Detective Conan: Chianti’s Last Supper Review

Posted on September 6, 2025 by dreager1

Detective Conan is one of those series that has really been around for a very long time. It’s had well over 1000 chapters and is still going strong. As a result it has had several spinoffs and then recently it even got a new oneshot. It’s always fun to see another artist’s take on the series. The art here is definitely sharp although it leans a little too hard on obnoxious fanservice the whole time. Without that this could have really been a winning adventure but alas it ends up being really limited in what it can accomplish here.

The chapter begins with Chianti deciding to have one last meal before her next kill. She believes in living life to the fullest and that having a good pre assassination routine is for the best. So as always she treats herself to the best food and watches as every guy drools after her. Chianti is just that ultra attractive and she knows it. Will she still be able to go through with the kill though?

I mean she is a villain so there is no question on that last part. As the main heroine, it’s not like there is really anybody to stop her anyway. In the Conan universe someone dies in just about every chapter so the crime rate is incredibly high. It makes sense that all of these villains are still running wild. The only way they’ll ever be taken down is if another villain shows up since otherwise they will be going straight to prison. Her target is another villain in this case so that actually makes my point.

Like I said in the intro though, the only issue here is that the fanservice is really high. The artist wanted to really prove that Chianti is the most beautiful character ever and so all of the outfits and camera angles try to reflect this. I can appreciate some high level confidence like this but you can still have all the dialogue without the art going for the low hanging fruit here. The main series is actually pretty good about not having too much fanservice so this one really stands apart in that area. Definitely a shame.

The food is definitely drawn really well though so I can give the story some props there. I wouldn’t even say that it’s food which would tempt me very much but the quality was on point. I can also picture some really solid action scenes with this style. Ultimately the story didn’t have time for that but it would have been fun. Just look at the shockwaves when Chianti punches a bag near the beginning of the chapter. The potential is right there.

This is a fairly short story and it’s a complete one from start to finish. You know Chianti will succeed from the start and the main point is to generate some hype for her character as you ponder how Conan can possibly defeat her. It won’t be easy, that’s for sure. If you are not already a fan of Conan, you’ll still be able to understand the story without a problem though. It’s not reliant on references or anything. The concept is rather simple. In fact, Conan doesn’t even get a cameo in this one. Gin, another villain is referenced but the main characters are completely out of it. So that makes this even easier to appreciate as a stand alone story.

I’ll give Chianti this, I appreciated that she was a real professional about this. She makes sure to destroy her target but nobody else. It’s professional pride for her. Yeah she’s still a villain and I’m not saying this changes anything about that but I always like when a villain has at least some kind of standards on their side. It just makes them that much more compelling.

Overall, Despite the fact that this is new audience friendly, I would hesitate to recommend the oneshot. You’re better off checking out the main series as a whole since it is quite different. While this may not have been a big hit for me, I would like to see them generate more Conan stories every now and again. There is really a lot you can do with the franchise since the cast is absolutely huge. Maybe Jimmy Kudo will get an appearance in one of these.

Overall 5/10

Vampire Knight: Memories Review

Posted on September 1, 2025 by dreager1

Vampire Knight was never one of my favorite manga titles. Trust me, it just wasn’t all that good but at least it wasn’t boring. Memories is basically what you get if you decide to take a rather underwhelming cast, remove all of the interesting characters, and then do a ton of world building and politics. The end result is that you don’t really care what is going on. Throw in a bunch of time jumps all over the place and it makes the whole thing feel even worse. Yuki’s inaction also means that the romance is absolutely terrible and all over the place. You will not be feeling satisfied by the time you finish this series.

The series jumps across a bunch of time periods but for the most part it’s in the future. Kaname was sealed and his heart was lost so he was in suspended animation for 1000 years. When he awakens, he now has complete amnesia and so his two daughters gradually tell him more and more about what went on. Additionally he also starts to get some memories of his own. Whatever happened to Yuki, the queen of the vampires? They had kids together but Kaname never got to spend time with them before and at this point they’ve been around for ages. Of course when you’re immortal it all gets to be rather relative. The world appears to have gone the way Yuki hoped, with coexistence between humans and vampires. Perhaps this is a good future.

A lot of the themes within the series have one main connection which is that vampires and humans will always have a tough time connecting. For example there’s a guy named Hanabusa who ends up liking one of the heroines but of course she never ages while he does. At first it looks like things could work out well enough but then in 20 years it’s a different situation. The way the vampires look at relationships also ends up being really different as a result.

In effect, they’ll humor the humans and have fun with them but it’s just not the same. How can you have true love when a human will only last around 80 years and you still have 4000 years to go? The whole relationship will just be the blink of an eye. That kind of time also does a whole lot of damage to their very emotions. To a point it gets impossible to read the vampires and that’s also why a lot of humans fear them. How do you interact with a being that has existed for hundreds of years before you and who will continue to exist afterwards? There is also the power difference as they can crush you with a single motion.

Fortunately Yuki and the human principal did a whole lot to reduce tensions between the two. Unfortunately things still happen as humans have underground fighting arenas and terrorism attacks that continue to happen. Vampires are strong but not unbeatable so there are casualties from time to time. It can be tough to always have to hold back and take the high road when you can feel the bloodlust coming in from the other side. The vampires do well on this but the humans will definitely try your patience.

In theory the plot that is supposed to tug on your emotional heartstrings is the plot with Kaname. He has to come to terms with the fact that Yuki had to live without him for a long while and so of course that meant turning to Zero. The only problem is that he doesn’t really care. He was always okay with Zero taking a secondary spot because while the guy lived much longer than a normal human, he still wasn’t going to be as immortal as a pureblood vampire. This idea of sharing Yuki was just ridiculous though. It makes all 3 characters look really bad.

Kaname got a really raw deal to be sure. The whole thing absolutely sucked for him as he missed out on the best parts of his life. He may have helped achieve peace and make a better future but the sacrifice was definitely far too great. You just can’t find much solace in that at all. The guy feels like an empty husk of a character as well compared to the original series. Although it feels like every vampire is like this here so perhaps it is just the inevitable end. There’s just something depressing about being a vampire here.

Likewise for Yuki, she definitely looks bad here as well. She really needed to pick a guy. Kaname or Zero but leading them both on and having fun was never an option. The hard truth is that even if you’re going to be alive for over 1000 years, you can only pick one person. There cannot be any rebounds. That’s not going to be a good idea in the long run and I’m certainly not going to be able to support it. It was nice to get the occasional action scene for her but this was super rare.

Meanwhile the same negatives apply to Zero as well. When you’re happy being second fiddle then you don’t have a whole lot of self respect. Even if he got to be with Yuki for a while when Kaname was gone, she still had kids with him. Zero was always the backup guy and was completely out of luck. In a vampire series, it’s rare for the human to actually get picked and this one was no exception. Zero always had some cool powers and skills with the gun but in this series he looked pretty bad.

There’s something to be said about how the vampires always end up getting tempted into the taboo as well. One of them falls for her sibling, another falls for her father, etc. I think a lot of it has to do with the immortality part as it completely messes with their emotional regulation and feelings of right and wrong. It just doesn’t make for a very compelling plot and means that all of the characters will be annoying at best and completely unlikable at worst. There isn’t much of a happy middle to be found here. You still want them to survive and defeat the terrorists but it does limit how much you could like any of the characters.

Also as a vampire series you can still expect there to be a lot of blood draining as always. In this series it may as well be a kiss with how the characters really get into it. The vampires are never able to fully control their urges and most of the time the humans are egging them on as well. Now there is a full toxic relationship. No other way to get around that.

As far as the artwork goes, it’s not terrible. I would put it under average though. It’s got a very old school Shojo look which means that a lot of the characters are easily to mess up. The pages can get cluttered really quickly as well and any action scene quickly becomes near unreadable. As long as you read through the series slowly you will be fine, but it’s certainly not very streamlined. The series actually made it over 50 chapters so you’ve got a good amount of content here. Factor in how each chapter will take you a little while and you’re totally set.

If you do enjoy the series, I doubt it will feel too short. Memories covers a lot of events within that time-frame. While the flashbacks and flash forwards mainly drove me out of the story, I imagine they will have the opposite effect on a mega fan. There is a lot of world building here after all. It’s the kind of series that would probably end up being a whole lot better in anime form which tends to make scenes more dynamic. That can fix some of the boring elements but it will have time fixing the poor characters.

