but where other characters might falter and get frustrated, she just plunges forward. There aren’t many characters that are as mentally strong as she is, that’s for sure. Her character’s ending is satisfying here.

Then we have Kurumi who is really good at hacking. So while she may not be able to fight, that’s fine. Having two expert fighters on the group seems like it should be enough for any circumstance right? Kurumi’s hacking comes in handy many times as it is. I don’t think she adds a ton to the dynamic as far as the characters go but she’s not bad. She’s still a fun character to have around. Finally you have Mizuki who probably has the smallest role from the main group. She helps out as needed but is really here as comic relief so don’t expect her to really contribute in the plot.

Now lets talk about the higher ups in the Lyrocis project who tend to be the worst characters. First you have Mika who owns the bar and is trying to do better but I have to say that he comes across pretty badly by the time all of the twists are accounted for. He takes way too long to come clean about a lot of things and the secrets are actively hurting everybody. He really needed to do better and comes across as wishy washy during a lot of points. There was no real saving him because at the end of the day inaction is almost always a negative action.

Even worse though is Kusonoki. She leads the Lycoris project although she still has to answer to the board of directors and everything. The problem is that she loses fight of the point of the project early on into the show. Benching Takina for a small problem and then ignoring her the whole time is just unprofessional. Even worse is the fact that Takina finds out new clues and evidence that helps them press the case forward on several accounts. It’s clear that they need Takina but a misplaced sense of justice causes Kusonoki to still make the wrong move. Then here is a moment where the government tells her to stand down so they can murder all of the girls, she doesn’t do much about it. Yeah she has her big resistance moment but now that we know this kind of order can happen she should be taking steps to destroy the other groups. Kusonoki ultimately feels like the kind of character who will follow orders and keep the status quo even if everyone ends up dying as a result.

Then we have the other members of Lycoris who are mainly here to help remind us why the group is absolutely doomed without Takina and Chisato. Those two hard carry the group. Fuki is one of the squad leaders and she can’t do much of anything. She talks a big game but can’t back it up. Then you have Sakura who replaced Takina and gets embarrassed at every opportunity. She comes across more annoying than anything else. Like I said I typically enjoy the confident characters but it can’t be 100% empty air. At that point I just can’t take you seriously.

There’s also a detective character running around but I feel like the show wasn’t really sure what to do with him. He just gets written out midway and gets a final scene at the end. I was expecting his plot to continue and maybe we would get something big in season 2. Granted, like I said the whole Lycoris secret project doesn’t always feel very well thought out so him solving it could have been interesting but the whole thing felt a little weak.

Okay now lets talk about the villains here. First up is Shinji who is definitely on the weak/annoying side. So this guy basically has a death wish for a while there and his plans don’t really excite me. I feel like he isn’t even getting closer to his goals with the way he handled things. Chisato looks up to him a whole lot so a direct approach might have at least had a slim shot of succeeding. Instead he’s playing all of these games and being sneaky while talking about his message in the worst way possible. There was no way he was going to win over Chisato the way that he planned it out. It just doesn’t make sense. So yeah this guy was pretty awful the whole time.

Then you have Robota as the evil hacker and he was okay but my main problem was just that he was really weak. You couldn’t take him too seriously because the heroic hacker was so much better than him at all times. So this guy has a lot of confidence issues as a result and that doesn’t really work for a villain. Fortunately the main villain Majima helped to balance things out because he is actually a really good character. Basically he wants to expose the Lycoris group by letting everyone know the truth about them. He goes pretty far in this goal like spreading a ton of weapons among the civilians and making a lot of connections.

Naturally he goes full villain with how he is actually murdering people but otherwise the message makes sense. This fake sense of security by hiding all crimes does feel like it’s not the right thing to do. They’re just hiding things at that point and playing judge, jury, and executioner. They are explicitly acting outside of the law here. That said, the characters still treat him way too kindly to the point where it doesn’t make sense. The biggest example of this is the climax with him fighting Chisato.

At times it feels like Chisato doesn’t care that this guy was ramming other Lycoris agents with cars and generally causing a lot of people to die. She was arguing with him like he was some random dude. Yeah it’s great that she never takes things too hard or gets down in the dumps for long but this was different. This is a fight where she needed to knock him out right away to neutralize the threat. The climax just felt out of character and a bit bizarre. It only would have worked alongside the twist that he never actually ended up hurting anybody. It’s why the whole fireworks scene doesn’t really work.

But hey, getting let off easy by the heroes isn’t a negative for Majima. He’s just responsible for his own actions and on those he did good. Considering how outgunned he was against Chisato, he also did a great job of planning for the fight and using the only way possible to even the playing field. Even with that Chisato was definitely primed for the win but I give the show big props for actually coming up with a way to make it dangerous for her. For a while it seemed like there were not going to be any real threats to Chisato in the series. Nothing wrong with that of course but I do always love when a character can go all out because it’s really close.

The show mainly keeps things high brow the whole time too which is nice. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that there wasn’t much fanservice. The show even mainly avoids having any rushed romance plots thrown into the mix. So this way we’re able to just have the main characters enjoy life and have fun. The episodes usually would spend half of the runtime having fun and then half with some kind of action scene and the balance works really well. I’d say the show’s biggest strength is that it’s just fun to watch. Each episode is entertaining and so the show manages to be consistent the whole way through. The foundation is strong enough where the show could fully transition into being a slice of life title and it would still be in good shape. Although of course I’m glad we get to keep the action in. One plot that I think we could take a bit further is Chisato’s killer mode. We don’t get to see much of that even in the final battle and it feels like there is some good potential there because she’s still holding it back in a sense. The longer she holds it back, the more credit I give her strength of will though.

