The Water Dragon’s Bride Review

Posted on August 25, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a supernatural Shojo title. There is a lot of romance and drama of course, you gotta have the full blend of emotions here and the series lasted for 11 volumes which is pretty impressive. It gets to cover a lot and has a pretty unique premise. It’s definitely not something that you see very often. You’d almost expect this to be like a power fantasy by the end but that’s not the exact audience it’s going for so this is a little different.

The story starts with introducing us to a normal girl named Asahi who has a loving family. Everything was going well one day until she got pulled into the well that exists in her backyard. This isekais her to another realm where she is meant to be the Water Dragon’s bride. This god doesn’t really have any emotions and thinks the whole ritual is amusing but he still takes offense when she declines him. So he sends her back into the village but without the use of her voice. She must now find a way to escape this world that exists in the past and get back to modern day civilization. Is that even possible though?

She has one ally in the past at least. A boy named Subaru who likes her right away. Unfortunately they are both just kids right now and so it’s not like they can really defend themselves from the cruel mortals that are all around them. Subaru’s mother is one of the key antagonists who wants to sacrifice Asahi and get her out of here. Asahi is just lucky that the water dragon has no interest in claiming her life. If he did then that would have really been it for her. As the series goes on she gradually gets to teach him about the various emotions so that he becomes more human.

There is a time skip later in the series so Asahi is all grown up and can talk again. This definitely helps because while she was always a solid main character, it’s just hard to do anything while you’re still a kid. Not being able to talk is also rough when the whole village is against her. I thought the series definitely got more interesting from this point on. There are a lot of plot elements I would have liked to have seen more of though. We have several gods outside of the water one like darkness, fire, wood, and a few others. The only other one with a big role aside from water is the darkness one who makes for a good villain. The others are more just along for the ride but having a big gods battle royale would have been a lot of fun. Something where we see them all show up to defend Asahi or something like that.

I would say the character who gets the most development by far is the Water Dragon though. Going from emotionless to super emotional by the end is always a pretty big leap but the series took its time with this so it wasn’t all that rushed. Now was the romance still any good? Ehhhh I always have some issues with the whole immortal romance. I mean they grew up together the whole time ever since she was a small child. Yeah he never grew up so now it works a bit better and with the ending we can say that mayyyybe he’s not immortal? I’m still not feeling the romance either way I gotta admit but at least it’s not a rebound or anything.

The Water Dragon also came through in the clutch when she really needed him on several occasions. Whether it was the humans intentionally burning her or trying to drown her, he was ready. He got quite a few rage modes on her behalf and so the romance was really properly set up the whole time. It’s at least not something that was just thrown in at the last second and that’s pretty normal for a Shojo series. The build up is the important part.

Subaru naturally gets the short end of the stick but you could probably have guessed that based on the title. The series is absolutely merciless to the guy though as he has his big scene where he finally gathers the courage to confess to Asahi so she just immediately runs over to the water dragon to ask him out. That’s gotta be completely demoralizing. What a way to go right? You’re thinking the worst she can say is no, but your courage just being what gives her the courage to ask someone else out is rough.

Subaru also did his best to look out for her all those years too. He was a good friend, ultimately that’s just what he has to settle for though. They were not meant to be anything more than that. Maybe if he had asked sooner or something but he took too long. Asahi also had a lot on her mind throughout the series. She had to contend with the fact that gods exist in the world and that she may never actually get to get home. As the series continues she has to go up against the god of darkness as well. So there’s not a whole lot of down time for her in the series to really be thinking about the romance.

Asahi is a well balanced main character though. She is ready to fight when needed and gathers her courage when talking to big figures like the emperor. She doesn’t shirk any of her duties or responsibilities at all. She also had to make a tough decision later on about which world to stay in. Naturally being with her family is super important and all but at this point she’s lived longer in the other world so saying goodbye to those connections would be rough as well. It’s definitely a tough call. I’d generally choose the world with powers but in this case it’s not like the powers are hers directly so that does make things a little more difficult.

We get to briefly see the parents and they really didn’t take the vanishing very well. How could they right? One second they’re spending time with their daughter and the next she is gone. That’s the kind of thing that creates a permanent mental scar. You just don’t really come back from that and it created some mild resentment for her younger brother who never even got to meet Asahi. Always seeing your parents sad about the whole thing takes a big toll and of course when he sees Asahi is tempted to leave again, that just makes it all the more upsetting. It’s like she’s taking the whole thing for granted. So the brother wasn’t very nice but I did feel bad for him because of all this.

Back in the village, Tsukihiko is one of the first big characters to show up. He’s one of the only people to treat Asahi well from the start and is a consistent ally. His role gets smaller and smaller as the series goes on but he definitely had his moments. I liked him well enough and his drastic plan to fake Asahi’s death was pretty good. It might have even worked if not for Asahi. Kagahiko is a big bandit who shows up for a while but I was not a fan of him. He was trying too hard the whole time and feels real petty.

Yeah he ends up having his reasons and all but none of it really excuses attacking the main village and going after Asahi several times. She could have really done without all of that aggravation. There’s not much to him aside from being a bandit either. I never really sympathized with the guy or anything and wouldn’t have minded if the water dragon just blew him up. We’ve also got the Emperor and I wasn’t a big fan of that kid.

For one thing, he is an actual kid so it’s not like he is very good at running the show just yet. Asahi basically has to take on a mother type role for a while there and really explain why his plans wouldn’t work. He even suggests she become his bride for a while there which of course was out of the question. Even to the end he is getting kidnapped and everything so yeah I don’t think he ever really went up for me. He was more on the annoying side.

Matori is the hardened sword master who shows up later. He has some serious skills for sure but can be rather laid back. He’s a nice enough character. I feel like he came in last enough where you almost could have cut him out entirely though. The series would not have been all that different if he was gone after all. At least that’s the way I see it. It helps that Subaru’s sword skills rarely became a factor in the series. Often times the villains can only be stopped by the water dragon. Perhaps if Subaru got to be the final opponent for Kurose at the end that would have helped justify this.

Kurose is a good villain and definitely someone who felt like a threat. I was glad to have him here to shake things up a bit. Yeah he’s not the smartest guy and certainly gets manipulated quite a bit but I can respect the drive. At his core he wanted to save his friend and that’s admirable enough. He just went about it all the wrong way. Kurose had a really rough backstory so you can see how this really corrupted him from the start. He was only just starting to get rehabilitated when the whole thing happened and he had to turn to the dark side. At least he’s doing better than in the real world where he was really getting beat up and was basically murdered. It was quick but I really did appreciate seeing his back story here. It’s rare that we get to see the villains get Isekai’d after all.

The artwork for the series is pretty good. It can definitely be very expressive at times. The water can be a little chaotic at times though. It may be semi intentional but I also think it can just be really difficult to show a lot of water on screen without it getting at least a little messy. It’s a tough balance that you have to try and keep up throughout. Still, it was always readable so I definitely don’t have any big issues here. The writing was solid and the dark god was a formidable foe and that’s what counts.

I dare say the series was almost going for a bit of an anti human message there for a little while. There are just so many corrupt humans who were trying to destroy Asahi right from the start without hearing her out. The fact that she is just a child makes that even worse. I guess we can assume that the people will be more reasonable as time goes on but I still wouldn’t trust any of them to be honest. With the ending it doesn’t really matter by that point though. It’s a fairly upbeat ending although one character had to do a ton of waiting. I know he had a lot of time but that would probably still have been a really tough wait.

For me the series biggest strength and what I would praise it for is that it’s always interesting. I may not always love the setting but they did a good job of showing us just what a difficult situation Asahi was in. Particularly when she could not talk as she had to try and be expressive to get her point across. Since she was a child, that took extra determination. She was also in the middle of enemy lines the whole time even if the village wasn’t meant to be super evil. So you really get to see her journey through the years and the series did a good job with that.

Overall, The Water Dragon’s Bride is a good title. It doesn’t keep up with some of the other Shojo titles I’ve read to be sure but I didn’t really have any big issues with it either. It uses the Isekai genre to tell a reasonable romance plot and we get some action along the way. I’ll never turn down a good action scene and this could have made for a fun little anime. I think it would have been even better if it was set in the modern day but of course you would have to do some true re writes to actually get that to work. If you like romance then you should definitely check this one out. The characters are solid and there is a lot going on here. The author really managed to squeeze in a kid section, time skip, Asahi going back home, and a full backstory for the villain. The 11 volumes length was used pretty well.

Overall 6/10

The God of Highschool Review

Posted on August 18, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to talk about one of the greatest webtoons of all time! It’s second only to Tower of God and it was real nice to have the two as rivals for a long time. This series eventually ended though and Tower of God looks like it’s got enough energy left in the tank for at least another 10 years. So I guess this one won’t be taking the top spot but it is still an elite title. There are just so many great fights here and the artwork is fantastic. In terms of power levels I don’t think any Webtoon will ever pass this one. It just got so crazy in a good way. It was really an experience reading through this one.

The series starts off with several characters being invited to the God of Highschool tournament. It’s a big tournament to find out who the strongest fighter is. Naturally everyone wants in on this because it’s a huge opportunity to fight for pride, money, or just about anything really. The world will really open up to you if you are able to win the whole thing so you can’t let an opportunity like this slip you by. The main character of this story is Mori Jin. (The way they say the names it can be hard to tell which is the first name and the last name at times but either way you’ll know who I’m talking about) He loves fighting so this is right up his alley. Maybe he will even get to make some friends as he goes through the matches.

The first arc is really all about the qualifiers to actually make it to the world stage. As you can probably guess, it’s a lot of wins in order to even make it that far which is why this takes up the entire anime. You’ve got multiple rounds and of course this is also where you get to meet the main characters and learn a lot about them. It’s an extremely important intro and even within this arc you have several mini arcs like a wedding, the first battle with the supernatural, etc. This is a very busy series and I can assure you that it only gets busier as the series goes on. You won’t be finding much downtime here but of course that’s just the way that I like it!

As the main character is Mori Jin we will talk about him first. This guy is based on the same origins as Goku so it’s pretty fun to see the similarities. Mori loves fighting and having a good time. He’s generally a pretty easygoing guy who isn’t complicated. Mori says what is on his mind and just keeps it moving from there. He is someone you can easily respect and also someone that you can really count on when the chips are down. There is a whole lot to the guy. As the series goes on we learn more and more about him. There are tons of twists about his true character and for fans who read the original legend, it’s fun to see all of the references. It’s played a lot closer to the original source material than Goku ever was.

As the series goes on they incorporate more and more of the legend and Mori’s character gains more and more depth. This does unfortunately mean he has to be reset quite a few times in connection with the legend. It’s a series where I highly recommend reading the comments after each chapter because it adds a whole lot of context and depth to each scene. This is one of those series that won’t really spoon feed you the information. You either know it or you don’t and you will get left behind. There are really no negatives to be had with the character though, he is an amazing lead and a complete credit to the series.

Then we have Mira as the main heroine. As the series goes on there are a few other characters who try to steal that slot but nobody ever quite comes close to her. She has a really good character arc as she initially starts off as the weakest of the trio. She loses a number of fights and has low confidence but this gradually changes as she fights more and gains experience. Mira consistently gets stronger as the series goes on and she is an absolute top tier threat by the end. It was always fun waiting to see the big 3 team up again as the series went further and further. Since Daewi and Mori are always super focused on the fighting, she helps keep them grounded when there needs to be time for some emotion.

Finally Daewi wraps up the main trio. He has a bit of a rough start as his friend gets injured and so he really goes all out against Mira. In the show especially they made a big deal about how violent he was but this part I never fully understood because it was a tournament match. All of his attacks were well within parameters and Mira had no complaints about this either. Sure, in a normal situation he may have gone easy on her but that would have probably just been plain insulting. So I didn’t have a problem there. As the series goes on Daewi does make some really questionable decisions though.

