Transformers Rescue Bots Review

Posted on December 30, 2016 by dreager1

It’s time to look at the recent Transformers show that may have finished. There’s always the chance that they could announce a new season at some point, but for all intents and purposes the show is over. It had a good run and seeing as how it is the longest Transformers show of all time, it left a good legacy. I originally started watching the show way back in 2011 so it’s been quite the ride. It’s a nice enough show.

A routine space mission goes wrong one day and four rescue bots fall to Griffin Rock. They are met by the Burns family and quickly realize that they will have to work together if they want to save the island from the many disasters that plague it. By work together, I mean that the humans call the shots and the Autobots help out as best they can. By the end of the show, several other Autobots appear and we even get some guest star appearances from bigshots like Optimus Prime and Bumble Bee.

One thing that you need to be aware of before starting this show is that it is aimed at a younger audience than the rest. What this means is that you can’t go in and expect a bunch of fight scenes. The show is really aimed at the same audience as Arthur or My Little Pony. There will be some danger scenes like a tree falling down or robots gone haywire, but typically that’s the extent of it. Occasionally there will be a real threat like a mad scientist and his robots for the really big episodes, but this show is more about friendship and morals at the end of the episodes.

It’s a show that is definitely better one at a time than in big marathon batches, which sets it apart from the average show. Watching it on my own probably wouldn’t be all that exciting and other shows like Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures were actually more engaging even if they weren’t as good in terms of quality. Still, you can find the fun in any show and at least you’ll get used to the characters the more you watch the show. Shows like this one are better to watch with other people so you can poke fun at it or do drinking games like taking a shot every time someone is super polite or passive aggressive. That happens a lot in the show since the Burns family has to be careful not to outright insult the townsfolk.

The animation is flash based or at least it looks as if it is. It’s definitely not all that good and I’m thinking that flash animation just has a very low ceiling. It can look clear, but it’ll never get above a certain point. So, I wouldn’t say that Rescue Bots has bad animation I suppose, but it would certainly be near the bottom of the scale. There are few shows that I’ve seen with worse animation and this could be bottom 3. There aren’t too many tunes to be found here, but at least they are memorable. Especially since the same danger theme played at the first commercial break for just about 90% of the episodes. After a while, you could easily anticipate the theme and predict exactly when it would show. There were a few other tunes as well and even if they screamed “Public Domain” music, they weren’t all that bad. They were passable and there’s only so much that you can do for talking scenes anyway since a big fight theme would have been out of place.

Chief Burns isn’t the main character, but he may as well be. He’s the head of the family and always takes charge. He’s not afraid to defy the Mayor and he gives out the morals a lot of the time. Burns makes the hard calls and he’s probably the best character in the show. I still love the name as well since Burns is a really cool last name. Cody is the real main character and he’s one of the nicest kids that you’ll ever meet. He takes things in stride and can’t wait until he is old enough to have his own Rescue Bot. It’ll take some time, but at least he will have a lot of experience in the field by then right? There’s definitely nothing to really dislike about him. Kade is the hotshot who is sort of tough, but not very smart. He’s the character who usually gets humiliated so that the others can learn a lesson. His overconfidence would be a good trait if he could actually back it up from time to time, but he just gets defeated over and over and over again, which is a little sad.

Dani is the pilot in the series and she is always arguing with Kade about everything. While Kade is the one who talks tough, Dani is typically the one who actually is tough. It’s tough for her to balance her piloting job and being a rescue operator in town, but she gets the job done. Graham is the smart one of the group and he likes science so much that he actually finds it enjoyable to talk about. The others don’t agree about the merits of science, but they try to be understanding about it. Graham’s not quite as charismatic as the others, but he tries. Woodrow is the hardcore brother (or cousin, but I think it’s brother) of Chief Burns and his thing is that his voice is always super calm and almost sarcastic. He likes going on adventures and having fun as opposed to the very safe and isolated life that Chief Burns leads. It typically gets him into trouble, but Woodrow is a character that would have been a nice addition to the main cast.