Overall, Lycoris Recoil is a pretty fun show. It’s the kind of title with a lot of potential for sequels. You could really keep sending the heroines on more and more missions as needed and the end only has to happen once the writers run out of ideas. If you like the idea of secret agents protecting Japan then this lives up to the premise. It’s bound to keep your attention all the way through and a lot of care was definitely put into this one. I’d be hyped for a season 2.

Overall 7/10

Natsume’s Book of Friends Season 4 Review

Posted on April 14, 2024 by dreager1

The adventures of Natsume and his protector Nyanko continue in this season as they help some more Yokai now. By this point you either vibe with the season or you don’t which is typically how a long running title goes. I would say it keeps pace with the previous seasons. It’s not my favorite one out of the batch since Reiko doesn’t get to do much but it’s still on the same level. It succeeds in being a calming series as always with a good array of different stories to keep you entertained.

We start off with a fairly important episode right off the bat. Natsume gets overwhelmed by some Yokai and so he ends up getting captured by Matoba. Matoba takes the chance to try and recruit Natsume although that doesn’t go well. Both characters mainly get to use this chance to discuss their different ideologies. Natsume wants to protect both humans and Yokai while Matoba wants to exterminate them all. If Matoba ever got the Book of Friends it would be a rather attainable goal since he would immediately have an entire army.

Matoba gets a solid amount of hype here as well since he is quickly able to even take out Nyanko. There’s a decent amount of back and forth here as both characters try to keep their hype but it does feel like Matoba has the edge since he is willing to murder Nyanko while the yokai has to hesitate since Natsume doesn’t like bloodshed. I’m glad to see Matoba because the series could use a serious reoccurring villain like this guy. The only tricky thing is that Natsume himself can’t fight so the series will have to squirm its way around why the guy doesn’t just murder the kid. For now we can believe that since he only wants to murder Yokai, destroying Natsume would go against his creed.

I would say the whole Matoba plot outshines the actual Yokai predicament of the episode. You have Lord Rokka who is being hunted by Matoba and Natsume has to help him out a little bit. It’s not bad or anything but you are really laser focused more on the confrontation of ideals which makes sense. I expect that will always be the case when Matoba or Natori is in the episode since they tend to steal the show.

In fact the next episode had a very tough time matching the opening two. You have this mini Yokai puff ball that threatens Natsume and his house if he doesn’t get some help fast. Ultimately Natsume helps out but these kinds of scenarios do help Matoba’s point quite a bit. There are so many Yokai that are constantly trying to murder humans or at least threaten to do so before they are taken down. At the very least it appears that there are more evil Yokai than good ones and that’s rough. At the end of the day you can’t destroy them all but destroying the evil ones makes sense. They’re practically dead already so I feel like sealing them is worse since you are conscious forever.

After that we go with a more emotional episode. There was once a guy and girl who were very much in love with each other but one day the guy died. A yokai decided to pretend to be the guy so he could talk to the girl for a while and keep her from being lonely. This meant he always had to hide indoors and find an excuse for her not to enter. I have to suspend a ton of disbelief here to be honest but it’s a pretty touching tale. Ultimately he should have been honest from the jump though and is super lucky that she wasn’t bitter about the whole thing. Maybe she suspected the truth early on but it’s hard to say. The ending is solid here and it’s nice to have a story about a good natured Yokai over here. At the end of the day, a romance between a human and a Yokai will never end up working out with how different they are though.

We follow that up with another emotional story. This one deals with Natsume’s past and those tend to be some of the most enjoyable episodes. We see things from the point of view of a girl who used to be around there and saw how strange he was. She sort of wishes she had talked with him a bit more but for the most part she just watched and eventually he left for good to the new school. This got kicked off due to a friend of her friend noticing him on the way back from school or something. There’s some mild danger with the girl almost getting hit by a truck but for the most part this was about the feels.

So after that it makes sense that we dive into a more action packed story segment. Our next 2 part adventure! This time Natsume gets rather sloppy and is stuffed into a bottle. Nyanko is forced to go undercover as Natsume in order to rescue him. This is also Tanuma’s big chance to help. He always wants to contribute but Natsume tends to block him out. Well, Natsume can’t quite do that this time eh? It’s a fun teamup and I also think this is Nyanko at his best. His rude demeanor while in Natsume’s body makes for a lot of great humor. The guy absolutely doesn’t care about keeping up appearances.

It’s certainly rough for Natsume since you know that his reputation will never be the same but I dare say this version of him would be a much more interesting protagonist anyway. I like Natsume but he is way more passive after all. Nyanko just tells it like it is. As for Tanuma, it’s great that he wants to help but I totally get why Natsume keeps him to the side. Without the ability to see Yokai everywhere, he would usually be a liability. It’s only in select circumstances where he can be helpful like when he can temporarily see the monsters.

After that is more of a quiet episode but with an interesting pairing. Nyanko and Nanase are both trapped in a pit which gives them time for some banter and to reflect. Nanase gets some actual character development with a glimpse into her past here. I didn’t talk about her much earlier but she works for Matoba as his main assistant/follower of orts. She is knowledgeable and experienced which makes her a great partner to have. So this was fun, again it’s one of those episodes that isn’t the most action packed with high stakes or anything but it works well.