Aside from Mori who tends to see things in a black and white view, most of the other characters get corrupted and have to sacrifice part of their morals. So I didn’t agree with some stuff here but for the most part Daewi was doing his best to help stop the villains and save the world. He also gained quite a lot of power by the end of the series and is one of the only characters who is really a main character in every part of the series. It was always fun to have him around.

Go Gamdo is one of the first tournament fighters to show up and unfortunately for this guy he is really just used for hype. He is dismantled rather easily and unfortunately for him he had to fight a particularly brutal opponent. It’s why you should really only enter tournaments like this if you are absolutely crazy because there’s always one jerk who’s going to try and torture you there. I give Go props for not giving up right away but he definitely needed more experience.

Ma Miseon is another early tournament fighter and she was pretty fun. What I really appreciated about her is that she was a strong fighter who had a good honor code. She would stay in there and fight fair all the way to the end. That’s something I can really respect and her fighting style was fun to watch. She may not have gotten to appear a whole lot in the series but she did end up being memorable as a result.

Baek Gang is one of those characters who started out really minor but really got big by the end. Uma helped keep him relevant for most of the series. In a way he started to even take over Ilpyo’s role as the strategist. His fighting style is fairly simple but effective and he has a good share of emotional moments. He even gets to use Charyeok. Wait, what is Charyeok you ask? The most underdeveloped power system you can think of. It barely even matters to be honest so I wouldn’t worry about it. I don’t dislike it or anything as it leads to some good twists but I feel like it didn’t have much of a reason to exist by the end. You could skip it and nothing really changes about the series. At least nothing significant except that it is used as good foreshadowing. So I guess I’m sort of talking both ways here. Hmmmmmm, okay in the end I suppose it’s good that we have it here…I guess. It is a way to have some good cameos from historical figures and everything.

Byeon is one of those characters who is technically really strong but had the unfortunate luck of having to fight Mori Jin. So he’s basically used as a hype tool although I can appreciate that he made it pretty far in the tournament. The guy clearly has skills even if he was doomed from the start. He seemed like a likable guy for while he was around.

Ilpyo Park is one of those characters who started out as an extremely awesome character but got a little dicey from there. He made for a super good rival with a terrific backstory who helped Mori get better. He stole the show in all of his scenes in season 1. Unfortunately after a point he became like Shikamaru where he was willing to get super corrupt and go through with some bad plans. I know we had a ton of twists with the guy but I still felt like he went way too far the whole time. Also he didn’t keep up with the power creep as well as you would expect and really stopped doing things early on. I would have preferred he got less of a role if it meant he could have been less of a yes man though. He sort of got stuck with the worst of both worlds the way that it all turned out.

Seungah was a good supporting character and she definitely did a good job of following Ilpyo’s orders. She is a strong fighter in her own right which is how she was even able to execute on his plans. Her role isn’t very large but she is an earnest fighter and it was fun to have her around. She definitely had a rough time of things during the series but still didn’t give up. Ma Bora is a fighter who showed up early on but didn’t do as much as you would expect. Her sheer physical abilities are impressive but she doesn’t have a lot going on for her beyond that. I’d say she entered in one of those awkward spots where she was really strong at first but couldn’t keep up with the power creep and ultimately got overshadowed before she could show up for more fights. Not really my kind of character though so I didn’t miss her much.

Taek Jegal is the first really serious villain in the series and he was a lot of fun to have around. Yeah he’s basically your classic kind of villain and the guy has no honor code. That said, he has a cool design and his shark abilities are absolutely brutal. The guy is obsessed with power and continues to hone his skills a whole lot. He may have gotten power creeped rather quick but while he was in the spotlight you were always guaranteed a good time. He had a lot of aura and it’s always important for your first big villain to be memorable like this so I was really satisfied.

Gang is another one of the early villains to show up but he’s not nearly as impressive. Basically the guy is super petty and one of those bully type characters who likes picking on the weak. Once it’s time to fight a strong opponent he breaks down and it’s all over for him. I was surprised when he returned at one point but he never really made it to the top of the verse. There’s nothing to really like about him either. He’s just an obstacle for Jin to take down.

Jugok is a character who got a little too desperate and it cost him. He needed to be stronger in order to protect his family and his friends so he effectively sold out his soul and that still wasn’t enough. I suppose that touches into the darker side of any universe where there are massive power imbalances. The depressing thought here is that Jugok could train for the rest of his life or even 1000 years and never come close to the rest of the characters. He’s not a god or demon so he just can’t bridge that gap. Replicating the steps that someone like Mujin Park took would also likely be impossible. So you feel bad for the guy when he starts to lose everything but there isn’t much that can be done for him.

Hyangdan is just one of many characters who gets a raw deal as a result of this. It’s why there is always so much tension and characters wanting to murder each other here. The villains are absolutely ruthless the whole time. If you get in the way then you will be destroyed, straight up that’s how it goes. Jeon was at least a more powerful character who was able to indirectly get some revenge. As one of the Six (That group gets a ton of hype but it’s not always earned) he has a great amount of magical ability. I think he referred to it more as alchemy but the conversions let him summon giant rockets and things like that. The fact that he could stand up against angels and everything showed off his power well. I would have liked some more direct revenge but yeah this was a good character.

One team that felt a bit like a waste of time was Jang, Jin, and Na. Basically one of these characters was a dropout from ages ago so he decides to get back into high school. People mocked him for a while but he never took it to heart. Jang ends up falling in love with him over this but the age gap is way too crazy for that to ever work out. They get the emotional moments and everything but this group was absolutely doomed from the start. You knew from the jump they would never be relevant either which is why it’s borderline a waste of time. You can’t win with all of the teams of course but yeah I didn’t miss this group when they were gone.

Gwum is one of those characters who is a victim of always fighting powerful opponents. The guy is a beast in his own right but is just completely dominated when it counts. I liked the confidence at least and he grew on me a little bit but just not enough in the end. There are so many characters in the series that you have to be more than decent to really stand out. He’s yet another character where just one more fight could have helped to push him over the top. Marin Lee is one of those random villains who is so petty and off putting that it’s almost funny. He uses beach tanning cream to keep opponents from hitting him. I mean it’s crazy silly but it actually works so I guess I have to respect the hustle here. It would have been nice if he could have been a little stronger and more competent though. Give him more to do beyond just being a random villain to be taken down you know? His whole group were basically scrubs though and cheap shots and hostages were the only things that kept them in the game for a while there.

This pretty much wraps up all of the big characters from that opening arc. From this point on the cast would only continue to expand more and more as the series went on. The story had 6 main sagas, each one being fairly long considering that the series had over 500 chapters. I’ll go into some of the later characters now but considering the tournament style of the series there are also a bunch of characters that are basically one shots and never got big. Others are fairly big but it’s been long enough where I don’t fully remember them. It’s definitely the kind of series that has tons and tons of replay value whenever you want to read it. It’s what I love about a long series like this. The better it is, the more replay value it gets automatically. Now lets jump into some of these characters:

Mori Hui is probably the most tragic character in the series. You knew all along how his character had to end but he was just so awesome the whole time. The series does a great job of making you real attached to him all the way through. I won’t say he is higher than Mori Jin or anything like that but you could sympathize with him more. It’s hard knowing that your existence is really just that of a replacement. In a lot of ways he reminded me of Roxas from Kingdom Hearts. Through it all though, no matter how many times things got tough or discouraging, he never gave up. Mori Hui fought for his friends all the way through. I’d definitely like to see him return some day in a sequel series or something. This series has so many different magic abilities and supernatural elements that you can’t tell me it’s impossible.

Dante is definitely one of the big standout villains who came in later on. He felt like a hero in the way that he would adapt and get stronger after every single fight. He was never static and wouldn’t just stay at the same level. So he would lose and keep on coming back. It was done in a really effective way so I never felt like he had lost all of his hype or anything. Gaining more and more strength was just how he fought and it’s a copy style like Amazo. The guy also has a great design which never hurts.

There’s not a lot to say about the 3 America fighters: With Hawk, J Doggy, and Anna but I did like that they were going for a full Supergirl homage with the last one. They each represented different parts of America and I always love how we’re portrayed in any foreign media. They really have a very specific view of us that’s for sure. The President showing up in the first chapter with the nukes was absolutely brilliant. As long as you can have fun with this kind of thing then it’s a blast and I always like to have good fun.

In general I’m not going into depth with most of the global fighters but it is pretty fun. More so than the characters, it’s fun to see how each country fights. I feel like the author actually put in a good amount of work to try and make every country authentic to their fighting style. It is a tournament so naturally a lot of countries do lose in round 1 but that was inevitable. I feel like the author treated them all fairly. Perhaps there are a lot of stereotypes in there but that’s a way to easily recognize each country.

Mori Dan is a really good character. There is some extra context to this guy for sure but the main thing you have to know is that he loves a good fight but is very resourceful and clever. He’s good at not picking fights that he can’t win while at the same time still stepping in if anyone is being too shady. It can be a bit annoying seeing some more powerful fighters trying to mess with him the whole time but Dan never backs down and only continues to get stronger. I tend to be on his side for pretty much every situation.

Then we have Dean who basically ends up being his rival. Dean looks real impressive all things considered. The guy starts out as basically a nobody but keeps on polishing his skills until he’s a top threat, at least for the portion of the series that he was in. He helped to keep Dan sharp all of the time. Unfortunately Dean would usually be on the wrong side of every debate which did not help him out at all. I would usually lose quite a bit of respect for that guy.

All of the original judges tend to be pretty fun. Judge O had a cool dragon even if it didn’t get a whole lot of screentime. Judge P was one of the only people who could actually talk to Mujin Park openly without fear or having to mince words. They had a good dynamic there even if Mujin often looked pretty bad by the end of the scene. The guy just couldn’t be honest with himself all the way to the end.

Judge Q is definitely one of the guys to get the biggest role here. His cards were fun and the guy was always looking pretty good. I would say he never struck me as being quite as strong as the story wanted you to believe but to make up for this he did get several super forms. They at least helped to put him in the conversation more than he would have been otherwise. The guy also had a lot of confidence the whole time which I always like to see in a character.

The real standout hit was definitely Judge R though. His powers were absolutely crazy by the end and he had some good plans. Obviously he is rather insane like a lot of the other villains but he would really flaunt this and the way he went about his goals was good. He was definitely extremely impressive when he first showed up even if he would eventually get surpassed as most characters do.

All right Mujin Park is one of the central figures of the series and easily one of the coolest characters of the series. He made for a super excellent villain all the way as he just kept on grabbing power up after power up. It was super impressive and one of the things I liked about him is his versatility and resistance. At some points he had absolutely no shot to do anything and he knew it so the guy would just buy his time. He wouldn’t worry about anything until the time was right. He would team up with Mori and anyone else as needed. His ultimate goal was to protect humanity and while this had some holes poked into it by Mori and the others over time, it was a good goal at its core. Humanity could easily be wiped out with all of these powerful threats around.

He’s a villain through and through with no real wiggle room there. You absolutely can’t make any kind of case for him being a hero or even an anti hero. He wouldn’t even dispute that. The whole idea is that he is being a complete villain in order to unite everyone. Mujin Park believes that only an extreme route like this will allow the humans to survive and the series makes some compelling points in his favor. Ragnarok is a huge one for example as the gods show up and start murdering humans in the millions in only a few short hours. Humanity was completely defenseless without Mori Jin showing up to help. The thing is, it’s hard to just have one hero be the only thing standing between you and complete obliteration. So Mujin Park wanted to eradicate all non humans and at the same time do whatever he could to make humans perfect. This involved a lot of really dangerous experiments and unethical actions. His origin story also ties into this.

In a way it’s an inspiring story about how a normal human literally surpassed all of the gods due to his own creativity and determination. It’s an absolutely insane feat and I don’t think anyone else has even come close to what he pulled off here. So he is a villain to be sure but you can definitely admire the strategy that went into this. It’s why even Mori Jin respected the guy a lot even after he nearly murdered the hero’s friends like 20 times in a row. There’s just a big difference between respecting someone and actually agreeing with what they do. You want to be careful about how you do that though because people who can’t handle nuance may come at you real quick.