As for the Rescue Bots, Heatwave is the confident leader and probably the best member of the group. He’s very serious, but this isn’t the right show for that so everyone pokes fun at it and forces him to mellow out. By the final episodes he has basically stopped putting up the front because it wasn’t getting him anywhere. Still, the team would be lost without him. Blades is the comic relief member of the group. He is scared by just about everything, but he does like watching a lot of movies. He keeps the team grounded and is always ready for fun. He’s not exactly my kind of character, but his antics can be all right at times I suppose. Boulder is easily the least interesting member of the main crew. He’s very strong so naturally that means that he is the delicate character. He likes nature and reading. There’s nothing wrong with this of course, but the other three have more interesting personalities. There just isn’t much to Boulder and he may as well be Bulkhead given how similar their designs are. Chase gives Heatwave competition for the best Rescue Bot member. He likes the old westerns and does his best to follow the lawbook to the letter. He’s a great law abiding citizen and you know that everything will be okay when Chase is on the scene. Nobody messes with him and Chase keeps the other characters honest. If they even think about doing anything that is morally dubious, Chase calls them out on it.

Blurr is one of the new recruits from the later episodes. Unfortunately, he was nerfed a little too hard in this show. His whole gimmick is that he’s super fast, but he loses a race to Quickshadow and just holds his own against Heatwave. Doesn’t this defeat the whole purpose of his character? He’s portrayed as a hothead who doesn’t like to follow the rules, but the heroes tame him rather easily so he ends up being a character with no real purpose. Salvage is a lot worse though as he is basically Boulder 2.0. He’s also a strong, but really delicate fellow who likes to build things out of junk so that he can prove to the others how everything has a purpose. He never really gets to do a whole lot and the show intentionally gave him the most annoying voice possible. Luckily, we did have one good new recruit. Quickshadow is essentially a James Bond homage and was even featured in this universe’s equivalent. She is deep undercover and shows up to test the Rescue Bots and provide assistance when necessary. She gets a lot of hype and lives up to it for the most part. Her hand to hand skills are at a higher level than the other bots so that’s why it’s a shame that we never got any real opponents for her to fight. That would have been a perfect way to show off her skills, but at least we got to see her embarrass the others in training exercises. Optimus Prime and Bumble Bee were also cool to see. Prime may have been a little unreasonable at times as he would just suddenly show up and bark out new orders at times, but I guess that’s how most of the bots would see him. The Rescue Bots did their best to follow his orders to the letter even if splitting up the gang was a little iffy. He also came in person to help them out once in a while. Bumble Bee’s appearances were also interesting as he transformed from Prime version to Robots in Disguise by the end. It was certainly interesting to see the sudden change in character personality and I can certainly say that I prefer the Robots in Disguise version. It seems a lot more genuine and is also more charismatic.

Frankie is Cody’s best friend and she’s a kid genius. She appeared a lot less during the final seasons, but still had a moderate role throughout. She’s a nice character and is certainly a lot more likable than her baby sister. Frankie never got her own robot, but she did get a skateboard and an alternate persona so she could help out the gang from time to time. Her father, Doc Greene had a big role as his inventions are usually what ended up putting the town at risk. He has no time to apologize though because he is typically already hard at work building the next one. The voice actor did a good job of making him sound completely oblivious and proud of it too as he kept on making defective products. Morocco is the main villain of the show and the heroes actually have to resort to some morally dubious methods to take him down. Case in point, they mind wipe him and send him to the past so now he can live out his life as a nice person. Yeah….that’s totally shady and uncalled for. The heroes completely crossed over the line on that one and while the show glosses it over….I can’t find myself forgetting that anytime soon. It’s too bad since he was definitely one of the best villains. We had a Morocco doll who took over his role as one of the big villains, but it wasn’t quite the same. No shots intended at the doll…but I would hardly call it intimidating.