After that is the next big saga as a 2 part adventure. I’d call it more on the fun side this time though as Natsume has to pretend to be a god and compete in a big competition. It’s going to be difficult to win obviously though because he is up against another god. Really he needs to buy time until they can find the genuine thing but he may have been sealed by an exorcist a while back or worse yet, some yokai think he abandoned them. Natori is also on the case here and while he will watch for now, if the villain wins then Natori will have to exorcise him.

While Natori isn’t quite as intense as Matoba in terms of destroying the Yokai, he’s still more aggressive than Natsume. Natori will destroy any spirit who poses a threat and he makes that clear to Natsume here as well. Humans are ultimately going to be his priority so these episodes have some solid stakes to them. It’s a rare case where there is no danger of the villains winning but innocent Yokai will be destroyed as well if Natsume can’t get to the bottom of this in time. It’s an interesting saga that will keep your attention the whole time.

Finally we have the 3 part finale about Natsume remembering his days as one of his old houses and then having to visit there in the present. Basically his father’s house is going to be torn down and it still has a lot of precious memories to him. He tries to keep a brave face about it but he really wants to visit. This stirs up a bunch of old memories and he also has to meet up with one of his old foster families which is a bit awkward. He left on mainly good terms with them although the kid didn’t like him.

It’s easy to see why since at the time he was unable to hide his ability to see Yokai very well. So to the family it would look like he was yelling at nothing and constantly breaking stuff. He ended up running away from home more than once and a lot of rough stuff happened to him. The Yokai really never let him catch a break and it got extra powerful in the current days as well. It’s too bad that he couldn’t ultimately get along with them a bit better. The actual family really seemed like nice people too. They definitely did the best that they could and ultimately it just wasn’t enough. Hopefully Natsume will visit there again someday and make things better.

It works really well as the finale because it’s a good reminder of how difficult Natsume’s life was back in the day. The episodes mainly take place in the present day where everything is rather calm and happy but that only came after years of struggling. Having Nyanko-sensei there to guard Natsume really makes a world of difference. There are scary Yokai all around every corner and without a bodyguard Natsume would be dead in short order. Yeah he definitely has to keep his guard up at all times but at least now if he makes a mistake there is someone to help him.

It makes Reiko extra impressive in how she stood her ground for so long and even caused Yokai to fear her. I’d still love to see a prequel series about her some day. I’m sure she had her own troubles and we’d probably see those even clearer in a series from her point of view but to everyone else she is someone to be feared and that’s definitely hype. Still the best character in the series by far.

On a technical level the series isn’t too impressive and mainly uses the good writing to get by. The animation is okay. It flows well but it’s not going to be catching your eye or anything like that. The soundtrack is super peaceful which makes sense for the show but I could use some more rock themes. I know the show is about the calm vibes but I don’t think that means the soundtrack and everything has to follow suit. You can absolutely go all out even within those confines.

Overall, Natsume’s Book of Friend continues to be a consistently solid series. It may not be a great title or anything like that but it’s one where you can tune in every week and expect a good product. The seasons always feel familiar and so you can jump between episodes from any season without any real issue. There is not much of an end goal since we don’t know how many more demon names are in the book so this can go on for as long as the author of the manga wants. In the meantime I will be ready to continue following it for each season. As long as you enjoy fun little stories like this then you should have a good time here as well. We will see if Natsume ever does end up completing the book or if ultimately the series will have one of those “The adventure continues” endings.

Overall 6/10

The Pups’ Christmas Review

Posted on March 31, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to look at a wholesome Christmas special from a while back. It’s extremely short at only 7 minutes long but it makes for a good time. You get to remember the excitement of opening your gifts on Christmas and just how chaotic it can be. The main characters being dogs doesn’t really change that because you can still feel the excitement all the way through.

Basically when they go and open the presents they are attacks and shocked by a number of impressive toys. You’ve got the train set, giant stuffed animals, etc. The biggest highlight of the film though is this little toy tank that is constantly running around blasting away at the pups. It is able to survive just about everything as if it’s the Terminator. Seriously, nothing is able to bring it down and this reminds you of how sturdy the toys used to be back in the day.

If this came out nowadays you’d just be wondering how the toys haven’t broken to pieces yet. Of course there are high budget toys out there as well but they can be rather outnumbered at times. So as long as you enjoy seeing dogs play and have fun then you should like the special. Of course the dogs do get startled a lot and are on the defensive for most of the special but it’s not going into the realm of animal violence or anything like that. Mainly you’ve just got a lot of toon force going on with a very fast paced chase scene going on.

The animation has really aged well here. There’s a whole lot of detail and I’m always impressed at just how much they were able to do. It’s crazy how in 2024 you’ve got new cartoons just announced that look substantially worse than this one. This one has good character designs, good animation, etc. It’s the whole package and it’s also so fast paced that it makes the animation even more impressive for effortlessly keeping up. Yes this is definitely what you like to see from a classic animated special like this.

There really aren’t any negatives to be had with this special although of course it’s so short you would hope that nothing would squeeze in there. The length of the special means that you can watch it at any time although I’d say it probably wouldn’t have a ton of replay value so give it some time between each viewing. It also means there isn’t a ton to write about so this will be on the shorter side for reviews. I like to think I still have this same energy when opening up presents even if I know what’s in most of them beforehand. It’s just a time honored tradition that never really goes away.