Kim Ungnyeo was a fun mentor figure. Unfortunately due to the way her powers work she doesn’t get to appear as much as I would have liked. In her true form she could definitely deal quite a lot of damage but I suppose the series had no shortage of top fighters. Na was another mentor type figure who didn’t get too many fights. He definitely helped Mori get stronger though so he did his job. You know that he could fight really well as one of the Six even if he wasn’t one of the main starring roles though. Seo wasn’t too remarkable though. He was good for his connections and intel. He could get a whole lot of people to rise up for a fight but on his own I never thought he was all that.

My favorite member of the Six was definitely Kim Dooshik. This guy was always ready for a fight and had a ton of guts. He definitely would not be hiding behind anybody or anything like that. Whenever he was on screen he was going to be taking names. There was one fight in particular later on where he was clearly weaker than his opponent but he just kept on getting up over and over which was really impressive. Definitely a good way to show how determination is key here.

Taejin gets a ton of hype when he shows up. After all, he’s related to Mori and this guy has insane amounts of power even without a summoned spirit or being part god. He just relies on natural strength and that kind of character is always a lot of fun in any medium. The more gimmicks and supernatural powers you have, the more it becomes easy to really celebrate a character who is just fighting on his own and still doing well. It’s just really impressive and speaks to his absolute power. I would have liked him to have done more though. The amount of hype he gets from his first appearance is impressive to be sure but it’s maybe a bit overplayed. By the 20th time we see it referenced, you feel like you just get it already and want the whole thing to move on. I would have liked even just one more big fight for him.

The King is one of those guys who may be old but he’s still a super strong fighter. The guy absolutely mastered all of the various elements to the point where even the more powerful fighters had to respect him. He stayed relevant for a very long time. I may not love him as a villain but I did love the moveset. So when a certain character became the next king I was definitely stoked because we got to see the attacks used in a more dynamic way. Yeah that was definitely a lot of fun!

Sujin Lee is a very interesting character. She was absolutely awesome for when she first showed up and was a super threat for an entire season. She gave Mori some killer fights and was an amazing rival. Then out of the blue she put on a ton of weight and became more of a comic relief character. It was easily one of the most disgraceful things I’ve seen happen to a character. I thought they couldn’t be serious but she never recovered her former hype. Instead she would talk about food and get wrecked. This kind of plot is never fun to me. Do that to one of the lame characters but not the cool rival! So even though she fell off rather hard, I remember her good moments very fondly.

Then we have Mandeok Sang who was like a weaker version of Mujin Park. One thing I appreciated about this guy is that he kept on returning over and over again. He was extremely persistent and actually kept up with the power levels for a while before he was ultimately shut down. So I give him massive respect and props there. It would have been nice if his goals were a little better though. It felt like he wasn’t truly thinking for himself and was more of a puppet by the end. It weakens the whole premise of his group to be honest but I did enjoy having him around as a wild card. He stayed relevant for a very long while.

Xiaochen is a pretty fun villain who really got a super big role as the series went on. Not only was she really powerful but she was a loyal friend. She was doomed to a large extent because she fell for guy who already liked someone else though. Still, she remained chipper the whole time and never let herself get down about anything. She’s one of those side characters who really made a name for herself despite the smaller screen time.

Drake is a character who does better than I would have really guessed. He’s introduced as what I can only call a two bit villain the whole time but surprisingly he does some real damage. With a last name like McDonald it’s easy to poke fun at him as well but I suppose in the end it’s undeserved. Still, I never quite ended up liking the guy. He’s just not my kind of character I suppose.

Saturn is a lot more fun although you may overrate her abilities based on the title. Most of the other planetary characters are incredibly powerful but she just happens to have the name and is a normal villain. She’s definitely got a mean side and really starts cursing at random points once she is done eating. It’s an amusing gimmick and also one that makes her memorable so it was definitely smart of the series to do this to keep her relevant the whole time.

Axley was the most interesting of the villain trio but as bad luck would have it, he was also the one with the smallest role. It’s a shame because he had a great intro and the most interesting abilities so I wanted to see him use more of those. He’s consistently around but never really the focus if that makes sense. I still liked the character though.

Dan Ahan was a really good supporting character. She’s not a big fighter like most of the cast but she really provides good help to Dan the whole time. I don’t really care for how the series ended her character because it went in a really weird direction but beyond that she was solid. There aren’t a whole lot of human characters who left a mark on the series so that was already impressive.

Mori Jung is another rather tragic character. In some ways you could say he is even more tragic than Hui because they have similar character arcs but this guy had no kind of support network to help him out. So he ended up really being all alone which sucks. The guy is strong and held himself together well but ultimately was not in a good spot from the beginning. I liked the guy, he made for a good wild card.

Uma is a character who got introduced fairly late into the series but was a lot of fun. Her power level was just high enough to stay relevant even as the series started to approach the end. She ends up doing a lot more than I would have expected, especially considering that the rest of the fighters in her group didn’t get to do much at all. It’s always good to have at least one member repping a group pretty well though so she definitely did good there. When Uma shows up you always know somebody is about to get clubbed to death.

It’s really telling just how crazy the series is when you have Satan showing up as one of the more hype characters. I remember people cheering in the comments when Satan had his big return. People were stoked to see him and he ended up being the big ray of hope for the heroes. It certainly underscores how fierce the new opponent was. God of Highschool loves to really increase the power ceiling and what better way than by having a villain absolutely dumpster the previous strongest in the verse right? Get used to it because this happens a whole lot. Yes, the power levels go so crazy here that I often have power level issues with the series. It almost goes without saying but yeah whenever one of the old characters shows up and takes a hit from these guys, they should be dead instantly. That’s just common sense imo. Satan is unironically a pretty fun character here though. He just loves having a good fight and constantly evolves as he fights. His fighting style is crazy and his battle with Mori is still one of the best in the series. I may even have that as the absolute best fight in all of God of Highschool to be honest. The name of the series gets funnier and funnier as the power levels go higher and higher to be honest.

Odin’s character here was definitely a lot different than you might have expected going in. For starters he seems more like a complete demon than one of the gods. The guy is absolutely insane much like all of the other cosmic characters in this series. You really can’t trust any of them but he does stay as one of the top threats throughout the series. At no point does he get power cliffed too hard. I suppose excluding the final battle of the series which power cliffs everybody by a wide margin. You can’t really count the final fight in these things as they always make sure to go all out.

Beelzebub is another real powerful guy but lets talk about Zeus. One of the fun things about Zeus is that he’s easily one of the more emotional villains. This guy absolutely hates humans and isn’t afraid to say it. He wants to put the absolute fear of god into them and goes around murdering people like crazy. Out of all the gods this is probably the one that you want to fight the least. It’s also unfortunate for the heroes that he is easily one of the strongest as well. So if you go up against him, odds are that you are not going to be walking away. He is just going to decimate the competition.

Michael is another one of those really strong cosmic beings and naturally he’s rather twisted the whole time. It was fun seeing him show up even if by this point he was quickly getting surpassed by the others. The guy loves his cheap shots and is definitely not the type to play fair. He has a killer design though which really helps to keep him memorable the whole time compared to the other fighters like Uriel.

Tathagata is one of those villains that was hyped up for a crazy long amount of time so you were really looking forward to seeing him get some action. His power levels are also crazy high. It’s no exaggeration to say that this guy could solo many different manga and anime verses. The series does not hold back with him at all and that’s part of what makes the fight so much fun. There is also this constant back and forth with him and Mujin Park on who the actual final boss is. They keep you guessing all the way to the end with both characters getting massive amounts of hype. You will have to read the series to see who ends up getting that spot though.

Okay so that was a lot of story and a lot of characters! Definitely feels like you went through a full adventure there and I can assure you that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Read the whole series yourself to really see all of the characters and events. When you’ve got hundreds and hundreds of chapters like this series does, you can see how it’s easy to squeeze a ton of content in here. The series definitely had its low moments as well but that’s where the length really comes in. There are scenes and even arcs here that could have doomed a lesser title down to a 2 or worse.

When this series fell into a slump, trust me when I say it was a huge one. Definitely like nothing I had ever seen before or at least something only in very rare circumstances. In a series this long, you’re not surprised to see it making all kinds of mistakes. That’s just bound to happen to pretty much any title of this size. You had babies getting murdered, some animal violence, and generally a lot of terror. The series goes out of its way to show that when the villains win, the universe really goes to a bad spot. Even when the heroes are winning, there is usually something bad happening. The main important thing is that the positives outweigh the negatives for the series though and they definitely do here. The sheer hype from each of the fights and arcs is just insanely impressive to the point where it’s just hard to top.

The final fight went on for months and the series even throws a few fakeouts in there. There were different points throughout the series where it felt like the whole thing was ending, only for a whole new arc to start. I will admit that sometimes this could feel like a bit of a waste with certain plot elements being incredibly overdone, but deep down I was just happy to see the series continuing to go on. As long as you don’t mind Mori getting nerfed a whole lot throughout the series then you should be good. Also, I do get why you would want to nerf him at times because otherwise it would be hard to write around his power. The guy really does Goku proud by the end of this.

The art is also really solid. It’s definitely not as detailed as something like Solo Leveling but it makes up for this with incredible fighting choreography. The battles all look amazing and you can really follow the movements. Each battle is something to be taken real seriously and because the series has such a global element to most of its plots it is nice to see the different fighting styles go up against each other. You’ve got karate, taekwondo, etc. They all get their shine which I appreciate. Of course Taekwondo tends to look the best since that’s what Mori uses but that’s to be expected. He’s the best in the business after all.

I also really like how the series changes backgrounds a lot. What I mean by that is at first you have people fighting within a stadium, then they’re jumping through the city having fights outside, finally you have battles in outer space. With the exception of Mori Jin, you tend to feel the power levels gradually rising as the series goes on. It also rises by enough of a sizable difference where it’s fun to compare the past with the current. The series really has a good balance there. Now as a whole there are a ton of power level complaints I would have. As the series gets higher and higher this is yet another inevitable thing to an extent. Nothing that would hurt the score but yeah I was skeptical for a lot of different outcomes.

One of the big debates/topics that keeps coming up in the series is about which side is truly good though. You have 3 main groups: The humans, The gods, and the demons. You’d think this should be pretty straight forward but it’s tough. The humans for example have tons of villains all over the place. We’re talking domestic terrorism, psychopaths, mass murderers, etc. Basically the humanity you’ve all grown up with. The series is not subtle about its critique of humanity and how they will always be starting new wars and are ungrateful. No matter how many times Mori saves them, they continue to try and hunt him. Additionally, humans are particularly cruel with their experiments. When they capture a god or a demon, it’s usually a fate worst than death.

Then you have the demons led by Satan…obviously they’re pretty evil. They tend to just murder everybody so it’s not as dark as humanity. At the same time, survival of the fittest is the only way they have ever known how to live. They all keep murdering each other until they rise to the top. They have to keep their strength up or they will be destroyed by the gods or humans. I wouldn’t say they ever get sympathetic though, at the end of the day they are probably the worst of the 3…maybe. I would rather get caught by a demon than the others as my death would at least be quick but there really aren’t any heroic ones.

Then you have the gods, well they really don’t care about anything except their own greatness. They like hunting humans for sport and pick a lot of the fights. Like the demons there don’t seem to really be any heroic ones. They’re just perpetually bored and their idea of a good time is just murdering the various humans and causing a lot of problems. So in some ways you could say they’re the worst because a lot of the issues are their fault. Since Mori Jin basically represents all 3 forms at one point or another, he gets to make nice with some humans and demons (Not really any of the gods though tbh) which leads to some interesting plot points.

All in all, I thought the series did an excellent job with the world building here. After all, no group is ever purely good when it becomes large enough. There will inevitably be some traitors within or people who just get tempted by the dark side. These people are often very motivated to keep moving up the ranks while the kind ones get content. That happens again and again here so you really can’t trust anyone in the series. We even get the Superman type debate here.