Myles and Evan were sub villains that showed up once in a while. Honestly, they didn’t do all that much at all, but I just liked to see them show up because they’re just ordinary teens who somehow cause a bunch of trouble. They break out of jail many times (How?) and they laugh a lot. I suppose I’d be laughing too though if I could outsmart and hack Autobots. That’s not a bad feat at all and these guys were always amusing to watch. Madeline Pynch is probably the biggest villain in the show aside from Morocco. She is rich and uses her money to obtain powerful weapons and skirt the law without repercussions. She has a freeze ray and an invisibility suit thanks to the Burns family not being able to keep them safe and she defeated the whole team at one point. Her overconfidence got the best of her though as she let the team grab the weapons back. She shouldn’t have lost that round, but the show made her a little too powerful. I mean, she even had a memory displacing weapon to trick the heroes with. The plan should have been FOOLproof, but she proved that it was not. Quint is a game hunter who matches wits against the Rescue Bots. He defeats and humiliates them several times over the course of the show in a tribute to the original G1 show where a hunter captured all of the Autobots. He’s a cool villain and I like the accent. His robots are actually pretty overpowered when they first appear as their barriers can easily trap the Autobots. This guy definitely had personality and spunk.

At 104 episodes, the show definitely had a lot of time to throw in many different plots. Since the majority of the episodes were stand alones, that’s almost 100 unique adventures. We got to see the heroes turn into Dinobots and Heatwave even got a boat form. There were other bots who would show up and even other scientists as well. Since this was in the Prime continuity, it certainly expanded the universe quite a bit. It is sad to see the show go since I would have liked it to have kept on extending the episode count. Still, I doubt anything will be surpassing it anytime soon. Getting to be this long is incredibly difficult for an American cartoon nowadays.

Overall, You should check out Transformers Rescue Bots if this sounds like your kind of show. It’s pretty calming to watch and seeing the characters deal with everyday troubles in town should be nostalgic from the old Andy Griffith show. If you grew up in a small town like this one, then that could help as well. It can maybe be a little boring at times since there isn’t much action, but that’s where the cast comes in. They’ll either make or break the title for you, but hopefully the former. It’s probably the worst Transformers show by default, but it’s still not bad. I’m giving it a 6 because a 5 seems a little too low, but a 7 is definitely too high. It’s just right as the show has decent writing and there are no real negatives to speak of here. It probably is the best time for the show to stop though since the final episode decided to really shake up the status quo and that could have been a very risky move. Maybe we would have gotten some new characters though and that could have been interesting. The show was no stranger to Transforming though as season 1 was very isolated, but by season 4 we had a mini army of Autobots and space bridges to use for instant travel at a moment’s notice. The characters really got to experience a lot during their time on the island.

Overall 6/10

The Legend of Zelda Review

Posted on December 19, 2016 by dreager1

It’s time to take a look at a rather infamous cartoon from back in the day. I only got to see 2-3 episodes back in the day so I had always wanted to check out the whole series. Well, I finally got my chance for Christmas as I took the plunge and purchased the whole series. I mean, for only 6 dollars how could I not take the plunge? These 13 episodes may fly by, but they still deliver with a lot of content and you’ll find yourself grinning throughout. It’s a fun show that you can recommend to anyone and it should feel very nostalgic.

The story follows a young hero named Link. He guards Princess Zelda and her magical object of power (The Triforce) from the evil Ganon and his demonic followers. They want the Triforce and will stop at nothing to get it. The only way to stop Ganon for good is to claim his Triforce for themselves, but it’ll still be a very dangerous undertaking. As a result, the two sides are at an eternal stalemate and that’s where the show picks off. Oddly enough, Ganon’s side is the only one that continues to attack and press the advantage. Link and Zelda are content to just relax all day and not actually get anything done. It’s a rather risky move and honestly, it feels like their team should lose after a while. Ganon’s big advantage is that the heroes don’t dare wander into his domain while he breaks into their castle every day. The heroes have no guards or defenses and the villains are able to teleport into the room anyway. They broke in while Link was sleeping once and many times they even nab the Triforce. They’re always caught of course, but it just shows how easy it should be for the villains to claim the win here.