Overall, The Pups’ Christmas is a pretty good special. It’s good wholesome entertainment all the way that is good for all ages. It may be many decades old but that hasn’t zapped any of the life out of this short. Sometimes you just want something really light to watch and get you into the Christmas spirit. This one does a good job of that. It may be a few months after the fact by this point but with the weather going up and down you can easily pretend that it’s still December and give this one a play. I guarantee it will be a satisfying 7 minutes of your time.

Overall 7/10

The Man in the Moon Review

Posted on March 30, 2024 by dreager1

All right it’s time to talk about a sci-fi film about the moon right? Wrong! This film has nothing to do with the moon and the title is only really used at the very beginning and ending. It doesn’t have much to do with anything but I suppose it’s a catchy title. Ultimately this film is about the sting of betrayal and how it’ll always stick with you. You need to be careful about making the wrong move for short term pleasure because it is usually accompanied by long term pain.

The film starts off with Dani being rather upset because Maureen is super popular around the guys but nobody takes notice of Dani. Everyone just says to wait since she is the younger sister and will eventually catch up but time is going by too slowly. Well, one day they get a next door neighbor named Court and Dani realizes that this is her chance. They bond right away and Dani is determined to become more than fiends. Court is more apprehensive about this because he feels like Dani is too young but as always in these films his willpower is about as solid as a plate of jello.

So for Dani she is on cloud 9 as she is quickly seducing the guy and her life is really starting but one day Maureen gets home early and meets Court. You have to keep in mind that Court has the attention span of a chocolate bar that was just thrown into the oven and so he immediately starts making passes at Maureen and downright ignoring Dani. Maureen knows that Dani likes Court and so now it’s her turn to say that she can’t betray her sister like that. You must always stick by family in a situation like this and it is extremely taboo to go with someone who is connected to your family.

There’s just one problem though, Maureen has no real willpower either and after her extremely half hearted attempt of saying no, decides to get together with Court right away. No need for a long romance either, they immediately hook up and aren’t super subtle about it. Karma hits Court like a truck but basically the film is really about how betrayal’s just not a good thing. You just gotta do the right thing and can’t be making little excuses on why you have to crack. It’s not the way to go…not at all. This is one of those films with no real likable characters which is unfortunate. After all you already know that this means the entire film is doomed right?

So Court is an awful character for having no real moral standards and being so flippant about who he’s with. I give him a complete thumbs down all the way. Just disgraceful tbh. Then for Maureen, I can’t really cut her any slack. The fact that she knew Dani liked this guy and still went ahead with it is no good. If Dani never forgave Maureen, she’d just need to live with it because that was an awfully big mistake. Then for Dani, she was really rushing into things too much. She should have settled for just being friends.

It’s why you always gotta be careful when someone says that they just want to be friends. Dani just said that to get Court to lower his guard and then went after him again. Ultimately that’s now really going to work if you see the person as more than friends. Yeah you can live in denial and if you have a really good poker face you can pull it off but then you have to be extra vigilant on when you hang out. Never 1 on 1, certainly not swimming together, etc. Even without the betrayals I couldn’t root for Dani and Court so it’s not like the film had an alternate exit where things turn out well. The romance was always going to be sub par.

Then for more drama, we also had Dani’s mother getting injured when running around during the storm. I was really glad that the film didn’t go down the extra edge route of losing the baby or something. Would have dropped this film close to a 0, let me tell you. That said, we didn’t need the part where Dani’s father takes it out on her. This family sure is really emotional in this film. If they could all be a bit calmer and more rational about things then most of the film wouldn’t have even happened.

Even if we take all of the awful romances and betrayals out of the mix, I don’t think this film was going to ever be anything great. Mainly I say that because the story wasn’t very interesting. You have scenes of the grownups talking like Dani’s mom and her friend about the old days and it’s all a bit on the cringe side. the friend apparently liked the guy that the mom married and jokes about how she got lucky. Yeah it’s just banter between friends…but I’d be getting a bit defensive about having her around to be honest.

Then we have the party where it turns out that the guy Maureen went with was a creep and then his father was also being rather iffy. It seems like every movie I watch lately reminds you to never take a drive with a guy unless you know him super well. I wouldn’t say that this even adds anything to the film either and I would have at least liked a scene of those two being told off but we never got that. The film really put all of its eggs in one basket with the whole love triangle and when that failed, there was no plan B. It just meant that the whole film went down with it and that’s unfortunate.

Overall, Man in the Moon is a film that I would advise against watching. Often times these “Coming of Age” movies tend to be on the negative side. It’s as if the average movie creator figures that to grow up you gotta go through some kind of tragedy and get burned in the love game. Why don’t we get one instead about a kid who doesn’t want to grow up and just tells the world this is how it’s gonna be. Something like…I dunno Peter Pan. Now there’s a character who was always on top of things. You of course can pull off a dramatic film like this but you’re already stacking the deck against yourself by trying to throw in a romance plot because the characters just feel too young for that. You already know it’s not going to be anything too serious and it’s way too young to be worrying about fighting over a guy. Leave that kind of plot to the pros like Nisekoi.

Overall 3/10

This Happy Feeling Review

Posted on March 30, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for one of those films where a weak romance really holds it back. There’s only so much you can do with the rest of the film when this isn’t on point after all. I also think the film could have gone a little more all out with the comedy since it doesn’t tend to be laugh out loud humorous most of the time. I did enjoy a bird that was running around for most of the movie though.