Mujin Park feels like Mori can’t be trusted because he’s just too powerful. As the series goes on Mori can throw entire planets. He could eliminate Earth if he has a bad dream and gets up the wrong way. With that kind of power, Mujin feels like there can never be peace unless they are all terminated. He’s big on the whole “Earth is for Earthlings” thing. Ultimately he becomes a complete dictator as you can probably guess but he made for a very compelling villain. I tend to love it when villains really have a whole misguided sense of justice like this. You can root against them while totally getting how they came to this spot. He was really a true highlight in the series.

The series had so many “endings” as things kept ramping up again that it’s hard to say which would have been the best one. I don’t love the actual ending we got because unfortunately I would say they chose the wrong person to be with Mori in the end. It doesn’t really work even when you look at it in the best interpretation. Still, the characters mostly all got closure so the series definitely has that going for it. You can’t say that it was rushed, I remember a bunch of people kept begging for the series to be over for months and months before it finally ended. Meanwhile I was just enjoying how comically large the fight was getting. Look, the best kind of final fight is where every cast one by one goes up against the main villain and gets crushed. That’s always absolutely epic and this series had such a massive cast by the end that it makes sense how long it all was.

Overall, I could go on for sure but that’s enough for now. This is absolutely the kind of series that has a lot to say even if the fight scenes are the top priority. I would definitely recommend checking out God of Highschool as soon as possible. It may seem like a daunting task at first glance but once you get into it then the series will really go by quickly. It’s got a fun tone to it and especially in season 1 there is quite a bit of comedy to balance out the serious moments. It never totally goes away of course but the latter half of the series tends to be so serious that there just isn’t as much time for the comedy. So definitely enjoy it while you can but the series excels in both tones.

Overall 9/10

Noragami Review

Posted on August 11, 2024 by dreager1

Noragami is one of those action titles that actually lasted for a long while. I felt like it would just quietly keep updating with new chapters even though almost nobody really talked about it. At least compared to the bigger titles. It does have a solid fanbase and they’re always waiting for the anime to return but the manga just felt really quiet. It’s a good action title but one that is held back by having one of the weakest supporting casts for a long running title that I can think of. Seriously I didn’t care for just about any of the characters which is absolutely crazy. Most of them were forgettable or annoying.

The series focuses around a god named Yato who is in a bit of a pinch. In this world gods gain power based on how many people believe in them. They need humans to build shrines to them and give them gifts. Nobody knows who Yato is though, the average person can’t even see him. So that’s definitely not a good thing. One day he meets a girl named Hiyori who accidentally hops outside of her body. She now has an astral form and is fully aware of the supernatural. It’s an inconvenient power though as she’ll jus randomly fall out of her human body which causes everyone to just think she fainted. It’s also dangerous for her because she can now be attacked by any number of creatures. Yato vows to protect her and get her back to normal condition but he’s no exactly the most reliable guy around. Can he actually pull this off?

Of course that’s the pre arc plot and as you can guess with 27 volumes, that’s going to change real quick. There are a lot of other dangers out there and people who would have the gods be dethroned. The main villain even hits close to home as Yato’s father ends up being a rather big player in all of this. We definitely cover a lot of ground but this is a series where the anime really helps to elevate it a whole lot. The manga itself is less impressive as a whole but still a good time without a doubt.

As a main character Yato is pretty solid. The guy jokes around a lot but he has a good work ethic and really tries hard. The guy’s entire existence is at stake and yet he still finds time to joke around and have fun. He started the whole small businesses thing in order to stay alive and at least get a little recognition. He’s super desperate but never gives up so I can appreciate that. As the series goes on he is tested a whole lot but rarely falters. It’s not a perfect performance, sometimes the villains do get to him but most of the time Yato pulls through. He’s the kind of guy you can count in and a great main character to follow.

In some ways he reminds me of Kenshin and other older main characters like that. Yato has been around for a long time and seen many things. He has vowed to not be an assassin anymore and it takes a whole lot of perseverance to stick true to that path. He’s one of the stronger characters in the series but in a way Yato has to nerf himself so that he doesn’t just murder everybody. It can be a lot harder than it looks.

Hiyori is a solid heroine as well. I appreciate the fact that she doesn’t lament her fate of being stuck to the spirit world all that much. She guilt trips Yato at times but for the most part isn’t worrying about thing. Hiyori even tries to fight once although she quickly thinks better of this after how the first attempt went and I don’t blame her there. The most important thing for her is to stay safe with how many crazy fighters are all around. It would have been nice if she could have learned how to fight a little mor but at least she has enough abilities to run and get out of trouble.

Yukine is a character I never ended up liking though. To be clear, the kid does have it rough since he has a super tough background. It wasn’t an easy life/death but as a ghost he keeps getting in the way. I should explain the spirit system a bit more here. Every spirit master is a god like Yato and they can use familiars which are people who died. These ghosts are given a new name by the master so that they can fight and turn into weapons/items. It is forbidden to tell a spirit about their former life because it will often end up driving them crazy.

The spirits are basically kept in the dark on this. It’s a reasonable enough system. Naturally I don’t agree with this and think the spirits should be told straight up but unfortunately there is a ton of evidence within the system to support that this doesn’t work. Even the best of spirits will inevitably turn evil or panic and get destroyed. So Yukine goes through this drama more than once. The first time he takes a dive is before we even learn about his prior life. He starts perving on Hiyori for a while there and even becomes a delinquent where he is breaking windows. All of these things start blighting Yato of course which nearly goes to the point of no return.

Yukine was definitely way too crazy there and he’s lucky that Yato is so lenient. Most of the other gods would have absolutely destroyed him by that point. The very fact that this was so close was annoying. Then when Yukine starts to learn about his prior self, he really goes off the deep end and becomes a full on villain. Hey I could overlook part of this the first time, but twice? Nah he was on the hot seat by this point with no way off. Then he started falling for Nora and her advances which was not a good look for him. Yukina was just way worse of a character than I expected him to be.

Yukine’s struggles were a good way to end the pre arc though. While he never became a good character, it helped to finish setting up the main cast so we could really get going. At this point in the story we had mainly seen Yato tackle easy cases and beat the occasional monster. Now we would really see him going all out against some real opponents and what better way to start than with Bishamon. She is a powerful god who is a master of combat and so the idea of Yato beating her is definitely tricky. Or at least it should be right?

In a lot of ways Yato reminds me of Archer from Fate. Everyone tries to gaslight you in universe that he’s super weak and yet he seems to be able to hang with anybody. That’s the case with Yato as well, half the time he isn’t even trying to fight. You actually get the impression that he would completely crush Bishamon if he was fighting seriously. Technically I don’t think that’s even what the author was going for here but it’s definitely what it felt like to me. Yato also had to go through a lot with murdering Bishamon’s army a while back to save her and having to come close to doing it again. Yato’s job really is a thankless one and if anything just creates more enemies for him.

Bishamon also ends up looking a little naive here. Like I mentioned before, getting stung can be absolutely fatal. If the spirits continue to do or even think bad thoughts, then the master get injured and can eventually die. So it’s a huge deal and Bishamon needed to do more about it. Instead without Yato she definitely would have died for a second time. She really lost sight of the forest for the trees which was not a good look. She was also too quick to take Kuguha’s side and banish Kazuma despite the kid being her most trusted advisor for years. That just made no sense. I do happen to like Bishamon though. She definitely has her large set of flaws but she’s a great fighter and is less of a government stooge than most of the other gods who just follow orders. I would like more rule breaking from this series because too many of the gods show that they just don’t have any internal ethics and do whatever they’re ordered to.

I also can’t say that I like Kazuma all that much. He’s a little too arrogant at times and while he respects Yato, he could probably show more gratitude as well. Then he allows himself to fall for Bishamon which is not a good idea since she is literally his god. Kazuma is at least reasonably strong and he was at his best when he joined up with Yato. Still, he’s not really one of the better characters. He’s useful in a fight but that’s about all that I can say for the guy.

Kuguha made for an interested villain but the guy got way too lucky the whole time. I don’t get how everyone trusted him so much considering he was basically a newcomer next to most of the other characters. Sure he was a good healer but that’s about all that you could say for the guy. It’s definitely not enough to be putting him on a pedestal. His plans just didn’t feel all that great even though he got pretty far. Fairly underwhelming villain all things considered and his ultimate motive didn’t help him.

Tenjin is a supporting character who shows up a lot but he tends to be super annoying. This guy pretty much always gives the wrong advice like telling Hiyori to cut ties with Yato. You can feel free to skip all of his dialogue because the guy is nuts. Now granted, he is knowledgeable of course so if you want an info dump then he’s your guy. If you want quality advice and good vibes though? Definitely avoid this guy and he’s so old that he can’t even fight.

Kofuku is a lot more entertaining at least. She brings bad luck to those around her but she never lets this get her down. I appreciate her optimism. She can be a little shady at times like with how people waste their money on her but I do get the logic of it being their choice. Either way she’s a fun supporting character and does step in to help Yato when she can. I would think of her as a good friend without a doubt.

In the next arc Yato basically gets blackmailed by his father into going on another mission. So he takes the stray Nora and heads into the underworld. The god Ebisu is there as well for knowledge and now they have to contend with the ruler Izanami. She is a powerful shapeshifter who really just wants to be loved and the whole thing is pretty rough for her. Nobody ever ends up wanting to stay with her. Personally I feel like she would find a ton of able volunteers if she checked the real world a bit more though. Considering she intends to use force though, you can really only be so sympathetic to her plight.

This arc is fairly big because it starts up a ton of subplots. For one, this is Ebisu’s final appearance as an adult since he is reincarnated back to being a kid after this. That was annoying because he was very interesting as an adult but I didn’t really like him as a kid. He just didn’t have that air of being distinguished anymore and I felt like he lost a considerable amount of his skills in the process. There was just no going back after this point.

We also got to see the stray Nora finally show up in a real role. She’s actually a lot of fun but unfortunately she has basically been brainwashed by Fujisaki into being the ultimate murder weapon. She has tons of names so any god can use her. She really wants to be close to Yato and is jealous of Yukine but he wants nothing to do with her. I do feel like Yato should have found some way to try and bring Nora to the light side though. For the most part I feel like she is always on her own and it’s tough because there is no way she can escape on her own. She absolutely needs some help so can’t anyone show up and actually try to help her? That would have definitely been appreciated.

She is also one of the stronger fighters in the series so she would have been a real asset to the series. If she was a good guy then the final arc would play out way differently. Ah well, things definitely aren’t easy for her but she sure keeps things interesting. It was a pretty solid mini arc and there were definitely some good action scenes while in the underground. You could even argue that Yato is near the peak of his power here since I would still argue that Nora is more powerful than Yukine despite his blessed blade status.

After a pair of arcs we get to one of the biggest arcs in the series where the heavens show up to take down Bishamon. I would say this is around where we see just how weak willed most of the supporting cast are. The heavens are insanely corrupt and yet so many of the characters just watch or decide not to help. I don’t know about you but if the characters aren’t stepping up to help then they are basically accomplices. There’s no easy way to slice it, that’s just how it goes. In this arc Bishamon looks really good though. After Fujisaki murdered one of her guardians, Bishamon has decided that she wants revenge.

As Yato’s father, Fujisaki’s death would mean that the lead dies too so it is a little complicated there but she’s still got to do it. Also I don’t think she knows about the link at this point in time. So she even wakes up a legendary fighter named Nana to help her in the big battle. It’s a pretty impressive climax to be sure and Nana is one of my favorite characters. Here’s someone who loves to fight and is also super talented at it. That’s what I call a very useful combo here. Nana doesn’t get to appear a ton but makes the most of each appearance. Taking on a whole army of heaven’s finest is no easy task after all.

Meanwhile Yato take scare of Takemikazuchi, another yes man who was annoying the whole time. At least getting absolutely demolished helped calm his mind for a while there so he got better. Even then he never left much of an impression on me which does tend to be the case here a lot of the time. This is probably my favorite arc in the series though. It was real solid all the way through and we definitely got a really solid rage mode from Bishamon. It also wouldn’t be the last time that the heavens decide to make a move.