It’s pretty admirable how the show just launches into the episodes without explaining much. The mystical weapons? Nah, the viewers will understand what is happening right off the bat. It’s the way most shows should go about this and this lets the pacing be very fast. The heroes just go about their business and we follow as best we can. If anything, the show developed such a fun little world that it makes you want to see more of it. Where are all the citizens of this big kingdom? We see some briefly in 1-2 episodes, but for the most part the Kingdom is completely deserted, which may seem odd at times. At least this means that Link and Zelda can go anywhere at any time without having to worry about a crowd. That’s definitely a nice perk.

Link also isn’t your average selfless hero as he doesn’t care for the job. He just wants Princess Zelda, which isn’t the greatest reason to stay. He isn’t even a great fighter half the time as he lets his sword do all the work. It must be nice to have a sword that can fire energy blasts which destroy most foes in a single hit. Even with that weapon, Link is overwhelmed most of the time and gets captured/defeated many many times. It’s quite telling that he is still the strongest warrior in the kingdom. That should speak volumes. While he may not be much of a hero, Link is still pretty charismatic. His catchphrase “Excuuuuuuuse me Princess” is one of the greatest in all of television and it’s really cool that he is able to say it almost 30 times in the span of 13 episodes. He is only cut off once so Link usually gets to squeeze the whole line in. Link may not have any magical abilities, but his weapons certainly seem to be magical as they can shrink and enlarge at will. Link can even materialize his shield to help him out in the tougher fights.

Zelda’s a fun heroine as well, but she definitely does openly use Link the whole time. She insults him quite a lot and always makes sure to dodge his advances. I can definitely get behind her on that, but then she’ll also lead him on or accept his advances in other episodes which makes the whole thing really odd. She changes her mind on how she feels about Link quite often so you never know which Zelda to expect. It’s also strange to see her not fight all that much since her magical abilities seem to make her a much stronger fighter than Link. Her sorcery seemed to not really have any limits, especially when she was with the Triforce. It would probably be safer with the heroes than locked in an isolated room next to the window, but I suppose that I shouldn’t question royalty.

The King also appeared a few times. I liked how similar he was to the CDI games. He even said “Mah Boi” and we had some other homages like Link saying “Oh Boy” and a variation of “It sure is boring around here” The show always knew how to include some really good dialogue. Throughout the show, the writing is very strong. The voice acting is also top notch as all of the characters really give it their all for all of the lines. The King may have been overly naive, but it’s just to show that the people in the Kingdom are super innocent. They aren’t really prepared for Ganon and his onslaught of evil.

Speaking of Ganon, he was a decent villain I suppose, but probably the weak link from the main cast. I actually liked his screechy voice as it helped to make him sound whiny. On the other hand, it was a little odd to see that he was also interested in Zelda. That’s certainly not the Ganon that I remember. His magical powers seemed to be pretty decent for the most part, but since a sword blast will also take him out Ganon doesn’t get too many chances to fight. His blast was able to get past Link’s shield so that was impressive I suppose.

One character who gets a pretty big role in the show during the early episodes is Sprite. She’s a fairy who likes to interrupt Zelda and Link before things get tricky. She is a little on the gullible side as she falls for Link’s tricks, but she means well. She can fire energy blasts, which is pretty useful in a fight and comes through for Link in one of the episodes when he was trapped as a frog. It’s interesting to see her so antagonistic to Zelda considering that Zelda is her boss, but at least it shows how fearless she is.

The show’s soundtrack is pretty solid as it uses a lot of classic Legend of Zelda tunes. You’ll recognize the original music as it plays quite a lot. It’s pretty fitting for the scenes. The animation is also pretty smooth and crisp. Once in a while the show will show its age as a character model won’t really move as he/she is blasted, but that helps give the show that retro feel. It’s certainly aged really well considering how old it is and I dare say that it looks even better than Captain N. The theme song is also pretty fun as it gives you a nice wrap up of what the show is about off the bat so you know what to expect.