The movie starts off with Mitch realizing that he is super old and the world of the theatre has long since passed him by. Part of him wants to get back into the business but the rest of him knows that he can’t keep up. There is a lady that he has been involved with for a long time named Nita but he’s bored of her as well. Well, one day a girl named Janet stops by his place after being defeated by the rain and so he lets her stick around. The problem is that she’s fallen for him and this inflates Mitch’s ego. Perhaps he’s not over the hill yet but at the same time he knows that a relationship is a bad idea here due to the really large age gap. What can he do?

Well the obvious answer is to just not get into a relationship but most main characters aren’t smart enough for that. This is very much a rebound type of film. Mitch was bored with Nita so he briefly gets involved with Janet and then common sense returns so he goes back to Nita. The problem is that it’s not particularly satisfying for anyone. Mitch proved that he can’t be 100% trustworthy at this point. There are no take backs and the film should have probably gone for a more somber ending where he retires or something and runs off. Janet goes to find a new job while Bill and Nita just wonder what they should do next. That would be the ideal ending.

I’m still glad that Mitch saw reason by the end. Better late than never and all that but the whole plot is definitely more on the annoying side. It helps that most of the cast is rather annoying so you’re rooting for Mitch to prove the doubters wrong at least in terms of his horseback riding and acting ability. Lets take Nita for example. She immediately gets super jealous of Janet and starts being petty about everything. You get why she would be upset since Mitch is intentionally portraying this as him cheating. Lets face it, there’s no other reason to have had Janet pick up the phone.

So I’m cool with Nita getting angry but where it gets unreasonable is when she takes it on everyone else. When Bill falls and gets seriously injured, she takes that time to gloat to Mitch instead of feeling bad about it. Not very compassionate right? Rather than being so bitter she should have just left Mitch entirely and moved on to someone else. Why stick around to be with someone that doesn’t appear to actually like you?

Meanwhile you’re supposed to be rooting for Bill to get together with Janet but why would you do that? The guy’s a jerk. He looks incredibly awful right from the jump as we find out that he moves on from girlfriend to girlfriend as such a common occurrence that nobody can keep track of who he is currently dating. Then when Janet is in a vulnerable spot he takes that moment to put some real pressure on her. Yeah part of it is a misunderstanding but most of it is just Bill trying to make a move under the worst set of circumstances possible. The worst part is that he blames her for all of this.

It’s a part of the film that is rather dated to be sure but even with that context there’s just no way for me to find Bill to be even remotely likable. The guy is just super annoying all the way through. He’s quick to turn on Mitch too even though he was the one who was badmouthing the guy. If Bill wasn’t so aggressive about that, the movie could have turned out very differently as well. I’m afraid that Janet isn’t fully innocent in all of this either though.

Janet knows that Bill likes her but she likes Mitch so she decides to make the older guy jealous by intentionally acting as if she likes Bill during the dance. What this means is that she is putting the guy on and is very intentional about doing this. Manipulating someone emotionally is never cool. It’s a really underhanded trick and of course this just leaves Bill confused later on. Janet spends a lot of time working to seduce Mitch as well and obviously it’s successful since the guy has the willpower of an old banana but none of this really helps Janet as a character. If she was hopelessly in love with the guy and needed a reality check then that could at least give her some character development but instead she just walks back to Bill.

Yeah the romance here is just so bad. It’s all rebounds or romances that you couldn’t root for from the start. The only likable character here is Mitch’s maid who helps him out by fixing his back and generally helping out around the house. She’s a fun character and delivers about 90% of the film’s humor. She has a dry wit about her and is always in the right place at the right time. I don’t know what Mitch would do without her. She definitely elevates the film which makes her a model supporting character.

Like I mentioned before, the film just doesn’t have quite as much humor as you would expect. The romance itself feels like it’s played fairly serious the whole time. Mainly I think the issue here is that the humor is just too subtle to the point where it just can’t actually dominates the scene even when the joke is being played. So this ends up being more of a drama and it isn’t able to succeed. It would have needed a stronger cast of characters for that.

Overall, This Happy Feeling isn’t a particularly good movie. It makes quite a few mistakes in the romance and it just isn’t able to overcome them. The title may remind you of the hit anime, My Happy Marriage but that title is infinitely better than this one. So unless you are desperate for a romance film, you should give this one a skip. There are many better titles within the genre to watch instead. It’s also important to remember even in real life that you never want to be the second choice. Don’t be the rebound guy and instead keep on searching until you’re the starter. Otherwise you’re stacking the deck against yourself in the risk department.

Overall 4/10

ToeJam & Earl Review

Posted on March 24, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to play the original ToeJam & Earl title. This one’s fairly basic but in a way that’s the game’s problem. It’s sort of like playing a slice of life video game. I think with more likable main characters and some kind of ongoing story that could certainly work but as it is, there’s not much to keep you here for long. The RNG and everything makes this even trickier as well.

Basically the gameplay revolves around you walking through a level until you find a piece of your spaceship. You need to find 10 pieces in order to leave the planet but of course that won’t be easy. There are 25 levels in the game though so not all of them have a piece. Fortunately the game does let you know right away if a piece is on the level or not so you don’t have to worry about aimlessly walking around or anything like that. Now that would have been annoying so I have to give the game some real credit here. That’s a good quality of life feature.

You walk around as I mentioned and the only real controls are pressing A to interact with things and B to open up your gifts. The gifts are the items of this game and so they are all mystery boxes. At least the first time around, the longer you play, the more you will find gifts of the same type that you have previously opened and those will be marked going forward. The one rough part is that some gifts have negative effects like one that blows you up and one that takes you back to the original level. There’s no way to know which is which on your first playthrough which is rather sketchy.