After that Fujisaki causes more trouble like trying to get Yukine to look into his past so his soul will crumble and he turns into a monster or fades away. It becomes imperative that Yato take him out so he turns back to Kazuma. The annoying thing about this is it does mean that once again Yukine has a lot of loyalty issues and thinks Yato is turning his back on him. Solid communication would definitely prevent a lot of the issues that continue to come up here, that’s for sure. We are deep enough in the series though where I wish that Yukine would just listen more. It’s obvious that Yato is here to help and isn’t trying to hurt him. So Yukine should trust him for once instead of constantly being manipulated with ridiculous ease.

Then we quickly approach the ending here which was long enough where I remember getting faked out a few times. The heavens decide to destroy Fujisaki and do their best but they all get absolutely crushed so the task falls to Yato once again. Fujisaki really looks impressive and deserves his hype because he still does great in the fight here. The guy has so many names, powers, and summons at his disposal. He’s a super versatile combatant and proves why his experience is the real deal here. Yato is consistently outgunned the whole time here and has an extremely hard time fighting. There is also still the fact to consider that is Yato wins, he will still die due to how the system works. He also has to worry about Yukine and Hiyori the whole time.

There’s a super boring subplot about Ebisu and the thunder god going to a village to find the root of why Fujisaki is basically immortal. Turns out the guy is like Voldemort and you have to destroy objects that are connected to him as well. I still wonder what the gods were even doing to let things get this far though. We get some cool super forms in the end and a lot of fights so that’s always fun. The ending had me a little nervous there but ultimately it wasn’t bad. The very ending definitely saved it there because things were looking dicey for a minute there.

As a villain Fujisaki is not bad. The guy wants to change the system and is absolutely crazy so you can go far on that kind of combination. In some ways he is like a budget Aizen but the society here isn’t nearly as corrupt as the Soul Society so what that means is it’s a little harder to really sympathize with the guy. Instead it just looks like he is completely off his rocker. I’m no fans of the heavens in this verse either. They seem needlessly cruel with their punishments and murder each other over the smallest infraction. That said, at least they are protecting the human world while this guy is just indiscriminately murdering everyone in his way.

The art is definitely pretty solid throughout the series. At times it can get a little chaotic, especially near the end of the series with all of the big explosions and wide attacks. You can generally tell what is happening without too much fuss though. The fights are on point which is the important thing but it can also be clear during the comedic moments. At worst sometimes there is just so much text on the screen that it can be a little intimidating. That goes back to one of my issues in the series which is that it can be a little too lore heavy at times.

A title like Jujutsu Kaisen or Hunter X Hunter can get away with it because the dialogue is always very interesting but that’s not really the case here. A lot of the time you just really don’t care about what they are saying. It’s basically inconsequential. Most of the lore isn’t really taken advantage of which is why you don’t even want to hear about it. This just isn’t that kind of series in the end and so no amount of lore could really change that. This is mainly an action title with a lot of good comedic moments and the lore is like white noise in the background.

Then throw in the weak cast like I mentioned earlier and that gets thing trickier. Again, I tended to like them all a lot more in the anime so that should help but I barely cared about the gods in the subplot because of this. Every time it would cut to the characters on the boat I would be shaking my heads. Also, so many of the gods died and turned back to kids/new selves that it was a bit annoying. It may be the same soul but they often have no recollection of the previous life so it may as well have been a new character.

I’m still skeptical as well as how close Fujisaki came to winning here. He was outnumbered so badly by the heavens so why are they so weak and ineffectual? He should have been taken down real quick. Also, it’s all not a great consolation to all of the humans down below as they started getting slaughtered for being corrupted. The heavens were certainly not merciful here as they basically told the gods to wipe everyone out. Now that’s just great. In general I’m not sure that some of the world building here holds up. The whole gods being damaged by their minions even thinking bad things still seems absolutely excessive. They can never be sad or mad or anything without blighting the host. It seems to me that you’d basically have to brainwash them in order for anything like that to be possible.

Noragami should have really kept things a little more simple here. In some respects you almost could have gone the full on comedy route here and it would have worked pretty well. Or have your occasional action scene with it but you don’t need this massive cinematic experience of huge world building and hundreds of characters fighting in a big war. That part really felt like the series bit off a bit more than it can chew. If the series played to its strengths on a more local setting it would just be even better but at least that’s the way I see it. I sort of know what it’s like when fans say that for other series now although I tend to disagree 99% of the time and again I may feel differently there when I read it as a marathon.

Overall, Noragami is a good series. I think it’s one of those series that will also play better on the re read when I can binge through all of the story beats. Any that seemed to drag on a lot like the Yukine scenes won’t be as bad this way and you also get the payoff a lot quicker. This series deserves a lot of credit for lasting so long. I definitely look forward to the next anime season because you know they will continue to amp up all of the fun moments and the action scenes. It’s what the anime does after all, they are always ready to pull this off. It looks like that is going to take a while though so in the meantime I definitely recommend reading this series. In a way Noragami is at its best when it’s having fun mixing the action and comedy as opposed to getting ultra serious but in the end it still does good on both fronts.

Overall 6/10

Curse of the Demon Review

Posted on August 11, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a really old creature feature film. This one deals with an actual demon so you already know that the heroes are going to be in a real pinch here. How do you stop a creature that is basically invincible and moves with such speed? The main character doesn’t even believe in demons but his scientific approach is certainly about to be tested.

The movie starts off with a guy begging Karswell to remove the curse before he gets murdered. The guy will leave Karswell alone going forward but alas it is too late for that and so a powerful demon bumps him off. The poor guy never stood a chance. Karswell isn’t done yet though and he is going to continue inflicting damage onto people. We then cut to our main character John. He doesn’t believe in any of his supernatural nonsense and that’s why he is here. He is supposed to be helping to disprove all of this but with one of his colleagues being bumped off, it’s all a bit suspicious. He supposes the best way to debunk all of this is to confront the guy himself and so that’s exactly what he does. It may end up being a dangerous endeavor.

The weakest part of the film is definitely the really long seance scene hat happens later on in the film. I suppose we needed John to see how crazy this kind of thing could look but it definitely dragged on. Seance scenes rarely ever end up being all that interesting and this one was no exception. The whole time you’re just shaking your head but at least it does give John more time to think that maybe there is nothing supernatural going on since that would help me think everything was a scam too.

Karswell’s first attempt to prove his supernatural abilities wasn’t the most effective either. He made a bunch of wind and while the guy claimed that it never got super windy like that in the area, John could easily just think he was lying. Once we get to the cats turning into panthers, then it all starts to be a little harder to deny. I would have actually liked this part to have been done a bit quicker so we could get to the real intellectual struggles here.

What I mean by this is it turns out that the demon activates in relation to a parchment paper that is passed around. Karswell makes sure to give it to people and whoever gets it, will be murdered by the demon in 3 days. The only way to escape the curse is to give the paper back to the person who gave it to you. At that point you are freed from the curse. It’s a pretty interesting set of rules and of course what this means is the one who cursed you is hyper aware of this. It’s going to be difficult to hand the paper back. Although unless the film specified against this, I would assume just beating the guy up and stuffing the paper into his hand would work. This is a matter of life or death after all so I don’t think a little violence would be outside the realm of possibility right? It’s at least something to consider.

Still, we don’t go the violence route here so instead it’s time for some mind games to trick Karswell. This is all at the very end of the film but was a pretty fun way to end things off. The trick itself was definitely clever so I could believe Karswell being taken in by all of that. John was also a fun main character with how he so strongly opposed the supernatural stuff. I definitely appreciate that in a character. Sure, we know that the magic is real as a viewer but to someone who’s led a life of science, I’m glad he wasn’t converted so easily.

The main heroine Joanna doesn’t get a ton to do though. She helps with some of the info dumps and getting John where he needs to be but inevitably she is hypnotized and kidnapped. Considering that she had more of an affinity for the supernatural it would have been good if she could have had some extra defenses. Something to help keep her safe and running away from this guy. In a way that was definitely Karswell’s undoing though. He shouldn’t have gotten greedy and gone after Joanna. Even if he felt like his victory was inevitable he should have stayed hidden until the days were fully up. Make it very hard for himself to be found by John because there’s nothing good that can come out of meeting the guy. People get awfully desperate when they are about to die after all and you can’t predict what the next move will be.

I’ll give the film a shoutout for the cool demon design. He definitely looked fierce and was one of those opponents you would no want to bump into in a dark alley. A single strike from this fighter would really deal a whole lot of damage. Nobody in the film really tried fighting the demon which is too bad. Sure, it would probably be futile but you’re about to die anyway so you may as well give it a shot right? Better than just lying there and yelling the whole time.

Overall, This film shows why you have to be careful accepting anything from strangers. Sure, it’s pretty unlikely that you will be handed an actual curse with a demon built in but you could still be framed for stolen money or something like that. Odds are if someone is trying to hand you something outside then they have an angle. It could be as innocent as handing out flyers for an event in which case you’re fine…or it could be handing you a bomb and you end up being blown to pieces. So just watch out for your surroundings and be careful at all times. Like in this film, your only shot would be handing it back to the person real quick before anything happens.

Overall 6/10

Blue Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati Saga Review

Posted on June 23, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for the return of Blue Exorcist. This series has always been a bit of a mystery to me. On one hand, it’s a big Shonen title where the main character has to fight off his demonic urges and slay demons. It’s very much a classic king of plot but the execution is just so different. Sometimes in a good way but sometimes in a bad way. I’ve never really connected with the series as well as most other big Shonen titles and that doesn’t really change here either. It’s a good season but not great by any means. It’s not quite as interesting as it should be and the action always gets cut off way too quickly. Well, lets dive into this.

Yukio is still jealous of Rin’s abilities and now that he is getting a glimpse of his own demonic potential, he wants power. He continues to try and repress his desires but the facade is starting to crack and he doesn’t want to talk to anyone about it. There’s not much time to think about this though as the Illuminati attacks and kidnaps Kamiki. She is taken by Shima, a double agent working for this group. Naturally the Illuminati is led by Lucifer himself. Note that Lucifer is another son of Satan and brother to Mephisto. This group will be difficult to defeat especially Mephisto sandbagging as always and the Exorcist Order being generally useless. Rin and Yukio will have to take point in rescuing her but can they move on from this big betrayal?

Naturally this is a really huge deal if you have been following the series for a long time although the anime took so long to get up to this point that I wouldn’t be surprised if most people have already heard about this whole thing. It’s not exactly the biggest secret in the series, you know what I mean? The reactions to it are very odd though. The characters get over the betrayal way too easily which is a personal pet peeve of mine. This guy literally broke all of their trust and kidnapped Kamiki so she could be tortured over and over again like in the past by a group that is clearly evil.

I think this is more than a “Do better next time” kind of speech. He should be absolutely demolished, I’d expect him to be destroyed on sight the next time that he is seen. Is that harsh? Yeah maybe but I would also argue that it is absolutely deserved. The characters are constantly using kid gloves on Shima and it doesn’t really make sense. The show goes into the specifics here and throws some more twists into the mix but none of it overrides the fact that Kamiki was very close to being dead. She had her summons get destroyed and while they managed to come back later, she was consistently put in a rough spot.

It’s why undercover operations are often not a good idea. Even if it’s part of a mission, you can’t be putting your allies in danger or sitting back while others are attacked. If you let one person get murdered to save 100, then you are starting to make dangerous decisions that are in villain territory. So I never ended up liking Shima and still blame him for everything. I’m also a little upset at the other characters allowing him back in because that makes no sense to me. Definitely a massive L right there.

Rin also doesn’t look his best here. He’s going through the classic hero issue of not wanting to murder anyone so he holds back a lot but you can always knock someone out without murdering them. It also gets to be a little much when he is also nervous even when fighting mindless monsters. Just take the super slow zombies down, there’s nothing you can really do to save them at this point. It’s also an annoying part of Blue Exorcist because every time we’re primed for a big right with Rin, it either doesn’t happen or he holds back so hard that it’s not a real fight.