Given that this is an old cartoon and that it is only 13 episodes, you can probably guess that there isn’t a big plot or anything like that. All of the episodes are stand alones with attempts by Ganon to steal the triforce. Luckily, the episodes are all pretty solid. The best episode is probably the one where another Prince shows up and Link feels threatened. It’s a classic trope and you know that the new prince is doomed, but it was still nice to see him talking so tough. Also, Ganon was actually a little worried about his presence and the Prince was a good fighter so he was given more credit than I was expecting. That was a nice twist and Link still took him out in the end.

Another classic one is when Ganon gets a duplicate Zelda to make Link bring the Triforce over to his lair. The plan actually works fairly well even though Link figures out the trick right away. Still, the problem is the same as it always is. Ganon’s henchmen can’t do anything so even if he gets the Triforce, Link will just steal it right back. The “romance” in the episode was pretty sad though and it still shows why Link isn’t really a hero here. He just wants his thrills and saving the kingdom is just a way to keep from being bored. The rest of the episodes are more such attempts. Sometimes Link is a ghost, a frog, or just bored, but he always finds a way to win along with help (Sometimes quite a lot of it) from Zelda. While most of the episodes follow the same formula, they stay fresh and epic because of the great writing. I can’t stress enough just how important it was for this show to have such a solid script.

Overall, Legend of Zelda is a really fun show. I definitely wish that it could have gotten more than 13 episodes. The title is gone just as soon as it is started. Especially since each episode is shorter than the average episode for another show. The main cast are likable and we do have a nice array of action scenes which are great as well. Even if you’ve never played the Legend of Zelda games, I’m confident that you can get behind this show. It’s the kind of classic fun that can appeal to all audiences and who doesn’t know the legendary hero of time? Naturally I need to wrap up the final box set of Mario as well so I can give that one a review as well. Eventually it’ll be fun to check out other similar shows like Captain N, Mega Man, and Street Fighter. These retro shows are just too good to resist. I really wish Nintendo would come up with a new show. There are so many possibilities here!

Overall 7/10

Batman Beyond Review

Posted on December 3, 2016 by dreager1

It’s time for the final main show in the DCAU lineup. I still haven’t seen the Zeta Project or Static Shock yet so those two won’t be getting reviewed for quite a while. I’ll probably be watching them at some point though. Batman Beyond took a very different approach to the Batman mythos and it certainly worked well. I imagine it was probably pretty controversial back in the day and I can only imagine the reaction it would get nowadays. Still, that’s why you have to take a chance sometimes since it can pay off very well.

Batman Beyond takes place well after the events of the original Batman show. Bruce Wayne started to get older and suffered heart problems. He was forced to take off the Cape and cowl. (The final movie in the series has a plot twist so old age wasn’t the cause for Batman’s retirement, but that’s another story) Gotham City has completely reverted back to how it was before Batman showed up. Crooks are everywhere and the civilians are all scared out of their minds. Terry is a teenager who has grown up in this era and has developed into a tough individual who can look out for himself. One day, his father is murdered by the Joker gang so he decides to steal the Batman suit to avenge him. Wayne is reluctant to agree at first, but gets on board and that’s how Terry becomes Batman for the rest of the series. He may not be the genius that Bruce was, but Bruce assists him through a communicator which makes that a non issue. Terry was also already a fighter so we don’t have to watch him act like a total rookie. He handles his tenure as Batman very well.

Terry is the main character and for the most part he is a great lead. While he may not have Bruce’s charisma, he has the passion and hot headed nature that most great anime characters possess. His first episode was a little rough as he was acting out quite a bit, but a tragic attack forced him to mature a lot in that regard. He always sticks up for the weak and keeps his emotions in control when it counts. Terry has no shortage of confidence either and is never afraid to go up against an opponent, even if Batman thinks he should wait. Like Peter Parker, (A character who has a lot of similarities to Terry) Terry has to deal with a lot of romance drama, but it never becomes the main theme of the show or a priority to the point where it would take away from the plot. I was definitely satisfied with having him as the main character.