Some of the items are really handy like one that lets you run around and one that lets you fly. The only problem is that since these are locked behind gifts, it means that you can’t normally run around. Instead you have to walk everywhere which isn’t the most efficient way of travel. Some pieces are also locked behind large jumps so if you already used up that gift, you’re gonna need to go through a few more levels to find one and then head all the way back. That’s definitely not great.

There is a very odd sort of atmosphere around the game which is probably the real selling point here but at the same time I don’t think it’s necessarily as cool as it could have been. I actually have one easy fix for this. Your character should be able to fight. If he was holding a blaster then the game becomes a lot more fun as you blast away at everyone who is in your way. Instead…you guessed it, your only forms of attack are locked behind items that are randomly spawned and temporary. So for most of the game you have to run away from enemies, most of whom are faster than you anyway. So in the end this wasn’t really my cup of tea.

The graphics are fairly good though. Here is where the wild vibes of the game actually come back to help it. The art style is very memorable and you can easily identify everything in your way. This helps with the presents once you are on your next playthrough or if you are using rewind a lot. The soundtrack is less inspiring though and you probably won’t be remembering any tunes in particular.

Then we come to the replay value which is fairly decent here. The difficulty of finding all of the pieces when the levels are constantly changing is already one reason why you wouldn’t beat it too fast. Then because of those changes you might have fun playing it over and over again. There is a lot to have fun with here to be sure as long as you enjoy the gameplay. I wasn’t a big fan of the initial game so the replay value doesn’t do much for me but at least it is there.

Overall, ToeJam & Earl is definitely a very unique game. You can’t say that it is copying any other titles or anything like that. At the same time, I don’t think the gimmick worked this time. So credit to the devs for trying but at the end of the day you won’t be able to win with all of your bets. Some of them will inevitably not pan out and that’s just the way that it goes.

Overall 4/10

Joker: One Operation Joker Review

Posted on March 9, 2024 by dreager1

The title feels a bit redundant. I’m used to just saying One Operation Joker but everyone seems to list it this way so I suppose I’ll follow suit. It’s a fun miniseries, I don’t think it’s quite as good as some of the other superhero mini titles I’ve read like Superman’s food adventures and the Spider-Man Fake Red title but you’ll have fun here. I think there was even a lot of potential here for future developments if they had made this a long running title but not every series is meant to stick around forever. At the end of the day, this one still explored the concept fairly well.

The story starts with Batman and Joker fighting as always but a freak accident happens during the fight and Batman regresses back to being a baby. He has no memories now and Joker can’t let the situation stay like this. He really believes that his role as a villain is pointless without a Batman to fight against and so he vows to raise the baby back into being Batman until he can find a cure. It’ll be difficult since he is such a villain but the Joker is nothing if not determined. He will be the greatest role model that Batman could ever have. Will the baby grow up into the famous crime fighter though or will be turn out differently?

One of the more interesting angles here is of course that this happens in the present. It’s not an AU or any time travel involved so to the rest of the world Batman just vanished randomly. Of course the same is true of Bruce Wayne as well and so we have Alfred and Robin having to wonder what happened. At least in the background, they don’t show up until we near the end of the series. Crime is likely back on the rise as well although with Joker not committing many crimes, it tends to balance itself out a bit.

What will be the make or break point for this manga in terms of how much you enjoy it will of course be the humor. This is really a slice of life title with the main gag being that Joker is super serious but always has to do responsible things. He will be thinking about bombing a bank and then suddenly he has to worry about getting Bruce to daycare instead. He’ll think about beating someone up but instead bows/apologizes to someone. This kind of thing happens a lot to the point where the gag will be appearing in just about every chapter. It’s a core part of the gimmick of the series after all.

I do think the series can be a bit repetitive on this angle mainly because there are only so many ways that you can approach it. That’s how it is in most titles like this though. There’s a Detective Conan spinoff about the world’s worst murderer who wants to be a criminal but never succeeds. That title replays the same gag over and over as well. There are plenty of titles that hitch the wagon to a single gag so it’s not out of the ordinary, it just means that the gag itself ends up becoming super important to how much you enjoy the series.

For me it’s fun enough. The series never gets laugh out loud funny or anything like that but it’s harmless. The series actually avoids the easy crude humor type jokes which I really appreciated. I also think the Joker makes for a good main character. I’d have liked it if he kept a little more of his edge though. Have him still be happy and goofy around Bruce but make it so he still has a scary aura to everyone around him. I think that contrast would probably have made the gags more effective. His transformation into actually being more of a decent person does lead into the climax of the series but I’d just have tweaked that a bit.

As this is more of a comedy title, there aren’t a lot of fights anyway but you sort of wish Joker could have done better near the end. Now while the series is light hearted, there can be some dark moments. I was pretty surprised at how beaten up Robin got once the Riddler showed up. The Riddler is probably the most imposing that I’ve ever seen him. Definitely a far cry from his portrayal in the latest movie. He does really well here and I was glad to have a real villain at the end. That’s the part of the climax that I would have extended though. Also, I’d like to have seen some more actions from the aftermath but I guess we’ll have to just imagine how it would have played out.