Now his review has seemed pretty negative….but I’m about to double down. This is the kind of Shojo that people assume they are all like. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Shojo back in the day but I’ve read a lot of good ones since then. They can be a lot of fun with well written romances and a lot of light hearted moments. I will admit that a romantic drama will always be hard to pull off but a romantic comedy can usually be a lot of fun. The first problem is that this series decided to go full on drama and the second problem is that none of the romances are properly built up.

Yes this goes back to the main characters being vampires again but the series could have still had a good romance if it really wanted to. I don’t think this had to be an impossible endeavor at all. Ai for example could have been a good new main character if the series hadn’t given her odd romantic subplots and also kept switching to other characters. It’s why most series pick an actual main character and then develop supporting ones.

Going for an ensemble cast is going to be more of a risk if you aren’t ready for it and I can tell you that this series was absolutely not ready for the challenge. Also, there can’t be any stakes for the various stories that take place in the past because we know the main characters are okay in the present. Not that this is an action thriller story or anything like that but there are still some attacks and thriller elements so why spoil the ending right in chapter 1? The amount of questionable choices here will have your mind spinning the whole time.

Finally, I would say what keeps this series from being an interesting intellectual thriller like Liar Game or Kingdom Hearts is that there are no interesting concepts to debate. For example the vampire stuff I talked about earlier. Their lack of emotions and how they view romance is tragic but also completely negative. There isn’t really a debate on how this could be a good thing or a way to solve the problem. It’s why this series can be as complex as it wants, it still won’t generate any real discussion. I wish the series had focused more on a war between humans and vampires because at least that is always a fun thing to talk about.

The closest we get to that is a few characters asking if the current dynamic is really a good thing but it never ends up being a central focus. It would change the whole series but this one should have dropped the romance tag entirely and just focused on the politics. If it did that and had a human MC and a vampire, then we could have filled the series with ethical debates which would have been infinitely more interesting. You would have to make the humans be less overtly evil though as that defeats any remote chance of making this an actual debate. It’s just not going to work when it’s so one sided.

Overall, Vampire Knight: Memories is a pretty bad series. Vampires have never been my thing so throwing in a spinoff to a series I was already not a fan of? That was not going to be a recipe for success. It lasted a lot longer than I expected it to be but it never ended up being all that good. On occasion you would get a good chapter like Yuki infiltrating a terrorist stronghold to fight them or Zero getting an action scene but most of the series is just pure melodrama. If the series had been completely chronological then it probably would have been better but even then I admit that it probably would not have been great. I expect that there still would have been issues left and right. If you’re a mega fan of the original Vampire Knight then you should check this one out, but otherwise you will definitely want to skip this one. The only disclaimer I’ll give on the series behalf is that with a story like this, it can sometimes be better read as a marathon. If you do that maybe you’ll find the series to be more enjoyable but at the same time a great story is great no matter how you read it.

Overall 2/10

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Review

Posted on July 14, 2025 by dreager1

For a long time people were hoping that Vigilantes would get an adaption and now it’s finally here! It started off as a fairly street level title that eventually got as big and high tier as the main series. So now it is finally here and they did a great job on the production here. In some ways they have even amplified the source material so that was really appreciated. It’s a pretty solid title that you can jump right into without any issues. Definitely the kind of title that you can recommend with ease.

The series follows a kid named Koichi who always wanted to be a hero but his quirk did not appear to be well suited to it. He can slide along the ground at an accelerated speed but that’s about it. Nothing too flashy and the use cases for this ability aren’t going to be too large. Ah well, he can at least be a vigilante known as the Crawler who helps out his neighborhood. Well one day he runs into a local celebrity known as Pop and a mysterious old man that becomes his master. Now Koichi can actually begin acting more like a true hero but is he just going to get into more trouble by hanging out with these two?

At its core, Vigilantes is about how anybody can make a difference. Being a super powered vigilante is obviously against the rules in this universe, however we see how much good they do on a day to day basis. I would say this series does a great job of showing the positives about vigilantism. They aren’t doing anything super violent here and are saving the people that the pros don’t have time for. Koichi’s neighborhood is not the best to say the least and apparently even the pros often take a long while to get here since nobody’s in the area. That is where the vigilantes come in.

The pro heroes instinctively realize this and for the most part look the other way but technically if the vigilantes are too obvious then they have to be arrested. This season mainly focuses on the new characters though so the heroes will have to wait for a bit longer. We do get a standout fight between Knuckle Duster and Eraserhead at one point though which was a really good battle. Personally I feel like Knuckle should absolutely have the edge in that battle if they were both going all out. He just works as a really good counter to Eraserhead since he has no powers to shut off.

Right away on the technical elements, I would say that the opening song is very catchy. It’s not quite ready to defeat the best MHA main openings but I like it quite a bit. The songs within the show are also good and work with the action. The animation style is also great. It’s going for a bit of a thicker/flashier look than the main series. The details are really on point and the fights are really dynamic. There are a lot of great fights to choose from but the best might be Knuckle against the Bee user. A lot of good strategy and animation blending together there.

The show feels like it covers a lot of ground in just a few episodes and the pacing is just really on point. The characters are also likable which is important for any show even if one character is forgiven way too quickly. Soga is a bully who tries to do more than just beat Pop up before he is stopped by the heroes. Yet, he’s now just back to every day life and that’s it? I just can’t buy into that because there is crashing out and then there is knowingly being about to commit a heinous crime. No matter how you slice it, it makes this character look absolutely awful. He should still be behind bars and mayyybe after 3 seasons I’d consider a redemption arc for him. Ah well, the rest of the characters tend to be solid and this title is in a great position to be My Hero’s replacement for once that show’s final season ends.

Koichi is similar to Deku in some ways but they are still very different characters. Koichi is a bit more confident in himself and proudly shows off his All Might merch and tries to make friends. Things just tend to backfire on him so it’s not easy. I give him a lot of credit for deciding to keep on helping people even when his path to being a hero was really closed off. We also learn more about his backstory which ties into why he isn’t more powerful now. His life could have gone down a very different trajectory but either way the important thing is that he keeps on fighting and plunging forward for as long as it takes. That is the hallmark of a true hero. He just needs to work on being less socially oblivious and he will be all set.

Meanwhile Pop is a character who is also following her passion of singing and performing. She has been doing well and is even a local celebrity but she still wants to aim bigger. Towards the end we find out that she can’t really sing which I was surprised about. I thought she had been singing a lot but I guess she does more bouncing. Her quirk of jumping/moving in the air is a handy one even if it’s not directly a combat related quirk. It’s the type of ability that is versatile enough to work out well in a pinch but at the end of the day she’s just not a fighter so it’s not like she prioritizes mastering her ability. She’s here more for the romance subplot which for now has not really gone anywhere. That works out well enough for me since season 1 always has a lot to cover.

Knuckle easily has the biggest character arc in the show as it is absolutely crucial to what’s going on here. He makes for a real mysterious character and someone who is always ready to put his life on the line. I really liked him and this guy was a stand out character in the series. He would always step forward in a battle and showed that even without a quirk he can go toe to toe with some of the stronger villains in the series. It was all really impressive and any scene with him in it was sure to be a winner. It was good to have an older guy on the squad as well since he kept the other characters sharp.

From the pro heroes, Eraser easily has the biggest role. He hasn’t changed much since the start of the main series which makes sense. He’s still not the most social guy out there but he does his best to live up to his obligations and will also stop any villain in his way. He’s a solid well rounded hero so it was fun to have him around. For the most part the others just make cameos except for Ingenium who gets his share of big moments. The guy’s speed is really intense and he definitely means well. I like his general heroism and while his quirk also has its limitations, he gets around them by having a really good team. He absolutely believes in proper teamwork and this keeps him ahead of the pack. It’s easy to see why he was one of the top heroes.

Captain Celebrity also shows up as a big hero from America. He doesn’t have the strongest moral compass though. Yeah he’ll save the day from villains but he waits until a camera crew is around. If he sees you, he’ll probably save you but otherwise he is not the type of guy to go the extra mile. So characters in the series are very critical of him and I definitely get it. We’re not saying he has to save everyone but he should be doing his best to that standard. Fortunately he is pretty fun to watch in that over the top jerk kind of way. He’s also legitimately very powerful so it’s still better to have him on your side than not to.