Bruce Wayne may not be Batman anymore, but he is still rich and retained his intellect. Batman was never feared purely for his amazing hand to hand combat. His genius is what also intimidated opponents. It can be frustrating to see him so old and unable to defeat opponents like Inque, but at least he continues to try so you have to give him points there. That’s why it was cool to see him turn young again in the Ra’s episode since he got to finally fight at peak strength again. The show even managed to give him a stronger sound effect than Terry’s to show the difference in power. Bruce was only a little unlikable in the first episode and you can understand his reasoning for wanting the Batman legacy to die. The last thing he wants is for another ally to bite the big one. Terry wasn’t even formally trained so he would be in a lot of danger. I can get that, but shutting down Terry’s suit while he was being attacked was going a little overboard. Not to mention that sending Terry away without any real help was also pretty bad since he was essentially helping the villains by doing that. Letting Powers steal the company is also something that is hard to picture for such a strong willed individual. I guess you can say that Bruce also regains his old spark while Terry learns how to be Batman. We also can’t forget that he has a real cool guard dog by the name of Ace. I didn’t care for Ace’s episode as it was one of the iffy ones, but he’s definitely a great character. Ace is fearless and never backs away from an enemy. Terry was lucky to have him around quite a few times.

Max is one of Terry’s friends. She has good hand to hand skills and after she finds out his secret, she helps out in the background a lot like Oracle. The heroes are always hesitant to accept her help, but by the end she is one of the gang. She did give us the weakest two part event with the King Cobra villain, but you can’t really blame the character for that. Max was a solid supporting character and I’m sure that her role would have grown more f we had gotten another season since the heroes were working with her more.

Dana is the main heroine of the show. She is around to give Terry a reason to have a daily life, which prevents him from being Batman close to 24/7 like Bruce. Bruce was always in the Batman mindset at any rate I’d say. Dana is pretty reasonable for the most part and there is certainly less drama than some other super hero romances like Mary Jane and Spider-Man. I’m definitely on Dana’s side more than Terry’s for the show since she was always loyal while Terry did cheat on her with someone else. He broke it off fairly quick, but it shows that he went on the rebound fairly quick. It would have been cool to have seen Dana get a crime fighting suit, but I suppose every supporting character doesn’t have to turn out to be a fighter. Dana is smarter than some of the other characters as well since she actually put the pieces together about Terry’s mysterious disappearances.

Barbara Gordon lost a lot of her personality in the transition to the new era and has become another pencil pusher with no real idea of what goes on in the field. The worst part is that she knows who Batman is so she can effectively blackmail the heroes. It is definitely annoying but luckily Batman is always ready for things like this and Barbara got a fairly small role in the show. It’s a shame, but I guess some superheroes lose their likability after they hand the costume in. Powers is really the main villain of the series. There are other recurring villains of course, but Powers is the only one who lasted a full season. He would show up a lot in both major and minor roles. Powers even got special abilities of his own that made him a real threat. The radiation that he emits would allow him to beat many foes despite a difference in power. Sure, he would lose to a really strong foe, but he would give them cancer so it would essentially be a draw. He was a good villain to have since having someone who’s not one and done is always a good thing.

Inque was another villain who shows up a few times and I thought that she was definitely better than most of the others. Her powers make her a really powerful threat to Batman. It’s hard to capture her or to even land any damage because of how she can almost become liquid. Electricity is her only weakness and even then you have to be careful how you handle her. Forcing Batman to swallow her was definitely one of the most traumatic moments of the series I’d say since it looked quite painful. Mr Freeze is one of the few old villains who shows up in Beyond. His fate is rather tragic here as he was a head for many years and once he finally gets his body back, he is promptly betrayed. He really wanted to turn over a new leaf and become a good person, but it wasn’t to be. The betrayal made him go off the edge once more and then he lost his motivation to go on. He was easily one of the best “villains” here and it’s too bad that he couldn’t have a happy ending.