Robin looks good here even if he doesn’t do great in the fights. His loyalty is always impressive and the guy did his best in finding a lead. Alfred also looks really impressive here as he connects quite a few dots on his own. Ultimately he overthinks things but his instincts were on point. On the Joker’s side, we naturally had Harley Quinn show up as well. Playing family is something you figure she’d be into, so naturally this situation works for her rather quickly. Even Joker’s minions are okay with this since a lot of them have families too and now they won’t really be in danger of getting murdered so quickly.

The artwork for the series is actually really solid. There’s a lot of detail all the time and whenever they throw together a scary moment, I have to say that it looks really impressive. The artist would clearly be able to really nail a serious action title. You’re not likely to forget the big splash pages that are scattered within the title. The few fights that we do get also end up looking really solid.

There’s a time skip that happens near the end of the series and I would have liked to have seen more from that era. I actually think it lends itself even better to a lot of shenanigans and fun plot scenarios because at that point Bruce is actually old enough to talk and everything. You could have a reverse Spy Family situation set up where the Joker is a responsible parent by day and a villain by night. It would fit in fairly well as a dark humor kind of plot that you would expect here.

Overall, This Joker manga was fun. It can be a bit repetitive so that keeps it from reaching the next level but the series is also fairly short so it’s not like it’s dragging on for a long time or anything like that. There’s certainly more positives than negatives here either way. The core premise is so out there that you’re just curious how it’ll work out and the series gets very wholesome. You naturally have to overlook the fact that the Joker’s still evil but regardless it’s still fun to read. Definitely check this out if you want to see the very surreal image of Joker trying his best to be the best Dad ever.

Overall 6/10

Little Witch Academia Review

Posted on February 28, 2024 by dreager1

All right, it’s time to talk about a very wholesome slice of life title. Yeah you could probably throw some other genres into this one but that’s what I think of when talking about this show. It’s got magic, fantasy, and spells but for the most part it’s about the girls living their day to day lives and having a lot of fun. It’s a very pleasant show and one where I do think the animation is part of what helps it turn up to the next level. They had a lot of fun going crazy here.

The show starts off with Akko getting ready to start her first day at magic school! As a kid she always looked up to Shining Chariot and so now this is her chance to follow in the legend’s footsteps. The only problem is that Akko has a very low aptitude for magic. No matter how often she trains, she has trouble performing even the most basic of spells. Throughout the show she has to try and keep her confidence up while watching everyone else easily excel. Fortunately she makes two friends in Lotte and Sucy and even gets a rival in the prodigy Amanda. Along the way Akko may even have to save the world…or at least the school.

So yeah this is one of those shows that can be fairly episodic for most of the run but there are ongoing plots in the background. One of them for example is that their teacher Ursula is a bit mysterious. As the viewer you find out that she is Shining Chariot almost immediately but the characters don’t know that. Part of the mystery is why did she retire in the first place and then additionally, why not just tell everyone?

The only tricky thing with a plot like this is you are always looking forward to it getting more screentime. You want to see what happens with Shining Chariot but typically the show only gives you some breadcrumbs. It’s not until deep in the second half of the show that you get to see her having more action. Even by the end of the series, my favorite episode was easily when she infiltrates the villain, Croix’s base. We get to see why she was the top witch as she’s jumping past enemies and using a lot of crazy acrobatics.

In Chariot mode her eyes and hair even change color. It definitely makes for a perfect disguise in that way since nobody should reasonably be able to figure out her secret. If she’s stressed then her eyes change color though so she has to watch out for that. She’s definitely one of my favorite characters even if her inaction can be a bit annoying at times. She should have told everyone about Croix right away. I know in general she wants to be a nice person and doesn’t want to jump the gun but once lives are at stake then you really have to make a move.

Again this isn’t typically an action series but it certainly happens at times. You have dragons and then near the end you have Croix and her machines. The machines are pretty fun and definitely have a whole lot of uses to them. Croix is also a fun villain. Naturally she does have a backstory and everything but the show committed to her being an antagonist a lot more than I figured. For part of the show I was expecting it to all be some kind of massive misunderstanding. Sure, we find out her reasons for doing all of this but she was actually causing damage and could have easily murdered Chariot and Akko at different points. Croix was really resolute in her goal for most of the run so she worked really well as a villain.

Before I talked about the animation and part of why it’s so good is because of how fast it is. You really feel the speed going by when Akko gets her magic staff and zooms through at super speed. Shining Chariot gets some good animation whenever she shows up and all the action scenes are great. The animation goes one step further though and is also very expressive during normal scenes. I think what caught my eye the most were the facial expressions. Akko always has different funny faces going on when she is frustrated, excited, bored, etc.

It’s the kind of show you could watch on mute and you could always tell what her mood is. I dare say she may have had the best facial expressions I’ve seen in anime. It really helps to play up the humor. For example with standard animation this may have been more of a 6 but it gives the show an extra boost because it’s always just a lot of fun. Now at times the show almost feels like it has some fanservice with how short the costumes are and how the animation is so high budget that the wind is constantly blowing as they’re jumping around but I feel like the show was just careful enough to never go too far there.

There may be a little fanservice here and there but for the most part I really do think the show isn’t going for that. It’s more just showing off the special effects than anything and there’s no perv characters or anything running around. If anything this is a very safe all ages kind of show and it’s even got some nice morals throughout. It’s not a literal “Dear Celestia, today I learned…” but usually there’s something about never giving up, trusting your friends, learning that others have their own problems, etc. So in that way it can almost feel part educational. I think this would have fit right in as a Saturday morning cartoon.