His agent is Makoto who also gets a big role here. She wants to find out the true identity of the vigilantes and so she tries to stick close to Koichi to get some intel on what’s going on. She can be very manipulative towards these ends though. At times she feels a bit too deceptive to me the kind of character who will really say anything to suit her own purposes. She’s not corrupt in the way that Celebrity is, but I do have to say that I just would not trust her.

Then you have the vigilante Stendhal who really can’t be trusted. He’s the Punisher kind of vigilante who believes that might makes right and will absolutely devastate any fighter who gets in his way. That’s just the kind of man that he is. His sword skills are really impressive and it’s fun seeing him shake the town up but he is the reason why Vigilantes are illegal. This wanton destruction and murder is an absolute abuse of power. So in a sense he just becomes a villain but at least one that you can basically root for since it’s better that he wins than the actual villains.

The main villain in the season is the mysterious bee user though. I mean her boss is All for One but the guy just talks, she is the one putting plans to action. She is also very confident considering that she openly disobeys him and basically dares the guy to do anything about it. That takes a whole lot of guts and so you can’t say that she does anything half hearted. Her bee ability is also hard to stop because of how many bees she has at her disposal and she can even fight in close quarters combat when needed. She made for a really solid villain as a result.

There are other side characters around as well but for the most part the show did a good job of keeping the cast relatively contained. The series also has enough ties to the main one where you can appreciate the guest stars but it works well on its own too. The bumpers are perhaps a little too basic with how they define terms like “hero” and “villain” though. Not the best use of those screens, I would have preferred some fun illustrations or something.

At the end of the day one of the big strengths of the show is how fun it is. I would say Koichi, Pop, and Knuckle already have a really good team dynamic between the three of them. It’s fun to see them chatting and bantering as they take down all of the big villains. Meanwhile the solid animation can make any enemy encounter memorable. I really liked the brief soccer villain who showed up for example. Seeing all that movement reminded me of what Blue Lock might have looked like and it also makes for a really surreal villain. He’s the kind of villain that you just don’t forget and the show had quite a few other one shots like that who were quite solid.

Overall, My Hero Academia Vigilantes is off to a really fun start here. The episodic nature of the big villains mixed in with the leader in the shadows is a really solid kind of setup. We’ve also already got some threads for the second season like this mysterious super speed villain. That is going to keep the heroes busy for quite a while. Hopefully we get season 2 sooner than later so the hype can continue. In the meantime I definitely recommend checking this one out. It’s a good action show that can really appeal to anyone.

Overall 7/10

Blue Lock: Episode Nagi Review

Posted on July 13, 2025 by dreager1

It’s time to talk about the big Blue Lock spinoff that was running for a while. Honestly it’s pretty sad that it ended so soon because it felt like this series still had a lot of gas in the tank. Did it really need to end this soon? To me it just didn’t make sense for things to be so abrupt like that but maybe one day we’ll get more spinoffs. Either way it was definitely a great title and it’s fun to see the extra focus on Nagi. You can even use this to an extent as a way to cover the events of the original series in a quicker way and then cut to the main series after this one’s ending.

The story starts by introducing us to a kid named Nagi. He really likes video games but otherwise doesn’t really have any hobbies in his life. He struggles to get motivated at all and just lives life one hour at a time. Well, one day he is noticed by Reo, a really rich guy. Reo has decided to take the soccer world by storm and wants Nagi on his team after seeing the kid’s ability. Nagi allows himself to be roped into this as it’ll be too much of a hassle to stop Reo each time. Well, soon he finds out that playing soccer is actually really fun and he wants to keep with it. He is even invited to Blue Lock, a program for finding the greatest striker in Japan. Does Nagi have a chance to obtain this title?

So the plot is very similar to the main title and of course we got to see Nagi a lot in the main story. For that reason, a lot of the fights are actually old with many scenes being readapted but we do get some rounds where we hadn’t seen them before. Additionally for the old scenes, we get to see Nagi’s inner voice this time around rather than Isagi’s so that does add an extra dimension to it. At times I would say the inner thoughts don’t totally match the scene though. The series doesn’t always do a great job of making this seamless to the point where you get the feeling that someone on the staff for the spinoff didn’t agree with some plot points. Still, it’s nothing that takes you out of the experience.

The art is really top tier as you’d expect. It holds its own with the main series and really does great with the inking and showing off the various monsters that the characters are capable of. Additionally, you can feel the intensity out of every soccer play. It’s really something that keeps you excited at all times which is really important. The pages really breeze by but since the chapters are longer than the weekly version, you always feel pretty satisfied. The battles are really able to develop a lot and you see what all of the players are capable. It’s definitely not your average soccer experience.

Nagi also makes for a solid character even if he isn’t quite as intense as Isagi is. When Nagi is at his best he can have those intense moments but they aren’t as automatic as Isagi. Nagi still needs a way to get his enthusiasm at different points which can take time. He also loses his way more than once so it’s good that Reo is around to buff him back up. Nagi is definitely someone who relies on Reo a whole lot although by the end of the series he starts to get around this. It is definitely a long way to get to that point but the important thing is that he made it.

Nagi’s sheer athleticism and dominating plays also make him fun to watch on the field. You sometimes forget just how tall the guy is since he’s always slouching. Honestly if he just got some more confidence and could keep it up for longer periods of time, he would be even better. Still, at the end of the day it was a smart move to make him a main character and I’d be curious who would be picked in another spinoff. Rin seems like the obvious pick but there are a lot of good calls.

Meanwhile Reo is also a fun character. The manga gets teased for all the drama but to a large degree I wouldn’t say that it is Reo’s fault most of the time. If anything, you can blame Nagi for a few of the fights like deciding not to team up during the early founds of Blue Lock. That came as a huge shock to Reo and I think anybody would be rather upset by that point. It’s like being betrayed by your best friend. Yeah this is Blue Lock where the strongest survive but it was still very personal.

Reo spends a lot of time being down in the dumps after that but eventually manages to pull himself together. In his defense, he ended up being one of the more skilled players as well. He may not be top 6 like Nagi, but his copy ability really has a lot of versatility to it. While a lot of focus is put into how much of a prodigy Nagi is, it’s worth noting that Reo went from being a spoiled rich kid to one of the best strikers in Japan. That also makes him a prodigy at soccer if you ask me. Considering he was also good at many other things growing up, he was truly a jack of all trades from the very start.

Meanwhile it’s also really fun seeing Isagi from an outsider’s point of view. The guy just seems like an insane monster with how quickly he improves on the field. He goes from being a regular joe to suddenly making moves against guys like Rin. He’s given a whole lot of respect in the series and nearly everyone either fears him or sees him as a super intense rival. That’s not something you could say about just any character and to make up for the fact that he’s not technically around, we get a shadow version of him in Nagi’s head.

The rest of the fighters are also around of course but they don’t get a lot of added context since they’re about the same as in the main series. Bachira is still unpredictable and Rin is still an absolutely dominant force. Some of the best Blue Lockers out there. It was fun to see early views of other characters like Otoya and Karasu who took a while to do much in the main series. You also get the occasional new character like the analytical poker type player. He was a lot of fun so it’s a shame that he was doomed to be locked off. Ultimately due to the format of the series, that’s the fate of a lot of characters.

Another fun thing about being a spinoff here is that outside of Nagi and Reo’s dynamic, the series doesn’t need to spend much time on character interactions. That means we get to really jump into all of the fights right away. It feels a bit like Dragon Ball Heroes in that the fights would almost be constantly back to back like a marathon. That’s how it feels with the soccer games at times. You’re going from fight to fight and the interactions in there are used for character development. Any downtime is usually for Reo and Nagi thinking to themselves about how they could have handled their conversations better. Not saying there is no miscellaneous downtime but it’s definitely minimal and that’s not a bad thing.

It’s just a privilege of being a spinoff and this series understood that perfectly. Since the fundamentals were so solid like having a great cast and artwork, it also meant that the manga was destined for greatness If it could have gone on longer then I dare say it may have hit the elusive 9/10 score like the classic Blue Lock but ultimately I do think it would have needed more time for that. This is a great manga but I would not be able to say that it is downright elite. That’s a very high amount of praise that you really have to work for. Still, there are no real negatives here. The series is a blast the whole time. The trash talk is as good as you’re gonna see it in any title.