Shriek had a cool design. I figured that was worth giving him a quick write up here. He’s basically a generic villain otherwise. There’s not much to him otherwise. Kobra is a fairly annoying villain who took over the big villain organization at a young age. He’s just that much of a prodigy I suppose, but he went from being a fairly decent rival/classmate to being a generic villain. Now, Ra’s is a more interesting opponent. Granted, his method of kidnapping Bruce Wayne and going about his plan was rather off. He could have planned things out a bit better and then maybe his plan would have been successful. It was still neat to see how he had survived all of these years though. He certainly was a very cunning opponent for the dark knight.

The Royal Flush Gang went after Batman a few times. This show’s Ten got the biggest role out of all the members. They made for good opponents because while they were weak individually, they were a threat as a group. Defeating Batman with sheer numbers was always their plan, even if it wasn’t always an effective one. I like the designs and the concept is fun too. They’re just rich people with a bunch of time on their hands so why not become thieves right?

Finally, we also had the Justice League show up. Their members may not be as impressive as the ones you’re used too, but they can still deal some damage. Superman is still around and while his powers have lessened over the years, he’s still quite powerful. He’s as smart and dependable as always even if his will power isn’t quite as good as it should be. I do like his Justice Lords design, but I do have to wonder why he would ever don that costume. It certainly makes you wonder. Aquagirl’s probably the only super nice member of the group and she does her best to help Batman fit in with the others. She doesn’t seem to be all that powerful when it comes to combat though. Green Lantern comes off as rather annoying and is easily my least favorite GL. He doesn’t appear to have a great imagination and his voice just got on my nerves. It’s easy to see how he died in Justice League. Warhawk is basically a male version of Hawkgirl. He’s loud and talks a good game, but he’s not all that strong. The design was good though and at least he did have enough strategic awareness to come up with a plan when things started to get out of control. I’d say that this already makes him a better character than Hawkgirl for me. Big Barda’s another tough member who doesn’t like Batman. It should come as no surprise that Batman was eager to get away from the team as soon as possible. Lets face it, there was no reason for him to stay somewhere where he’s not wanted.

Lets take a look at some of the episodes of Batman Beyond. Naturally, the opening two parter was a lot of fun. It got a high budget and started the whole series off. It was very fast paced and I was satisfied with the origin. It’s sad that gangs can break in and out so easily in Gotham, but the city has always been like that so it’s not too surprising. The place has always been corrupt and that’s why Batman is always needed. A Gotham without any crime fighters is a very scary place indeed.

There was an episode with a homage to the Fantastic Four as an experiment went wrong (Don’t they always?) and a group of individuals got super powers. It was nice to see how the FF would fare in a DC world and needless to say, it goes as you’d expect. They can’t really handle Batman, but it made for some nice battle scenes. Another good episode was Inque’s debut. As mentioned, she’s an interesting villain and a very deadly one. Batman really had to think fast in order to keep up with her. Since she also ends up finding the Batcave, the heroes have to think about making the place even more secure. Not that it worked as Return of the Joker showed us…

The Mr. Freeze episode is golden. His fight with Powers was a lot of fun. Now, I think Powers should definitely have the edge here and he was winning, but it was good to see Mr. Freeze put up a fight. Powers’ brief fight with Batman was also good. The episode just had a lot of action throughout and the animation was stellar. It’s the kind of episode that you could even watch directly after the first Batman series since it’s a sequel in part to the original. It’s a tragic episode, but an enjoyable one.

Another episode saw the debut of Curare, a skilled assassin. I forgot if the show explicitly said that she was from the League of Assassins, but if not, then an equivalent organization anyway. Her skills were certainly very good and as she has never failed an assignment before, Batman really had to be careful here. By the end she has to watch her back as well since the League is after her, but given her track record, she should be able to hold her own right? Well, that’s exactly what happens as she appears in another episode and we find out that she simply got rid of the organization. That’s why you probably shouldn’t try to destroy your best agent on a whim like that. Both episodes were great and some of the best in the series.