Realistically he should be mopping the floor with most of the characters but it just doesn’t happen. He’s also scared of his powers enough where he doesn’t train the way that he’s supposed to. How is he supposed to protect his friends when he’s holding back like this? The whole power system of the series isn’t great either. The prayer chants never seem to work and are incredibly impractical. Unless you have someone like Rin or Kamiki backing you up to buy you time, the villains are going to slam you. It just makes over half of the cast feel rather useless most of the time. Everyone should have some close quarter combat skills or at least a big summon you know?

Okay back to the characters, Yukio is super annoying here as well. Part of this isn’t his fault because the guy’s had to go through the same character arc multiple times since the anime only arc was retconned and of course I remember this from the manga. So it just gets old quick where he is messing up his priorities and becoming a liability. If he would just talk to Rin about what’s going on things would work out better. So I put all of the blame on Yukio since he’s taking himself down the wrong path. It’s not even like the villains are encouraging this, Yukio is really leading himself downhill all on his own.

As for the main heroine Shiemi, right now there’s a lot of drama going on with her. She seems to like Yukio but is starting to like Rin. Possible triangle forming there, we’ll have to see how it goes. For now Shiemi is still way too timid and I would like her to acknowledge her own strength more. Her grass summon is really not that bad and can at least buy her some time. She has no real offensive spells but at least she can play a support role.

In that way she is more balanced than Kamiki. Kamiki has her dual spirits but they don’t even listen to her half the time ~~because they’re tremendously awful characters who refuse to honor any kind of loyalty to her despite having high respect for Kamiki’s mom~~ and put her in big danger. Kamiki has basic spells beyond that but as I pointed out before, this never works anyway so it may as well be a pointless addition. I like Kamiki’s fiery spirit but hopefully she will work with the other heroes more next time and not try to be a loner. Being a loner only works when you have the power to back it up.

Suguro is the only one who actually gives Shima a hard time so I give him massive credit for that. He sticks up for the traitor so that he’s not executed or anything like that but still doesn’t trust him. That’s how it should be, I still don’t get how you could possibly trust him in any context after what happened. That just makes no sense to me. Suguro is really held back by the fact that he can’t fight at all without the talismans so I hope he gets something soon.

Miwa tends to be a bit of an annoying character. Kind of wishy washy and never too sure of himself. Unlike Shiemi he has no great powers to help him out so right now he’s on the lower side from the cast members. Shura doesn’t do much beyond her obligatory teasing of Yukio. She is mainly injured for most of the season and when she is conscious she is being threatened by Mephisto. Honestly she is in such a terrible spot half the time. She needs to find a way to get stronger so she can actually have some freedom.

As the big villain in the Illuminati you’d figure that Lucifer would get a lot of hype but he’s very underwhelming for now. He’s super sickly and constantly coughing up blood and running out of energy. I feel like Mephisto could wipe him out of existence with ease and is just messing around because he can. It looks like the heroes are going to wait until Lucifer finds a cure and can fight at full power before they make their move so the Exorcists are as inept as always. I’ll need to see more of Lucifer to take him seriously.

His main general was one of those fat psycho doctors which doesn’t do his group any justice. That guy was super annoying so I was glad when he was taken out. Definitely one of the worst villains in the series. The backstory for Kamiki’s family was definitely a sad one. This season sure had more of an emotional feel than the last one. No offense to Suguro but his family drama wasn’t nearly as impactful. This one hits a bit harder because of how so much of it felt inevitable with no real escape.

Finally with Mephisto, he is still a solid villain but the kind of figure who could go way down depending on how his plan goes. Right now we don’t really know what he even wants to do. He clearly has enough power to bring the world to its knees so why doesn’t he? He has deals with the shady council of Exorcists but why would he even need such weaklings? We’ll find out in time but if he ends up getting one shotted or the plan doesn’t go well then retroactively it will make him such a terrible villain. Usually the more convoluted and far out your plan is, the more things that can go wrong. So he will really have to convince me here.

In general a lot of the story is still shrouded in secrecy. In part I would say that’s because we’re seeing things from the point of view of the main characters who are out of the loop on everything. We don’t really have any characters who are on the inside to give us full coverage into what’s going on. You like to think that the Exorcists have a bunch of trump cards at their disposal but I have my doubts on this. Right now it just feels like the demons have all of the advantages and the heroes’ only chance is to trust one which is rough. Rin is their only chance.

In terms of animation, the show can look good but it can also be rough at times. It’s clear that this didn’t exactly get a massive budget. It’s a shame because none of the fights look all that amazing. The best battle in the series is probably Rin vs Shima and part of that is probably more for narrative reasons than animation. I’m glad we at least get some action but it again feels like the show could be doing so much more. In the last season the big boss was a giant monster and of course we get more of that here too.

I want the show to just embrace its Shonen roots and give us some massive action scenes. Lets get some really cool feats in here and some awesome stuff you know? At least the soundtrack is really good as always. This is one area where the show has always excelled. I thought the theme song was really catchy and I also like a lot of the individual tracks. My favorite theme from season 1 only shows up like once but the new themes are good too. There’s a solid amount of variety and I felt like this got the biggest budget in the show.

While the show may not always deliver on the action front, I do think it does pretty well on the slice of life and comedy aspects. It’s a show where we actually get to see the heroes in school quite a lot. We see them learning and everything as there tends to be a lot of downtime. The gag of Rin dressing up like Shima was absolutely top tier as well. That gag actually works really well and made for a lot of fun moments. The obligatory beach type episode was also not as fanservicey as it could have been.

In general the show doesn’t go too far into that but some of the outfits are definitely geared in that direction. The romance is on the weaker side though as it all tends to feel a bit melodramatic. I feel like it’s going in a similar direction to Seraph of the End with the characters trying to hold in their emotions and everything but Seraph of the End pulls it off so much better because of how direct it is. This one’s trying to sort of be half in and half out so the romance is more annoying than anything.

Overall, Blue Exorcist had some good fights and plot twists but it’s just hard to get into the series the way the author wants you to. It feels like its just taking too much time to move forward in the plot. The fact that all of the heroes have to work with the villains because they are too weak to oppose him is also annoying. I mean it’s interesting in a sense but there doesn’t seem to be a way for them to surpass Mephisto. The power system of this world just makes that impossible for all of them except Rin who needs to get his head straight. It’s almost like a horror film where the heroes don’t stand a chance. The only other title I can think of like this is Seraph of the End where the heroes are always super doomed but at least the power system is much more supernatural so you could easily write in massive power boosts. We’ll see where the series goes from here though, hopefully Rin can finally start fighting more. There is already an exhausting amount of world building so lets move on to the big plot developments now. Either way the show does go fast though and the characters are entertaining so that will have to do for now.

Overall 6/10

Scream Blacula Scream Review

Posted on June 3, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for the next Blahhhhhhcula film. The name just makes that joke too easy! But yeah this is not a good film and you likely knew that going into it. It’s another really cheap vampire film that’s doing its best to impress and scare you but instead it has the opposite effect. You will be rolling your eyes at this one and wondering when it’s over. There’s nothing to really like about this film as it squanders any decent ideas that might have been thrown into the mix.

The film starts with the queen of voodoo dying so she quickly forgets to name a successor. It has to come down to a vote now and everyone knows it will be Lisa which infuriates Willis. He decides to do something about this and messes with some bones until he resurrects Blacula. Blacula quickly turns Willis into a vampire and then decides to go on another murder spree. Will anyone be safe from all of these murders? Lisa will need to watch out since she is now the one with the strongest Voodoo energy. If she ends up siding with Blacula then all hope may be lost.

So lets get this out of the way, the film has a ton of the usual blood sucking right out of the gate. You’ll be grimacing the whole time because this is not what you signed up for. Not at all! I mean that sounds like I’m in denial but you can do a vampire film without all of that. These also have to be the longest blood drain scenes that I’ve come across. Seriously there’s just no end to them. They keep going on and on and on. If you ask me personally the best thing to do here would have been to do a quick cut. You get the initial bite and then skip.

Although it’s clear that the film was pretty proud of these scenes for how drawn out they were. Even the moments leading up to the bites, you got zoom ins on the teeth early on. At least some of the victims were asking for it like the random guys trying to bully Blacula in the streets. It was nice to bump them off but we can do better than the classic bite every time. So right off the bat the film was already doomed thanks to this.

Then the characters aren’t smart at all. Lisa already knows that Blacula is murdering people and yet by the end she wants to help him and everything? Noooo that’s not cool. She still seems shocked when he continues to hurt people but he’s been doing that since the very beginning so there’s no excuse there. He didn’t change, he was evil right from the jump. That’s what I’ve been trying to explain the whole time. Also considering her psychic voodoo powers, she still looks very weak the whole time.

She is easily suckered by her friend who turned vampire and then tries to drain her. Shouldn’t Lisa have some kind of supernatural defenses? So that’s a big strike against her character right from the jump. Then after that we’ve also got the fact that she doesn’t immediately end Blacula when she has the doll. Just stab it or put it in a choke hold. Instead she takes ages which nearly costs her.

All right, one slight positive for the film. I really liked the confrontation between Justin and Blacula where we have a really tense talk. Both of them are casually murdering the other one and it’s a very boss moment for Justin. Not a smart one mind you, since Blacula could have murdered him at any point. Still, it showed that he was ready to stand his ground. The film is really reusing this from other titles but it still hit right. It’s the best scene in the film by far.

In general I was glad that the cops got involved as well. They actually get to fight it out with the vampires which was pretty cool. We get some actual battle scenes although the cops have a bad habit of hesitating. Look, these are vampires, you have to just take them out. Use the stake or it will be used against you. I did wonder why they wouldn’t re-use a stake though. For example one guy uses his stake and then gets rushed by a second vampire so he cuts it in half to use a new one. Many cops just gave up once they used their 1 stake and got wrecked.

Just pull it out of the dead body and use it again. It’s still made of wood so I’m confident that it will work as many times as needed. These guys really need to learn basic combat skills. The whole film should have been the general confrontation because that would actually be an original take. The full might of the police force against the personal army of vampires that Blacula built up. That had a lot of potential over the usual stuff.

Instead what the film decided to focus on in terms of being unique is the voodoo witchcraft nonsense. Those scenes are some of the worst. They’re super dragged out as well with everyone hopping around and feeling the vibes. They don’t add anything to the film and instead subtract from it. So really you are always looking forward to the few police/Justin scenes but every time Blacula or the Voodoo stuff is on screen the film falls down quickly. We also get a random animal violence when a bird is destroyed. The film needs to do better!

Overall, If you really enjoy seeing the blood sucking scenes from a vampire film then this is your title. I still can’t think of any title that dragged them out nearly this much. However, there is no other reason to watch this film and waste your time. Blacula is not a series that will go down in history as being anything decent. It was really a full on gimmick from start to finish and one that didn’t find its footing. You could have had some interesting social themes here or given Blacula a real personality beyond just draining people. At times it felt like the film was going to perhaps go down that route and then he just starts murdering everyone again. So the film couldn’t resist going back to its roots of shock value. If we ever get a modern reboot, maybe it could change things.

Overall 1/10

The Lost Boys Review

Posted on May 27, 2024 by dreager1

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

It’s time for some vampires. You already know that means the film is starting off at a disadvantage but maybe it can pull through and win anyway? Wellllll…unfortunately that is not the case so I still do have to give this one a thumbs down. The characters tend to be annoying and the film can drag on at some points. The main romance with the teens also doesn’t work so well.

The film starts with Michael, his younger brother Sam, and his mom Lucy moving from a nice place over to the murder capital of the world. They’re staying with Lucy’s father and at this point the goal is really to try and make the best of it. Sam is one of those guys who is very personable and he acclimates to the new place quickly even if it is odd how two kids keep telling him to watch out for vampires. Michael sees an attractive lady who is already taken but since when has that stopped him? He flirts with her which causes the leader of the vampire group, David to show up and mess with him. Michael succumbs to peer pressure immediately and gets turned into a vampire. Can he control his urges and stay on the path of justice?