Then there is the occasional future foreshadowing going on here as well. We see how Chigiri’s leg continues to get closer to breaking and it’s heavily implied that one more key moment could take him out for the count. There have always been theories that he will break during the world cup and this series only served to strengthen that. Now will it actually happen? Who knows, but it was an interesting angle. It’s also fun to see just how much more reasonable everyone is when Isagi isn’t around. They all act really tough with lots of bravado when he’s in the room but without him even guys like Barou are open to using teamwork. It’s a subtle way of showing just how much control Isagi has over everyone and their playing styles.

Overall, Episode Nagi was really fun. It felt like the series was over in the blink of an eye with less than 40 chapters though. It’s monthly so that’s still a reasonable length but I would have loved for it to have reached 100 chapters. Either way if you like the original series then you’ll love this one as well. They don’t hold back on the action and it has enough new content to keep you interested from cover to cover.

Overall 8/10

Dragon Ball Daima Review

Posted on May 26, 2025 by dreager1

While we all continue to wait for the return of Dragon Ball Super, we at least got another DB title in the meantime. Daima was marketed as a very different title from the start, it would focus less on the action and be more of a down to Earth story. A return to the tone of classic Dragon Ball with the characters being involved in some crazy situations. It was a pretty interesting idea to be sure but I do miss the action. You can think of it as the third branching path after DBZ with the first being GT and the second being Super. This is another way that things played out after the Buu saga and lets just say that Goku and friends get put through the ringer.

It starts with Goku and Vegeta training as always when someone uses the Dragon Balls to turn all of the Z fighters back into children. They are weaker now and might not be prepared for future enemies. Additionally, Dende has been kidnapped. A helpful soul named Glorio shows up and informs the heroes that they will need to infiltrate the demon realm. This place is split up into 3 worlds and each one has a demon world dragon ball. Upon collecting all 3, the heroes can become adults again and save Dende. It sounds like a simple enough plan but the demon world is not for the faint of heart. Is Goku ready for this?

Well fortunately for him the demon realm isn’t one of the more powerful places. Generally it’s home to a ton of bullies and there are a few strong fighters but nobody that’s really at his level except for the guardians of the Dragon Balls who aren’t malicious. This allows Goku to finally take it easy and have fun a little more since the very universe doesn’t hang in the balance just yet. Although several demon world flunkies do have plans of their own.

The main villain of the series is Gomah and for better or worse he is definitely played for laughs for 90% of the series. He’s constantly crying and throwing tantrums because of how scared he is of Goku and friends. It shows just how far the demon world has fallen from the days of Demon King Dabura. Now there was a guy who really commanded respect. Gomah is just a sad character and your only hope is to find him funny. Because if you don’t then he will just be supremely annoying the whole time.

His partner is Degesu who completes the Team Rocket dynamic. This guy panics a whole lot but at least he has a bit more of an edge to him. He’s not above threatening babies in order to get what he wants. The guy just never backs down, he is always ready for action and that’s the best way to keep things. I just wish he could have gotten a little more to do because his conversations with Arinsu were interesting. Alas, he ends up squandering his potential by sticking with Gomah.

We do get two new Majins in Kuu and Duu but they aren’t particularly good. They’re both characters who don’t really take anything seriously and aren’t all that powerful. Duu actually does get some hype but at the end of the day he’s still not really on the level of the Z fighters. I guess for Demon World standards he is still pretty good though. The guy really likes his chocolate and is always demanding it. Kuu is a bit more responsible and mature at least even if it comes at the expense of his power.

At least Arinsu is fun. She has classic mastermind vibes and while it seems like the show won’t be going in that direction, at least it did add some tension in the show. I would have liked for her to have gotten at least one or two fight scenes but maybe next time. Her plan was a pretty solid one in terms of gathering the Dragon Balls although I would say her wish wasn’t the most inspired.

There were 3 main heroes added to the main cast. First up is Glorio who acts really shady the whole time. The kind of guy you don’t want to let out of your field of vision because you know he will end up back stabbing you at any moment. The guy would not hesitate for one moment. He will just go in there and finish you. As the show goes on he begins to learn the power of friendship though. He’s a decent fighter too, although the show has very messy power levels the whole time so I wouldn’t take that too seriously.

Most importantly, he’s a fun character who actually adds to the dynamic. Likewise Panzy is a fun character. She’s the resident genius of the series who knows how to keep the ships running. She has a good bond with Bulma and saves the group on more than one occasion. Of course it would be nice if she could fight but she still works well as an addition to the supporting cast. With most of the usual main characters stuck at home, you needed someone like that.

There is also a super old Namekian who trolls everyone the whole series but he’s more annoying than anything. I get the joke of this guy actually being super capable but he comes across as irresponsible. He helps out when he feels like it but otherwise doesn’t take a huge role in what’s going on. Then you have the comic relief character who is always dead pan. He can be pretty decent although it’s a bit much to see him constantly talking smack to Vegeta and then nothing happens with him. Vegeta should have clocked him a few times during the series.

From the main cast, I’d say that Piccolo probably gets the shaft here. He is constantly around but doesn’t get his own fights and chokes in his one big moment. It feels like he was added for the Namekian connection but it’s not like that is used a whole lot anyway. I think he could have been cut out and not much would change. I’m tempted to say the same for the Supreme Kai. He has personal lore connections here and knows one of the big villains so that’s all key but the Kai himself doesn’t do much. He mildly helps out in the occasional fight I guess. He just doesn’t feel very supreme.

Naturally it’s fun to see Bulma show up and help out. I do think she was a bit hard on Vegeta at some points though. Goku tends to steal fights to himself and everything so of course Vegeta tries to keep things fair. The show is actually not even that rough for the guy. Don’t count on him taking down the main villain or anything like that but he does still get in a lot of good shots and moments. Vegeta did good even if he is treated as the second fiddle next to Goku. At this point, I suppose that’s just how it has to be though.

As for Goku, he definitely acts a lot more like his kid self here. He really enjoys the situation and is mainly having a blast the whole time. He adapts to the wild life rather quickly and the whole thing is probably nostalgic to a degree since he’s been on many journeys like this before. It’s always fun to see him cut loose a bit but at times he holds back so long that it borderlines on him being a saboteur. The longer you drag a battle out, the more likely it is that someone else will get caught up in it after all.

So what I would say here is that the first 13-15 episodes are basically full on comedy and then we get to a big DBZ type climax. That’s why your enjoyment comes down to the comedy. I’d say Dragon Ball is fairly good on this. There can be some more juvenile moments but on the whole you already know most of the characters and that adds some of the journey to it. You don’t often get to see them all just having fun nowadays so that is a change of pace.

I would just say the show could have done something to make it a tad more energetic. It feels like most of the episodes would revolve around the heroes beating up some random thugs as they planet hop. It would probably have been better to have just gone straight to adventure mode and have them checking out some mountains or something instead. It’s not like the thugs post any kind of threat and it’s less cool to see Goku beating them up and almost boring instead. A lot of the fights really start to blend together.

The battles with the Dragon Ball guardians are a lot of fun but none of the minion fights can say that. The series was also a bit in a corner with how strong Goku and friends are. how can some randoms really take them on? Well, the series tries to convince you that the energy blasters are enough to get the job done and I have a hard time believing that. One episode in particular gets really dramatic as the characters try to survive a whole onslaught and you can’t help but think how easy this whole thing is. A single punch would take them out and yet this takes up a good chunk of an episode.

The first half of the show mainly relied on fake threats like this to keep you busy. At that point you should just lean on the comedy instead. My biggest complaint with the series comes down to the fact that some episodes can almost be a bit boring. The characters carry the episodes as much as possible but you really feel like it should have been way better. This is Dragon Ball after all!

Fortunately the climax does show up with the huge fight scene that spirals through several episodes. It does still have some issues like most of the battle feeling a bit repetitive though. The villain has complete regeneration but is selectively weak from scene to scene. So one moment he can handle Goku at his peak and then he’s getting rocked by fighters in their base form. So the fight has the hero land a ton of punches and energy blasts. Then the villain regenerates. Hero repeats the combo over and over as the villain regenerates over and over. It just makes you not take the fight as seriously after a while.