In terms of world building I think the show isn’t always perfect though. It’s always fairly ambiguous just how much the average human knows about the witches. On one hand they have to get investors for the school so the rich people kind of know about it but some seem to think it’s all just a big hoax/scam. That would be fine if the witches weren’t right there but it’s extremely easy to prove that witchcraft is real. I’d have preferred either they went the X-Men route and just pretended to be a normal school, or that everyone just knows about them and they’re cool with it. I feel like the show sort of goes in the latter direction but it’s just not as clear as you would expect.

In terms of the soundtrack, it’s not nearly as memorable as the animation. I’d say it sounds okay. I’m not a big fan of either opening but they work well enough. If the show was more action based then this would be more of a problem but for a slice of life the music isn’t something you focus on as much. As long as it isn’t downright bad then we’re always still in business. Now lets start talking about some of the characters. I wouldn’t say the show’s cast is all that big to be honest. There are a lot of one shot characters and also a bunch of mild supporting characters but for the most part the core cast is never big.

Akko is the main character and she’s a fun heroine. The storyline of the main character not being able to use magic or whatever power is normal in the setting isn’t anything new, but she doesn’t really get a cop out for it. Usually in titles like this, the main character secretly gets the strongest power (Magical Index), secretly always had powers, (Mashle) or gets a power that is just labeled differently. (Black Clover) Notice the cop out here, they can all actually fight. In this case, Akko can use magic to a small degree, she’s just not good at it. She will continue to improve over time but she’s not secretly the most powerful or anything.

At best she gets little glimpses of what a mage would be like by getting a special wand that works for everyone briefly and also with the magic broom. Neither of these are permanent power ups though so she still has to work hard every day. We also get an actual story reason for why it’s so difficult for her and it’s a pretty emotional twist. It really changes the whole dynamic of the show and also isn’t waved away by the end. If we ever got more seasons I’d be curious on what happens next. Akko may get sad at times but for the most part she never stays feeling sorry for herself for very long though.

One of her best friends is Lotte who is more of a brainy type of character. You can sometimes guess a character’s personality and strengths right from the design and this is one of those cases. There’s nothing wrong with Lotte but she’s never one of the more interesting characters. She tends to be fairly quiet and isn’t super ambitious so there just isn’t a lot you can really do with that character in the dynamic. She does have a plotline involving a book series that she enjoys though and that appears several times.

Then there is Sucy and I never became a fan of hers. My main problem is that she’s a little too drastic in her opening appearances. She nearly gets Akko murdered to which she is not apologetic and then tests her poisons and plants on her. She’s not the kind of friend you would want to have. Not only does Sucy always cause a lot of trouble but it’s the lethal kind. You want a friend who might pull some pranks or something on you but would never go quite so far. That’s where you have to put your foot down because it’s gone above the line.

Diana is one of the standout characters here though. She’s the classic genius/prodigy type of character so you know that she has absolute confidence. She’s rich as well which is an added bonus and is always outperforming Akko. By all accounts they shouldn’t even be rivals but Amanda doesn’t really dissuade Akko from this and just focuses on her own techniques. Part of what I like about Amanda is we see many times just how hard she trains and studies. As she tells Akko, she’s not the best because she’s just that talented, it’s because she trains the hardest.

I think more times than not this is true. The people exceling and doing a terrific job have actually put the work in. No matter how much of a prodigy you are, if you never train then you won’t go anywhere. I think it helps Akko see things in a different light and in general Diana is also just a very responsible person. While she has her banter with Akko, Diana never says anything particularly hurtful or ever tries to get in the lead’s way. She’s really a good role model all the way through.

There are a bunch of other classmates around. Some have big roles and some are more on the small side. The one I would mainly say is big enough to get a write up would be Amanda. She shows up a bit later in the show and is like a second rival. She’s super competitive and talks a good game. I thought she added a lot to the dynamic so I was glad to see her around. It’s always good to have another character with a ton of confidence to really shake things up.

For example we already have plenty of quiet characters like Constanze. She’s a genius and great at her craft but she’s not exactly the outgoing type. Nothing wrong with that but it does mean that she won’t tend to be quite as interesting. It’s always nice to see Akko gradually get to all of the characters and break the shells around them though. Also there is one human with a fairly big role and his name is Andrew. He’s the son of one of the biggest investors in the show and he always grew up being told that the witches were scams and not to take them seriously. After meeting Akko he learns the truth and also starts to slowly stand up for himself. So he has a good character arc here and has a lot more confidence than he used to.

The guy was never super timid or anything like that but he did have a tough time talking back to his father. He would just defer to the guy but now he can make his own decisions so that’s always a good thing. In a show like this you can probably imagine that there is some shipping going on, but for the most part this is avoided. I think that’s a good thing since this should just be a show more about having fun. The romantic drama can certainly wait and take a backseat for now. Finding the different inscriptions for the staff is already enough of an active plot to keep you super invested while still having a good time.

Overall, Little Witch Academia is a pretty fun show. It’s a fairly low stakes adventure for most of its run but will dial up the tension from time to time. There’s a lot of fun moments here and some quality characters to follow for the whole duration. You’ll have a good time for the entire run. At most you might just wish there were a few more action scenes for Shining Chariot to show off her skills. Even past her prime and without using her powers she is a complete threat in combat so you wish you could see her in her prime. A prequel starring her as the main character would be great someday! In the meantime I would definitely recommend this show if you’re looking for a solid feel good title.

Overall 7/10

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