There’s a lot to unpack here and unfortunately most of it is not good. As the lead character Michael makes too many mistakes. It’s not really good form to go after someone who is already in a relationship. Yeah it’s not the same as someone being married or engaged but at the same time it makes you look desperate. It was clear that Star was leading him on from the jump so the only right answer there is to just dodge the situation entirely. She manipulates him so easily that you’re just shaking your head. Their romance really was bad.

Meanwhile Michael was falling for the illusions each time and then not suspecting that something was wrong about the vampires was a real miss for him as well. He does control the urges well at least and I can tell you right now that I have no issues with taking out any of the villains. As far as I’m concerned that is full self defense and everyone was trying to murder the vampires in order to save the town so there’s no functional difference here. Something to keep in mind since the end of the film is trying to throw a message in and it doesn’t really work.

I liked Sam a lot more than Michael. He’s a likable kid who has a positive outlook. Again, if not for the vampires he was going to get used to the new town real fast. He had a good sense of humor and is also responsible. This is the kind of kid you can count on to make your life easier. He gets a big role along with the two vampire hunters but technically it’s not like he can fight all that much so I wouldn’t expect him to do a lot of damage. The villains are just too powerful.

As for Lucy, she’s definitely a sympathetic character. She’s also been through a lot with the divorce and all. It may be a little fast to get back into the dating game but at least it’s treated like an actual dynamic among adults. It starts off with a basic dinner and nothing crazy. Usually I’d say the romance subplot had no point being in the film but this time I suppose it justified its own existence. It’s still a bit on the weak side but as a character Lucy was solid.

Then you have Max whose role is pretty fun. He is the character you will be thinking about a lot here and some scenes you can see in a different light. So he makes for a fairly solid character, certainly better than the vampire gang led by David who mostly just look like creeps the whole time. They’re not intimidating in a fun way and if anything they’re so overconfident and sloppy that this is what leads to them getting cooked all the time. As long as they remembered basic fighting techniques then they would have been okay here. The problem is they don’t have much of a goal except for spreading chaos.

I would have liked to have seen perspectives from more of the outside world. Not someone about to die but maybe a few locals talking about how people are always getting kidnapped and being murdered which seems weird. The film does establish this place as the biggest murder area in the world but doesn’t follow that up with anything. I’m sure the mayor and the cops would have something to say about that right? Adding them in with a big role would have been really fun.

Just something to give us more time away from the vampires. You already know that nobody can put up a fight against them so the nameless characters are doomed. The film doesn’t keep your attention the way that it should. It throws in quite a few jump scares involving the dogs. It’s a dangerous game since that could have easily tanked the whole movie but fortunately it avoids getting hit with the solid 0-1. The dogs end up looking fairly tough the whole time and Sam’s dog really saves the day more than once. So I appreciate that. Having a dog on screen always speeds up my heart rate a little bit but when you have a happy ending like this then that definitely helps out a whole lot.

Overall, The Lost Boys is a film that had some potential but it doesn’t live up to this in the execution. The comedic elements could have helped to raise everything up but at the end of the day it still focuses more on the vampire stuff than anything else. The characters created too many issues on their own and so in the end what you have here is a film that doesn’t give you much of an incentive to watch it. At least I did like the grandfather. His role was small but the confidence was nice. If the film had doubled down on more of the humor this could have really been a different ballgame.

Overall 3/10

Delicious in Dungeon Review

Posted on May 12, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a big food based manga that has gotten especially big lately with the show ongoing. Well, it’s definitely got a unique premise but given that it’s all about eating every monster possible, you can probably guess that this is not going to end well for the show. Even fans of cooking will probably have a hard time with this one since it’s not like you can actually copy most of these recipes but the series gets some props for sticking with the concept. Even to the end, cooking is always a primary focus of the series. Still ends up being a miss for me though.

The series starts with Laios and his party going through a dungeon when they are attacked by the legendary Red Dragon. Unfortunately it ends up eating Laios’ sister Falin and escapes. Half of Laios’ party disbands the remaining members are basically bankrupt. Laios doesn’t want to wait and go all the way out of the dungeon so he decides that they will just have to eat every monster they come across. Fortunately they meet up with a guy named Senshi who is an expert at cooking up monsters and he agrees to help. Is this really something Laios is doing out of desperation though or is using Falin as an excuse to eat monsters?

The series is fairly long with 14 volumes so you may wonder how all of that can be about finding Falin. Well, that’s not the whole plot. Things keep on going and you really have 2 main story arcs here. The second half takes a while for sure we the heroes have to learn more about what to do next and then work on their plans. The cast further expands here so there are a good number of characters to keep track of. The series also has a lot of world building which works well for including a bunch of characters into the mix.

As a little background here, the world connects to a massive dungeon that appears to get bigger and bigger every day. There is no upper limit to the dungeon and so people continue to go in and grab some money. You can use remains of animals to sell, different treasure chests, artifacts, etc. If you die in the dungeon then you have to hope that someone goes up to you and casts revive. Your soul is trapped when you are in the dungeon which is why you don’t die right away. On one hand that may sound good but on the other hand that also means it could very well be possible that you are stuck for all eternity. Jut think about that for a minute there, it’s not exactly a spot that you want to be in. It also means that several characters will die multiple times. Just because you can revive doesn’t mean that the pain goes away which is another thing to consider.

Basically what I am getting at is that living in this world feels really dangerous. You can just decide not to go into the dungeon and have a normal job but the series doesn’t go into that too much so it’s hard to say just how feasible that is. For all we know there are barely any jobs available so you would have to venture into the unknown anyway. Then you have the Elves who tend to be rather selfish and dangerous. They do not have your best interests at heart so you need to keep that in mind all the way and of course if you run into the mad mage then you may be put to sleep forever. Fighting between adventurers is completely forbidden but since when has that ever stopped anybody right? So you better keep your guard up at all times.

The art is pretty solid here. That doesn’t always work in the game’s favor but there is a lot of detail here at all times. The characters are easy to spot and while the series doesn’t have a ton of fight scenes, the action scenes that we get look pretty good. At most, some of the climax moments can be a little too cluttered with everyone running around but on the whole I would still say that things look good. The art is not a problem I have with the title.

So lets talk about the big issue right out of the gate which is naturally the animal violence. Yes a lot of these are fantasy creatures but we’re still watching the heroes slice and dice them to add onto a meal. This tends to be rather gross a lot of the time. A lot of these creatures also end up looking like real animals. It gets more and more twisted as some of the creatures get close to being humanoid. I thought that Marcille had a good point about at least drawing the line at humanoids but why would Laios listen to that? These are desperate times so it makes sense to do what you have to do but by the end everyone are eating various monsters.

So all of this eating is a big blow and that’s a main focus of the entire series so you’re not really going to be coming back from that. I usually like a lot of good food titles like Superman Meshi but this is one that I just couldn’t get behind. You would need to change the entire premise of the series to make this work or put them in a virtual world where these are just programs or something. By the end of the series it gets even more and more twisted about what’s being eaten. The whole climax is easily one of the most disturbing ones that I’ve read in a manga.

It’s not just about being eaten alive but how graphic and painful the whole thing is. The series is never afraid to be on the higher end of the violence side since characters can be brought to life. This is shown early on by the manor in which people die. They get stabbed or shot through the head and while they are revived later on, you feel like it’s a bit much. So just keep that in mind, this is a series that tends to be on the more extreme side in each aspect of the title.

Take away all of the animals and I would still have some problems there but yeah that’s got to be the biggest one here. I was rooting for Marcille and the various characters who didn’t want to eat these monsters to stay strong but ultimately they couldn’t. To an extent you may feel it’s no different from cooking actual animal so what’s the harm right? Well the first part is that cooking those after being hunted would destroy any series for me anyway, the monsters only dampens the blow to an extent but it all just feels wrong.

Part of the problem is how crazy Laios is. The more the series goes on, the crazier we see him become. The guy can barely contain just how twisted he is at different points and that’s really the main issue with him. I don’t like Laios as a character. He really does seem to be using Falin as an excuse half of the time. He’s super interested in trying out every monster, he basically wants to become one. This is mainly played off as a gag of course but he is still like this in the serious moments as well. So he’s not exactly the hero type and his twisted set of morals should have you concerned.

Marcille is easily the most likable member of the main crew. She has a rather intense backstory and really good reasons for wanting to save Falin. She’s the first friend that Marcille had after all. Yes, Falin also has her weird moments to be sure but on the whole she is a lot more normal than Laios. Marcille is always ready to do whatever she has to in order to save the day even if it means putting herself in danger so I can definitely applaud that. You want her on your side without a doubt. She makes a whole lot of sacrifices in order to get to the end and even her overall goal makes a lot of sense. Yes, she comes close to accepting a shortcut which wouldn’t work out so well in order to support her goals and dreams but you get why she would do this. So she’s an interesting character all the way.

Then you have Chillchuck who is a bit more jaded than the other characters and gets jaded a lot. He doesn’t have some grand master plan for the world and talks tough but at the end of the day he is here in the front lines fighting with everyone else to save Falin. So you can definitely give him a lot of credit too all the way through. He is good at avoiding traps and helping the heroes get through the dungeon so he is definitely really handy. Meanwhile Senshi may be the MVP for the group since without him they would have a hard time staying alive at all. While cutting up all of the monsters may not help the series as a whole, it definitely helped the main party conisderably.

Senshi has a ton of experience not just in cooking but surviving in general. He knows a lot of the different players in the dungeon and has formed strategic alliances that allow him to do what he does. Without him the heroes would have been murdered by the trolls, orcs, or other random creatures. Then you have Izutsumi who joins up later and is a solid addition. She has quick speed and can fight rather well thanks to her claws. She is cursed to be part cat which is tough in terms of having to live that way but it really comes in handy for fights which is what the main cast really needs in this situation. So that is definitely impressive and in general I liked her. She’s not going to fall for the usual illusions and traps that the others jump into.

As for Falin herself, I wouldn’t say that I was a big fan. She’s okay and seems like a nice enough person but she does suffer from a lot of the same issues as the main guy. It wasn’t great for Laios and she doesn’t fare any better either. If anything I would say the more she appears, the less normal she acts. I suppose because at that point everyone is a lot more familiar with her but she tends to be at her best when Laios is not around. Her abilities are certainly impressive though.

Then we have Namari and Shuro who I didn’t like because I consider them to be traitors. After Falin was taken out they both ditch the party. Yes, Shuro shows up to help later on but he makes a big fuss about the dark magic used to help Falin and is generally a pain in the neck. He doesn’t make things easier for the main characters at all and by making things tougher that just means that he’s in the way. Not a good look when you need everyone on deck right?? That’s what I thought! Namari is at least more sociable but it doesn’t change the fact that she ran off either. I still can’t forget that and it’s a really big deal. You can’t just run off, there is no coming back from that.

Kabru is easily one of the most interesting characters though. I’m not big on a certain plot twist he got in the end but for the most part he was a strategic figure who helped to add a little intensity to the plot. You never really knew hat he was thinking and he was a really good wild card. He kept all of the characters on their toes which is exactly what you would be expecting from a character like this. Kabru was always one step ahead of the other characters. He may not have had a great ending but I still enjoyed his character a lot and if anything he should have been the real main character.

Meanwhile the mad mage Sissel was a reasonably solid villain. I thought he had some reasonably solid goals and ambitions the whole time. He did start to get more and more unreasonable as the series went on though. I suppose you could say it was maybe because of the influences around him but that’s probably more of an excuse in the long run. This guy just couldn’t handle the power and didn’t think things through in the long run. That’s what really got him in the end. Still, this was a threat that made all of the heroes get up and pay attention which was nice to see. If anything they’re lucky that he didn’t press the attack more.

Then you have the main canary Mithrun who was a fun character. He’s seriously skilled and always goes for the lethal attacks in a fight. He desperately wants to stop Sissel but that’s hard since the whole dungeon obeys the mage. It’s really a one sided revenge tour since he doesn’t have much of a chance of really doing anything here. Still, he goes through a whole lot and is a likable character. The whole thing feels like he got the short end of the stick so you can feel bad for him there.