It’s an interesting way to show off just how powerful a certain artifact in the series is but it doesn’t always make for the best fight. The animation is really good for the battles though. It looks very flashy and the characters are constantly moving at a very high speed. The show does look like a very modern production which is always good. You can easily picture a lot of Youtube videos showing off the fights since you can then sub in your own music and streamline it. The final episodes do feel a whole lot like DBZ even if the enemy isn’t really able to fight back for most of it. It’s a great way to end thing off and it does allow you to end on a high note. At least on my end I can say that the discussions and everything relating to the series jumped up almost 10 times for the final episodes. You could say all of the viewers locked in at that point and I’d include myself with that.

One thing against the series is that the soundtrack is pretty weak though. It’s got very little variety and the tracks that are there aren’t very good. They should have gotten the Bruce Falconer music instead to be honest. There aren’t any Daima tunes that I would end up searching on my own because they just didn’t fit the action or suspense scenes all that well. It feels like a soundtrack aimed for a comedy that forgot to transition to action later on.

We do get a ton of lore within this show so maybe future products will utilize that in some way. Even if the show doesn’t get referenced later on, there’s never anything wrong with having a stand alone title in there. If anything I would say that it should happen a lot more often. Not everything has to be a big canon continuation or something like that. Sometimes it’s fine to just make a side story and have fun with it. I do think Daima could have been a little more high budget and frantic though. The animation was certainly high budget when it came to the big fights but maybe adding more action scenes here and there that didn’t revolve around the heroes knocking everyone out with an easy punch.

Also, I tend to look at it a bit harsher because I’m one of those DBZ fans who really loves all the high octane action and everything like that. I don’t have any real nostalgia for the kid Dragon Ball days in part because I never read it. So that part of Daima would end up being lost on me as a result. My counter would be that it still could have been more interesting and then it would work for all audiences. Since the power levels are the main issue here, I would have just made the wish a little different. Have it time travel the Z fighters’ minds to back when they were kids so they don’t even know each other, much less how to use their powers. Then it would explain why they are having trouble with grunts until the ending. You’d probably have to switch some other things to make it work but that might be a better approach.

Overall, Dragon Ball Daima is a good show but it can feel underwhelming just because of the huge bar that’s been set by the other titles like Super, DBZ, and even GT. The climax does some pretty heavy lifting here to show us Daima’s potential though so I appreciate that. The characters and their banter have to be enough to tide you over for the rest of the show. At the end of the day it is a fairly small title with 20 episodes and in a sense if it doesn’t get a sequel you could basically just call it an AU filler. That said, you have to savor any appearances by Goku and friends because it’s not like they are on TV all that often. So Daima did what it set out to do in keeping Goku at the front of everyone’s minds.

Overall 7/10

Yoshi’s Island DS Review

Posted on March 5, 2025 by dreager1

Yoshi’s Island is one of those games that I would have imagined that I’d have played years ago but it always fell through the cracks. As a result it feels really retro to be playing this one because it’s just from such a different time. This was back when Nintendo really did not hold back on the difficulty. Some of these levels are really quite hard but never in an unfair way. Your platforming skills will simply be tested in ways that you wouldn’t have thought possible.

The story is fairly basic but with one little twist that was nice. Basically babies around the world are being kidnapped and this includes poor Luigi. Fortunately the stork is able to save Mario and quickly locates Yoshi so that they can team up to save the world once again. These two are no strangers to mixing it up with the likes of Bowser and so they quickly get ready for this. What they don’t realize is that King Bowser has come from the future as well to really complicate matters. Dealing with two fierce opponents may be a bit much and then we have Wario as a wild card.

Right off the bat I can appreciate the wide character roster here. At least for a Platformer this feels pretty big. You can use Baby Mario, Peach, Wario, DK, and even Bowser at one point. Each character has their own special abilities while riding on Yoshi and this even affects your running speed. Additionally Mario has the ability to grow his cape while using a power star and you temporarily control him instead of Yoshi. It’s clear that Nintendo was really working hard to ensure there was a whole lot of depth to the gameplay. It’s certainly doing more than the original.

That said, more isn’t always better. How much you enjoy this game will really come down to how much you like playing as all of the characters. If for any reason you do not like playing as them, then you will probably miss the standard Yoshi gameplay. As its core the gameplay still has many of the same elements like running through the levels and getting past all the obstacles but then you use the character specific items like DK’s climbing to get past different barriers in the level.

I mostly stuck with Mario as his basic gameplay is the most comforting but the game does force you to switch on many occasions. So get used to playing as everyone. Like I said before the difficulty is also quite high so don’t think that you will just be sleep walking through this adventure. No, you’re going to have to really put in a lot of effort. Stock up on as many lives as possible in the first few worlds. I nearly didn’t spend enough focus on that since I figured lives wouldn’t be important but the difficulty really spikes starting with world 4. I had around 65 lives by that point and ended up with less than 20 by the end.

There are a lot of check points in the game which is good but some of the jumps and timings are really intense. It’s fun to see how creatively Nintendo added this difficulty while preserving the basic concept of Yoshi not having a health bar. You die if you fall through a pit, touch lava, or let your baby get away from you for a long period of time. The latter is the easiest way to die so just be careful where you’re at when you take damage.

For the most part the bosses are all really easy though as even the final boss moves fairly slow and only has a few different attacks. I suspect that it is harder to balance a boss than it is for a level which explains the huge disparity between them. So at least that’s one part you don’t have to worry about, for the most part you will be blowing the bosses away with ease. For the levels, you just have to keep going at them over and over again until you’ve found a way to win. Over 90% of the challenging parts are just about execution though so you don’t have to worry about solving puzzles or anything like that. Just put your best foot forward and you’ll be fine.

The graphics are pretty solid here. Again it has a very nostalgic kind of vibe to it with the looks and designs really being classic Mario all the way. It’s an easy game to enjoy visually and the soundtrack is also good. A solid array of themes even if I can’t point to any one theme and say that it’s an all star. They all work well within the context that they appear in which is good enough for me. Nintendo typically always does a good job on that front so I’m not surprised.

There is also a formidable amount of replay value here. The main campaign is fairly long with 5 worlds of 8 levels each but then each world has 3-4 bonus levels as well. Then you have the collectibles and there are a ton of those to grab in each level. We’re talking massive Yoshi coins as well as red coins. It will take a very long time to achieve all of those so that will add more than a few hours to your total docket.

Overall, This is a very complete Yoshi game. It holds its own with the classic Mario titles although I will always prefer the Mario gameplay over Yoshi overall. Nothing wrong with Yoshi’s but Mario’s tends to be more fast paced. Here you do often have to wait for things to get set up. The worst are the auto scroller levels but that is true for any platformer title since the movement is so slow. You should definitely check this game out if you are looking for a good challenge. I can definitely guarantee that you will find one here. It’s the kind of game that you really can’t underestimate.

Overall 7/10

Saint Seiya: Episode G Review

Posted on February 2, 2025 by dreager1

Episode G is a title that I’ve been reading for many years. The final chapter was finally translated and so I can say that the journey is complete! I look forward to starting the G sequel sooner than later. This one definitely had some ups and downs as the overall story quality is top tier but the art does hold it back quite a bit. It is definitely one of the messiest styles that I’ve seen and I would consider it to be sub par. It does actually hold the manga back which is rare for any title. Even when I’m not super pleased with an art style, it is usually fairly decent. Well, at the end of the day this is still a great manga and I was satisfied with how it turned out.

The manga takes place a little before the main series which is fun to think about. It may be a little hard to believe but just roll with it. Aiolia is treated like an outcast by the rest of the saints since Aiolos betrayed them all to save Athena. Aiolia doesn’t know why his brother did this and remains confused in the present. He does have a loyal retainer in Galarian who helps him in finding temples and dungeons with monsters to destroy. Aiolia even bumps into a girl named Lithos who ends up becoming a close friend. At least he has these two to support him and Aiolia is determined to win the trust of his fellow Saints and prove himself although it’s not to be their friend since there is a lot of resentment on his side as well. Well the time for waiting may be past now as the Titans have awakened. These fighters have incredible abilities and above them are various fighters who are named after planets. They intend to destroy everything and are led by Kronos, one of the most powerful beings in all of creation. Without a proper Athena to command them, will the Gold Saints be able to put aside their differences and take these guys out?

So like I said before, the art here is definitely real crazy. For starters, most of the characters are drawn to look like girls. Aiolia is the biggest offender here as they took a lot of liberties with his design. It looks like the artist did this to make the fights smoother as everyone can be really off model the whole time. This lets the series show us massive energy blasts as characters stretch across whole pages with their poses. It’s definitely an interesting approach but ultimately a poor one if you ask me. It can be really difficult to make out what is happening in a fight.

The longer you read the series, the easier it gets but the fact that you have to make any effort is a problem. Manga art should always be clear enough where you can seamlessly read the pages as you keep going. If you have to stop and ponder what you’re looking at then it can only be said to be poor art. That should just not be happening and with proper artwork this really would have been super epic. It’s a title that isn’t afraid to shake up the plot unlike Saint Seiya: Next Dimension.

The fact is that this series had a whole lot of fun with new situations. For example in the pre arc we see some explorers going through ruins. Aiolia is tagging along as a mysterious guide and it’s just fun to see the heroes walking around and doing normal things beyond the fighting. I’ll take nonstop fighting of course but there is something to be said for putting the characters in new environments. We even get a cop/secret agent but things don’t go well for him here. At the end of the day Saint Seiya is one of those verses that is incredibly powerful so a human is not going to last very long without protection.

Aiolia does have two followers who aren’t the strongest and so he is always prepared to help them out. Galarian is one of them although the guy can fight since he used to be a big saint candidate. The guy hasn’t been in the ring for a while though so it is fair to say that he has weakened a whole lot. It was nice to see Aiolia have such a loyal follower like him. The other is a girl named Lithos and she is an ordinary girl all the way. So she can’t fight and is definitely someone that has to be protected. She gets written out for most of the series but does show up again near the end.

The introduction chapters showing this different side to the characters is fun because then we eventually do get to the nonstop fighting marathon that the franchise is known for. Once the heroes take the fight to the Titans for the rematch, that is the rest of the series. It takes up a massive chunk of the title as every character gets their own fight which is usually a few chapters long and then we get the final saga where they all get one more fight. I can guarantee you that you don’t have to worry about a lack of action or anything like that. This title has got you all the way.

While the artwork is hard to follow, it does get the scale across. The Saints are supposed to all be universal threats with unlimited powers as they invoke the names of planets and universes in their attacks. Well this title doesn’t hold back on that at all as the characters use more and more powerful attacks the whole time. This is where it’s hard to believe that it takes place before the main series because of the power ups that they all get. Aiolia for example learns how to use the 7th and 8th senses which in the main series only Virgo Shaka could go as far as the 7th sense. Tauros learns how to go beyond just using defense, Camus learns how to use his ice better, etc. It would have made a lot more sense for this to have been after Hades although that would present some issues as well.

The Gold Saints who are here by the end of the main series just don’t feel like they would lose to a bunch of Bronze Saints. I would have a hard time believing it at least. They also learned how to respect each other and fight as a team which doesn’t quite track. When looking this one up, it’s listed as an alternate timeline but even so I don’t think that would remove any of the issues that I’ve mentioned.

Ah well, the cool factor is more important than the timeline anyway. As for Aiolia, he was a good pick as the main character here. Aiolos will always be the character who really steals the show for me but Aiolia has done a good job of being his successor. I definitely would not say that he is as good as Aiolos or even that close but he has a lot of personality and determination. He is at least trying to make the Gold Saints more accountable and heroic. Most of the others are content to just follow orders and look the other way which is not a good way to do things.

Aiolia has a good amount of similarities with Seiya and that is always a good sign. Aiolia makes sure to protect his friends and by the end he saves the world first and then works on redeeming the villains. He never loses sight of his own goals and has some pretty good speeches. I definitely had no issues with him. His light based techniques are all a lot of fun as well. Well, electricity may be more accurate but he’s also known for being ultra fast. He is easily able to exceed the speed of light which is no small feat.

In true Saint Seiya fashion, the villains will sometimes no sell the attack anyway or move even faster. That’s just how it is here, the villains are super arrogant and it’s up to the heroes to put a stop to that. The villains will literally close their eyes before attacking which is always awesome. That’s not to say that the heroes are lacking in confidence at all though. They have their moments of bragging a whole lot as well. Most of the Gold Saints end up getting a big reality check here since they figured this would be easy and then end up taking a ton of damage.

To an extent I’d say a valid critique you can have here is that a lot of the Saints are written very similarly. They show up to fight their opponent, brag a whole lot, and then eventually win. They each have very noble dialogue by the end of it and eventually admit to Aiolia that he did good. There seems to be less time to really differentiate them unlike the main series which did this very easily. This series could have worked a bit harder on that but it is a minor thing. So they all sound really hype the whole time? It could be worse.

Even then Virgo Shaka and Gemini Saga really stand out as being the strongest. If I had to give a third shoutout it would be Shura who got to show off a bit more than the other Gold Saints. Without him then the heroes would have really been in trouble. He got to show why his invincible sword is still the strongest out there. Even in the main series I really liked his techniques because it’s all him just striking really hard. Unlike Tauros you really got the idea that he was the strongest.

On the villain side, Kronos was definitely the standout character. Much like the Gold Saints, his group of fighters were mainly more on the generic side. Saint Seiya is a franchise that loves its repetition and this series was no exception. Each villain would run in screaming about how he/she is a god and shouldn’t have to fight such mild mortals. It’s all very impressive the first few times and then you watch as they are defeated time and time again. Some handle their defeat with a little dignity and grace while others go down yelling. For the most part they feel more like obstacles than proper villains.

I’d probably blame the artwork here again since the designs seemed pretty good but got cut out a lot. I’d say the pacing is responsible for the rest since they just aren’t around long enough to really leave an impact. The exception here is Kronos who really gets a lot of screentime. I liked him. We got to learn more about him thanks to his temporary amnesia and then after that he became a big villain.

On the surface he may seem like another “I wanna destroy the world” kinda villain but it makes sense because this guy has been around for a long time and has really seen just how terrible humanity has been. After a while you would definitely be ready for it to all be over. This guy has the power to do it so why not right? It can get harder and harder to root against the enemies based on just how bad humanity is. Also when it’s a quick finish like this, it’s not like it’ll hurt much. So technically we’re rooting for the heroes but it’s not like I disliked Kronos or anything like that. He was a pretty fun villain.

I also liked the abilities that the villains had. Something called Duramis which works like a Saint’s Cosmos. It’s basically the same thing but what this set of gods uses. It makes sense that each set would call the energy something different and further helps to expand the universe. The Saints having to each take down actual gods is a real feather in their cap as well. The franchise always goes really high tier and I can definitely appreciate that.

Overall, Episode G is a fun series. It’s definitely very light on plot as it is all about all of the characters slamming into each other and battling it out but that’s all I really need. In that sense it’s a whole lot like the Dragon Ball Heroes titles. You’re reading it for the fights and nothing else. Nothing wrong with that and it’s a fun way to do a spinoff. I would definitely recommend checking this one out. Even factoring in the art, I had a great time here. Hopefully one day it’ll get an anime so we can really experience the fights in their full glory. I’ll be checking out the sequel pretty soon so I look forward to seeing how that one stacks up. Can it beat the original? It’s got way more chapters but way less volumes so we’ll see how that turns out.

Overall 8/10

Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen Review

Posted on January 18, 2025 by dreager1

It’s time for one of the edgiest grim dark manga titles of all time. Each chapter tries to keep on one upping itself for a while there. You already know that things won’t end well based on how the main series plays out but the author wants to really show you that absolutely nothing good would happen to Guren. He ends up going through trauma after trauma for the whole series. Definitely one of those titles that had potential but got way too distracted the whole time.

The story follows Guren who is part of the Ichinose family which is considerably under the Hiragi family. Basically they exist to be convenient tools and slaves to be used as needed. Guren doesn’t like this setup and wants to rebel but unfortunately doesn’t have the power to do so. Any attempt ends up with his friends getting tortured and murdered. So he is eventually tamed but his friend Mahiru goes a different path. After years of being tortured forever and ever, she gains the abilities of demons and vampires and breaks free. She has now set the planet on a course for destruction and Guren might be the only one who can stop her. Does he even want to stop her though?