Finally there is the Winged Lion who is a very interesting character. His goals may not be as intense as Sissel’s but in a way that’s due to his nature. For the mot part he’s doing everything because he can, rather than having more of a specific ambition. He is absolutely able to play the long game though and has been strategizing for a very long time. He does a good job of manipulating characters so I give him a ton of credit there. Not just any character could manage to pull that off. He can also fight well so that’s another plus.

So the character cast here is pretty solid. While I had a lot of issues with the execution, I think the world building is pretty solid. For starters it is interesting to see a world where a dungeon is the primary source of income because of all the rare stuff in there. Death being suspended is definitely pretty cool since otherwise the body count would be massive. You’ve got the Elves and a bunch of kings running around as well to stir up some trouble. I would have liked some more fights between the factions but again this isn’t really an action series first and foremost. It’s more about the platforming and eating. We do get fights but they just aren’t the primary focus.

I still can’t help but think of how much better it would be if not for all of the animal stuff. Just have them eating off the land, lots of berries and things like that. That would have been so much better and would have made me proud. Seriously it would have been a really good idea al the way. Ah well, at the end of the day it is what it is. I can say that I will never forget the series, it really is quite memorable. Also while the humor around Laios doesn’t tend to land, the series does actually have some rather solid gags. I really enjoyed seeing the characters come to terms with how they’re seen by the rest of the party for example when they fight a bunch of shapeshifters. That was funny while also being very interesting. The characters tend to be very expressive and the series is rather light toned so there are lots of opportunities for fun scenes apart from everything being eaten.

Overall, This series definitely lives up to the name. There is a lot of food everywhere and the whole series does involve a dungeon so there is no clickbait here. Everything is as you’d expect it to be from the title except for the fact that none of the food actually looks delicious. The characters do say that it all tastes delicious though which I suppose is the important part even if I am super skeptical. So really if you can get behind all of the monster eating then this should be the story for you. If not, then consider this an experimental series that just can’t hold its own and give it a skip. There are enough good manga out there where you don’t have to force yourself to check this one out. Check out Superman vs Meshi as a good replacement.

Overall 3/10

Millennium Snow Review

Posted on May 4, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a romance series that I had definitely never heard of before. It’s got vampires in it so you already know that the series is setting off some alarm bells for me. Well, in the end it wasn’t that bad but I don’t think there is really much to it. The characters never end up being all that great and it gets really rushed by the end. There was definitely a lot more they could have done with the concept.

The series starts by introducing us to Chiyuki who is very sickly. In fact she is close to death and just barely survives thanks to being bit by a vampire named Toya. He didn’t want to do this since he doesn’t believe in biting people or draining blood but it was an emergency. So now he watches over her to make sure that she doesn’t die too quick and then he will head off to another location. Chiyuki now wants him to fully convert her into a vampire so she can live for 1000 years and finally have good health. Can she convince him to drain her though?

You can probably already guess that I’m not a big fan of that part of the plot. I actually think it’s impressive that Toya refuses to drain anybody and he just allows himself to always be in a weakened state. He’s kept a strong will about this and so it’s too bad that Chiyuki is trying to crack him here. In a way you could say the series is sort of using this as a metaphor and either way it doesn’t make for a great romance plot here. Yeah Chiyuki likes Toya but how much of that is because her life is depending on this? She will only be able to live a long and healthy life if she is turned into a vampire. It’s not a great dynamic there but at least the series does avoid any rebounds this way.

Still, the romance didn’t really work out for me. Then we have the art which is a little on the rougher side. I won’t say that it’s bad or anything like that but it could stand to be smoother or more streamlined. It’s not as good as the average manga is what I would say there. Mix that in with the main character cast already being underwhelming and you can see how this is not a title that would end up competing with the heavy hitters. I can see why it isn’t very well known.

The best character here is probably Kaede even though she showed up fairly late in the adventure. She has always been a very lonely girl who had no friends and this leads to her raising up an animal spirit. Unfortunately she didn’t realize that the words she was feeding it weren’t really doing any good but the fact that she cared about the creature is the important thing. She didn’t get to contribute much to the story but it was always good to see her in the last chapters after she made her debut.

As the main heroine, I would say that Chiyuki stands out a bit for being more unique compared to how you would expect her to be. After all the whole trying to have the main guy make a move is already a bit different and she’s the aggressive one trying to pressure Toya instead of the other way around. I tend to like confident characters so in most cases this would have been an instant win but since in this case it was like her pressuring him into something that he just didn’t want to do, she ended up losing points instead.

As for Toya, he’s not that great either because of his generally low levels of confidence and how he just doesn’t use his abilities well. He has a tough time in multiple situations and you have to remember that he can stop time and do all sorts of cool stuff. So it feels like he is playing the matchup wrong and holding himself back which are massive mistakes to be made here. His rival Ariyoshi’s not much better. This guy is a wolf so he also has some superhuman abilities but at the same time his big weakness is really that he is a big flirt. So he is more outgoing and tough but but the flirty nature holds him back quite a lot. He has a fairly intense backstory and you feel bad for him but he definitely didn’t handle things well.

He’s still better than Kei though. Kei is Chiyuki’s overprotective cousin who gets really extreme like when he locks her in a room. The guy is meant to be sympathetic but he goes way too far so that just is not an option by the end. You’re just rooting for his downfall the whole time. Fortunately he doesn’t appear much but the guy is super petty. Another villain without much screentime is Luis. He shows up near the very end of the series and I feel like there wasn’t much point to his whole character. There’s just no time left in the story for him and when he shows up he is sickly as well so he is quickly written out anyway. It was to add a little danger but the whole thing felt rather force and everyone treated him too well. I don’t care that he’s on his deathbed, he was attacking the main heroine so he’s got to go. It’s not that complicated.

I did like Toya’s attendant Yami though. He was a loyal friend who was always ready to help even if Toya isn’t the easiest guy to work for. Yami may act like a kid most of the time but if anything it feels like he is probably more mature most of the time. So I definitely give him a lot of credit. That about wraps it up for the characters. That’s probably a good thing since we’ve only got 4 volumes to deal with and more characters would mean that things are even more scattered.

Ultimately the series’ weakness is really that it did not get to excel at anything. If any aspect could have been really solid then that would have helped the whole series out but it didn’t really have anything like that. For example there aren’t really any funny gags or comedic characters to help carry the slice of life stuff. Generally I would consider this to be more of a drama. There are a lot of big facial expressions and the series is generally light hearted but I wouldn’t say that it’s very funny. Some good humor would have gone a long way here too so that’s really a shame.

Overall, Millennium Snow is a little below average I’d say. It’s not really a manga that I would spend much time thinking about later on, nor do I think it’ll get a re read at any point in the future. The characters are weak and the art doesn’t help to save it. If you’re looking for a title where there are vampires but not a lot of blood sucking then at least it beats the average there but nah in the end I would have to give this one a thumbs down. It should have either focused a bit more on the romance without throwing in a bunch of side characters and a random villain or it should have just doubled down on action. In the end there just wasn’t much time to do anything and it felt like the series was really lacking direction.

Overall 4/10

White Noise Review

Posted on April 27, 2024 by dreager1

White Noise is one of those desperate horror films that actually snagged an interesting idea but rushed to churn out some random product that barely made use of it. I can’t say I was all that disappointed because to be honest I had fairly low expectations going into it. The movie’s fairly bad as you would guess. The villains are overpowered with no weaknesses and the whole film is an exercise in futility. At least the film has some restraint and doesn’t go too crazy though.

The film starts off with Jonathan being married to Anna and she is even expecting a kid which is hype. Unfortunately she dies after that so Jonathan gets rather depressed. He ends up meeting a shady guy who was following him around for a while though named Raymond. He dabbles in the arcane arts and explains that Sarah’s spirit can still be heard through the computer. They just have to listen hard enough and he’s a pro at the electro voice phenomenon and has made it his life’s work. He’s been helping another lady named Sarah as well. Now she can help Jonathan a bit because Raymond gets bumped off soon after. The spirits don’t appreciate this intrusion and plan to keep on murdering people. What can Jonathan do against these demonic entities?

Nothing to be honest. Lol you thought this guy could do anything about it? These ghosts are intangible, they’ve got super speed, super strength, endless stamina, they can control your body and make you jump out a window, etc. Their abilities are basically limitless so all Jonathan can do is flail around for a while until the ghosts have had enough of him. That’s my main problem with some titles like this. You have to at least introduce a concept that gives Jonathan some kind of a chance in this fight. Otherwise, what is even the point of watching the film? It’s just pointless if his only escape is his inevitable death. At that point then what are we even doing here?

The film also gets rather boring at times. It’s good that Jonathan is super good at hearing because half the time I couldn’t even get what the ghosts were saying through the computer screen. It could be like gibberish at times and I’m someone who tends to like white noise. I use it every night to create that hype atmosphere although I’ve thought about buying a more custom noise like a rainforest sound or something. I think those could even be more fun although I haven’t tried that yet. But even so it’s not something that can carry a movie. I did appreciate that most of the transitions were done using white noise though. The general colors, backgrounds, and effects weren’t bad either.

There just isn’t a lot of them to go around and they tend to be very repetitive. Also, it goes through the annoying cliche of only the evil spirits having power while the good ones can only repeat one or two phrases like an NPC. Anna shows up a few times to tell Jonathan to run but she never gives any more details than that. Also lets face it, running’s not even going to do anything at this point although I appreciate the attempt. No, he’s doomed no matter how you slice it.

One plot point that starts kind of late is how Jonathan can quickly see into the future. He is given glimpses into different dark fates that await various characters but with enough time to save them or help out in time. He does help out a bit but I’d be annoyed with this ability because it doesn’t come with any hints or anything. He just has to run around until he finds out what is going on. It’s also usually a half victory as someone still dies or gets injured while he saves someone else.

Ultimately though, it’s all rather futile like I mentioned. Jonathan never stood a chance at winning or doing much of anything. Depending on how you interpret the ending, it’s not looking much better for the other characters either. Part of the ending is a little funny though with some more static noise showing up and we get one last line from one of the characters. Everyone looks either shocked or happy except for the driver who is over the whole thing. He just drives off looking rather annoyed and I don’t blame him because from his point of view the whole thing’s probably been a real drag. Now he’s going to have to compete with a legacy that will probably be dramatized a bit. If he was in the sequel I’d bet that things would not go well for him.

Ultimately the message here is really not to mess with the dead and spirits. Once someone dies then you’ve gotta move on and fast. No trying to contact them or anything because you’re just going to be going around in circles and contacting demons anyway. I’d also say you should never trust some random guy who’s been following you around and telling you all of these weird stories. I get that Jonathan was desperate but yeah you definitely need to be able to move on. Not rebound of course, but just keep it calm and not chase after her spirit.

The film also has a really random plot twist near the end of the film that doesn’t make any sense. Feels more like a shock value moment than anything to be honest. Lets just say there is one human villain here to make things a little more tense at the end but there’s just no point to that. We already know that the demons can do anything they want so why involve a human? Just to mess with the main character? That seems like the only possible explanation. The demons strike me as really unreasonable villains who always have some kind of a chip on their shoulders even when they are the ones who created the situation. Yeah they’re not winning any points in my book any time soon.

Overall, At the end of the day there’s not much to positive to really say about the film. It’s a very by the numbers horror film but it doesn’t have a ton of good jump scares. The computer screen moments tend to be on the boring side and you’re really waiting for some action. Unfortunately there’s not much for the main character to even fight for most of the film and by the time we get a human villain the film is ending. This is a film that should have had more fun with the electronic setup. That should have also played into the demons weakness somehow. You know, just give us something with a bit more substance instead of dwelling on the computer screen for so long. Additionally the whole sub plot of Jonathan playing superhero by seeing into the future didn’t make a lot of sense and felt shoehorned in. The film just didn’t have time to really go into this plot so it felt pointless.

Overall 3/10

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