As always you are not rooting for Guren to save the planet here because there is nothing to save. The series makes it absolutely abundantly clear that humanity is extremely evil to an absurd degree. Slavery is completely legal here and the political power of the top brass is so good that they can execute people in the streets as a whim. Almost every member of the main characters are tortured at some point and this seems like a frequent occurrence. You then have random demons abusing the humans and going all Sword Art Online on them. They commit violence of every kind and so again…why should humanity be saved?

This series is even darker than Attack on Titan which takes a whole lot of skill and effort because that series is near the top. Just thinking about how far this goes will make you crazy. I guess the other aspect of this is about how they show how hopeless the world is. It’s one thing for this to be the case currently but then it’s even worse when you know that things won’t get any better. So there are a few factions here. You have the humans and if they win, then the torture and slavery will continue. They are the status quo after all and will continue with the human experimentations forever. The “Heroes” won’t come to help you because they work for the establishment and have hostages to consider.

Then you have the vampires who intend to keep the humans alive as cattle so they can keep on drinking blood forever. Humanity will survive but it won’t be of much use because your quality of life will be absolutely horrible. It won’t be a life worth living. The angels mostly just watch in amusement but will blow up the world if they feel like it. Mahiru meanwhile is also going to end the world so at least in those situations it will all end right away. Finally the demons just want the humans to give into their base desires and cause chaos so you can imagine what a terrible world that would be. So yeah, we just need the planet to go boom already.

Now I will give the series this, the art is very good. It looks a whole lot like the main series and there is a lot of attention to detail on the fights. The action is always easy to follow so it doesn’t get convoluted or anything like that. The art style also does well in keeping up the atmosphere of dread. The series does actually have a solid atmosphere, it would just have needed a whole lot of restraint for the rest of the content instead of going absolutely looney tunes on the whole thing. That would have really made a world of difference.

When it comes to the characters, I can’t say that I liked most of them. Again, most of them are caught up in the cruelty of the world with no way to fight back. It doesn’t inspire a lot of hope within you to see that they’re all just government stooges the whole time. Take Guren for example. He talks a really good game but he’s always getting absolutely dominated by every other character in the series. He has to let them pound away at him because he’s forbidden from fighting back most of the time.

He’s allowed to murder other henchmen but that’s about it. He even has to work for the guy who brutally murders his father and a bunch of his attendants. Guren is forced to do that guys every bidding and even has to kneel. The amount of disrespect he goes through is really something and after a point it’s better to just make a move and die in the process instead of living with that. So that’s why I didn’t like Guren. At the end of the day he played it way too safe and did not make a big difference in the world.

Sayuri is one of his main attendants and I’ll be less harsh on her and the rest of his followers. All of the social pressures on Guren are magnified even more on someone like her who is considered deposable by everyone. She also doesn’t have the power levels needed to fight back. I appreciate that she can stay optimistic throughout all of this but her character arc is definitely tragic. Shigure and Mito are basically the same in that regard.

Shinya at least gets to troll Guren a lot so I appreciate that. He’s one of those guys who is also serious but really has to mask it or of course he will be punished as well. Definitely not a lot of good options for the guy. He was loyal though and for Guren every ally is important in this impossible fight. Norito doesn’t get as big a role as he seems to be in the main series but he was another great ally.

One of the biggest players here is Kureto. He’s the head of the Hiragi clan and one of the most powerful players among the human race. Even he has his betters and so he also puts up with some disrespect but there aren’t many. He also intend to betray these people eventually. It might make sense for him to treat his subordinates a little better as a result but this guy likes the cruelty as well. Ultimately it’s not like he has ever been anywhere close to Mahiru in power and the guy is jealous but you can’t feel all that bad for him.

A character I feel bad for is Shinoa who basically grew up in hell the whole time. Mahiru shielded her as best she could but this still wasn’t 100%. It’s clear that Shinoa is already broken inside by the time this series starts and considering that she’s just a kid, that’s real tragic. The most sympathetic character here is Mahiru though. All she wanted was to be a normal girl in love and ultimately that wasn’t in the cards. At every turn she is attacked by every faction in the book. It’s no wonder that she would join the dark side here. The only way to end this cycle of violence appears to be to destroy the world.

After all when every faction is evil, how would you go about peacefully solving this? It’s just not going to happen and so manipulating everyone to speed up the end of the world seems like the best bet. It’s also really impressive just how powerful she is. I dare say the romance dynamic with her and Guren is actually really interesting as a result. I do think it’s fairly one sided though as she really liked him while Guren seems to be the type who will just manipulate her when convenient. Not the way you really have a healthy dynamic but anytime Mahiru appeared, things would be interesting.

I can also give the manga some credit there, it is an interesting story. It’s not very often that you have this many factions running around and the series balances them well. Likeability aside, there is at least no dull moments in this series. The characters and story continue to move forward as they are thrown into more and more predicaments. The long climax that leads up to the ending is also really exciting. It’s a good reminder that you can create a lot of tension even when you know exactly how the prequel will end.

Why it had to be so extra dark and gritty is a question that will haunt us all for years to come. Even the main series can get depressing but never to this extent. Throw in all of the other issues like random fanservice and this one really fell into every issue possible. It definitely keeps this from being a fun read. Somewhere buried wayyyy deep into the manga is a wholesome school story that would have been a lot of fun. Just Guren and the gang hanging out like normal friends.

We get small glimpses of this like when Guren and his friends played video games before the big climax. Of course even then I’m not sure that the writing would have been up to the task. With all the talk about desires and such, most conversations tended to go down that dicey direction and it showed just how the author was never able to have normal dialogue. It felt like the series had to constantly go down a suggestive path which wasn’t a good idea in the slightest. I’d usually put in suggestions on how to improve the series but in this case that would pretty much mean a complete change to many parts of the premise, situations, etc. It would be a completely different story by the time I was done with it. Perhaps that would be for the best though.

At least we do get some nice cameos and easter eggs for the main series. Yuichiro and Mikaela get some brief appearances where they already appear jaded with the world. One of the top vampires shows up to remind the heroes just how many orders of magnitudes stronger Vampires are than demons. Just as a gentle reminder that there is really no hope of ever surpassing them. You have to let the humans down gently after all and that’s certainly one way to do it. Not like the series wasn’t already twisting the knife on this…

Overall, This is definitely one of those series that you will want to avoid. Stick to your head canon on what happened prior to the main series. Between what is stated and the context clues, you can more or less understand what happened anyway. I’s pretty neat to see the characters in a normal world going to school and stuff but at the same time it’s not like they are able to do this for very long before everything starts to go sideways. So if you’re reading for that then it won’t matter much anyway.

Overall 1/10

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review

Posted on October 5, 2024 by dreager1

As soon as they announced this game I knew it was going to be hype. It’s about time that Zelda got to carry her own adventure as well. Link had his fun but even Peach has already gotten 2 games to herself. This time Zelda got her first big budget title and it’s a whole lot of fun. I would even say it’s more well polished than any of the other overhead LoZ titles. It also has one of the best portrayals of Link to date which was pretty cool. He doesn’t get shortchanged just because it’s not his game this time.

The story starts with Link breaking into the villain base and taking names. This is Link from the end of the game so he has all of his weapons and abilities and man is it a blast. He just mows everybody down like it’s none of his business. We get a terrific opening boss and then something massive happens and we switch over to Zelda. It’s now her turn to save the world from the dangerous rifts that are befalling the land. She will have to use a legendary scepter that lets her create echos of any object or minion that she defeats with it. Will these abilities be enough to stop the legions of villains that are after her? Only time will tell.

Right away you could tell that there was a whole lot of passion and heart into this project. The levels look absolutely great with a lot of solid details the whole time. The colors are vibrant and everything’s really nice. The art style works really well and it’s also very expressive for both the heroes and the villains. The soundtrack is a little limited but fortunately I really enjoyed the tunes so I didn’t really care too much. When you give me a solid tune, I don’t really worry about the rest. I just know that now I have a very solid background bgm at the ready.

The gameplay is your classic Legend of Zelda overhead style but with one big twist. Instead of always having the sword, you have the scepter and you use that to summon objects and enemies in order to get through puzzles. It reminded me a lot of Scribblenauts where you have countless ways to get past each obstacle. It all comes down to how creative you are about the whole thing. I can tell you I made sure to really be as creative as possible in most areas to get the maximum amount of fun. My go to object was definitely the bed.

You can stack it up in a lot of different ways and jump over large gaps. You can also use it to balance other items or buy yourself a few seconds when you’re trying to get objects to land at the same time. You can also use spiders to soar up to a high level, etc. I’m pretty positive that there were several areas where I cleared the obstacles in a way other than how the devs really intended but the results are really what matter right? So long as you get to the end, that’s what counts.

On the whole I would say the game is fairly easy but this does make you have to use your head a little. I really appreciated the game having a good map the whole time and always telling you where to go though. If you die, the respawn point is always super close and so you have a lot of quality of life details here. Additionally, you can sleep in the beds to gain hearts at any point. You even get the super bed later on. It is possible to miss these things though so I highly recommend scanning every object you come across. There is literally no downside to doing so after all and you’re only hurting yourself if you skip an important one.

Likewise you want to beat every enemy type at least once so that you can summon him. I got a super powerful level 3 sword fighter armored type villain early on and he was perfect for every boss fight. He has a super powerful lunge attack when you first summon him and so the trick is to summon him, let him attack, then summon him again. It results in a nonstop barrage of powerful hits that can down just about any opponent in an instant. Yeah that was really good stuff. Surprisingly the big array of summons is the only part of the game that didn’t feel fully optimized.

Scrolling through all of your echos by the end of the game gets rough because there are so many. It almost makes you want to keep using the same ones so you don’t have to go too far back. I still had fun switching them around though and admittedly this is a fairly small issue to even think about. It just takes more time than you would expect. Now while I would say this is easily one of the least difficult Zelda titles, you can always get overconfident and still die once or twice if you aren’t careful. The enemies deal a whole lot of damage in an instant so you want to watch out for that.

Also, the puzzles get easier the more side quests you complete which is a pretty cool mechanic. For example, when you complete puzzles in the rifts then you get more energy which allows you to summon more things at once. Let me tell you, it’s way easier to make it past a series of gaps when you can summon 8 beds vs 4. So I encourage you to knock out all of the rifts and side quests on the way. Most of them just take under a minute anyway for civilian missions and maybe 2 minutes for rifts. In exchange you will have more hearts and power.

As a final note, this is also one of Link’s best portrayals and I have to give the game major props for keeping his reputation strong as the hero. He’s not suddenly powerless without his equipment or anything like that. He helps out a great deal and show really solid reaction times all the way. He’s an absolute game changer and definitely a fighter you are not likely to forget. The climax of the game is also an absolute blast and I’d like to see more of this in the future. Echoes of Wisdom had a ton of fantastic ideas here and it also had more of a story than I’m used to for the overhead games. In short, there is absolutely a ton to enjoy here!

Overall, Echoes of Wisdom is definitely a great game. It’s the kind of title that you never really forget about and it will go down as one of the best Zelda titles. I do wish it had more of a post came though. Not that I’d have the time to play it right now but it does feel like there’s not a ton of bonus content. I beat most of the side missions and got most of the stamps on the way to beating the game. It definitely added some solid hours into the game but even with 100% I wouldn’t say this is a super long title. It’s long enough though and at the end of the day if you’re high quality enough, then that can make up for sheet length. You really don’t want to miss this one.

Overall 8/10

Kaiju No. 8: B-Side Review

Posted on July 14, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a Kaiju No. 8 spinoff that lasted for a little while. Miniseries like this are always fun to flesh out the side characters with material that we never got to see in the main title. It’s a good idea and I think more manga should do this. I would have liked it to have been longer if anything, but we still got to see 3 different characters and their origins which was fun. They picked really solid characters to do this with. I guess at this point there are just 3 more that I would like to see a full prequel with. Captain Ashiro, and then both of Kikoru’s parents. Maybe someday though.

The first story is the origin for Hoshino. All his life he has trained in the ways of the sword but the problem is that this is seen as very ineffective against Kaiju nowadays. Most of them are just too large so the sword won’t pierce and even for the smaller ones, it seems a lot more efficient to just mow them down with a machine gun. Hoshino really wants to stick to the sword though, that has been his family legacy after all. Finally he is being given a chance by Captain Ashiro. Can he live up to her hopes or is he about to just doom his chances of ever being a true Kaiju hunter?

It’s definitely fun to see Hoshino in the old days and he already had great speed and ability. Honestly I never thought the series made a good case for why guns beat swords. The gun blasts vary based on how much power you can get out of the suit and the way I see it, almost nobody can get a reasonable amount of power out of the suit. So in that case, it ends up feeling like they’re just spinning their wheels there. It’s not a great long term approach at all. So if everyone had swords, at least they could stab into the Kaiju because the power of the suit won’t limit the sword as much as it would a gun. Maybe there are more reasons for not using swords though.

Either way Ashiro made a wise decision in picking Hoshino for her team. He has definitely proven himself a whole lot and he really did good against the Kaiju fighters in the first story. He would go on to consistently be one of the best characters in the series. Following him up would be a tough choice but the series went with Kikoru which makes sense. She is also a prodigy after all. In this case we already know her origin from the main series though so what would the story be about?

The title decides to show us how she ended up picking out her custom weapon. Her normal weapon wasn’t strong enough to pierce the armor of the Kaiju that she was up against in the training exercises so she grabbed an axe and then the rest was history. You could tell that the writer was a little more constrained with this character since we see her a lot in the main story but this was a smart way to get us some more fights and everything. It’s definitely much smaller scale than the first story with the stakes not being as large but it was satisfying to see her rise up to the top.

The Kaiju corp is definitely lucky to have so many prodigies on the team. In some ways it’s why the series reminds me of World Trigger because the heroes have so many different hype characters on the roster. They just keep on coming and so you’d think the enemies might be in a bad spot but fortunately for them, they have a lot of strong fighters too. If they had actually made a move before the heroes grew so powerful, it would probably be curtains by now.

Finally the last story is about Gen and how he was recruited. The guy started out as a…guess what…a huge prodigy! As a kid without a suit he was already powerful enough to take down some of the smaller Kaiju on his own. Mix in the Kaiju suit and now he was basically unstoppable. This guy has the special kaiju eye implants that can let him detect future attacks. So mix that in with his relentless training/ability and he is one of the strongest in the series. I dare say that he easily surpasses both Hoshina and Kikoru in skill. I’d like to see a quick story with a rivalry between those 3 characters to be honest. That would have been a fun way to finish up the series as a bonus story of sorts.

Ultimately I suppose the point of the series is to hype up the main one and get more readers on it. It does a good job with that as each chapter ends with a flash forward to the main series as everyone gets hyped to take on the Kaiju. The monsters don’t stand a chance against the combined might of human ingenuity! The art is definitely really high tier and holds its own with the main series. All of the action scenes are drawn really well and the villains are definitely very imposing. Of course this is before we got to the intelligent Kaiju so they’re basically just classic monsters but the designs are really good.

This is a rare example of an anthology where I liked all of the characters/stories. Usually in formats like this, there will always be at least one that holds the others back but this wasn’t the case here. I guess it goes to show how solid the cast is for the series. Kaiju No 8 has a very small cast of notable characters next to other titles but that’s probably a good thing in this case. It allows each one to stand out way more than they ever would have if they tried introducing too many characters. Still, like I said before there are some other characters around if they want to go and start working on those in another anthology spinoff.

Overall, All 3 stories were really good. The series was really a bunch of nonstop action scenes across the 3 leads which worked perfectly for this one. That’s why you are reading Kaiju No 8 after all. You’re here for all of the fights and the intrigue. The series never holds back on this. The art is still really solid and so this is a must read for any fan of the franchise. Even if you don’t read Kaiju No 8 this works as a solid jumping on point. Then if you enjoyed this prequel, you can jump into the main story right away. That’s a good way to handle things.

Overall 7/10

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Tag Archives: Spinoff

Detective Conan: Chianti’s Last Supper Review

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The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review

Kaiju No. 8: B-Side Review

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