Lost Soul was a pretty interesting episode as someone takes over the Batman suit so Terry must used his hand to hand skills without backup for a change. It’s a fun change of pace since we don’t get to see Terry do a lot of formal sleuthing. He does check things out in his alter ego, but seeing him stick to the shadows is rare. Back to a more conventional episode, Terry is challenged by The Stalker. The Stalker wants to destroy Batman to prove that he can hunt anyone. Unfortunately, he’s bitten off more than he can chew and starts to suffer delusions by the end. Batman completely broke him. The Stalker made for a good enemy though. Babel was another fun episode as Shriek eliminates language. Nobody can understand each other now so that makes Batman’s job a lot harder. He’s got to find Shriek without Bruce’s help. It’s tough, but Terry never gives up so he’s got this.

Another solid episode is when Spellbinder frames Batman for murder. Barbara Gordan is very quick to jump on this so Batman must dodge the official lines and find a way to win. I believe that Mad Stan was also in this episode. I forgot to mention him earlier, but he’s easily one of the best villains in the entire series. I’m being serious here folks, Mad Stan is just amazing. He’s a conspiracy guy who is always yelling and talking a good game. Tell me with a straight face that he doesn’t sound amazing. It’s just not possible. He’s easily one of the funniest figures in the show.

Sneak Peek is a good episode where a reporter learns how to go intangible. Unfortunately, this slowly corrupts him since the powers were too much and he ultimately meets a sad fate. Batman got lucky here since he was completely out of his league by the end. Seriously, there was basically nothing that he could do against this guy since no attack would work. It’s why nobody likes dealing with intangible foes. Repeller had a villain who couldn’t be touched. He had a barrier around him at all times. This guy was also crazy strong and Terry needed some luck to take him out. It’s always been a fun concept and the original X-Men comics had a villain named Unus with the same ability. It’s not used too often though because of how overly powerful it is. Finally, Where’s Terry is another good episode as we see Max and Bruce be the main characters instead of Batman for a change. It plays out like a mystery as they follow a lot of clues to see where Batman is. The episode is a little embarrassing for Terry, but you can’t win em all right?

The show’s animation holds up very well to this day. The futuristic look ensures that it looks about as good as Justice League despite airing sooner. The colors are very good and everything is sleek. Batman’s suit is better than a lot of the redesigns that you see nowadays and is still one of Batman’s best costumes. It may be the best besides the classic DCAU one. (Yes, Batman had 2, so I’m talking about the Justice League one) Likewise, the soundtrack is excellent and one of the best that you will hear in a show. Certainly the best in western animation. It’s just hard to get better than this since every theme is very fast paced and techno. It fits the future environment very well. It also goes without saying that the writing is very solid in this show. It’s the DCAU so you’ve probably come to expect this by now, but it’s still a nice credit to its resume. Nowadays, shows would do a lot to grab writing as solid as this.

Overall, Batman Beyond is a great show. It did a good job of showing what it would be like to be Batman in a future DC universe. It was dark toned throughout, but it was usually not dark for the sake of it and never got super violent or anything like that. There may have been one or two episodes that went a little too far with that, but they were few and far between. The average episode was very solid and this is a series that I recommend to all action fans and especially to DC fans. It’s the next generation of Batman, how can you afford to miss it? Even if you don’t ultimately end up finding Batman Beyond to be more likable than the original, you should end up being a fan by the end. To be fair, Bruce Wayne is still the definitive Batman for me as well, but I actually like Terry more than all of the Robins in the DCAU. He was just written really well.

Overall 8/10

Kino’s Journey Review

Posted on December 2, 2016 by dreager1

It’s time for an anime review! It’s been a little while since I reviewed one so it’s time to get back in the swing of things. Unfortunately, Kino’s Journey is one of the weakest anime that I have seen in a long while and doesn’t hold up well. Despite the dated animation and unlikable characters, the show does have something going for it. Kino’s Journey is only 13 episodes. Beyond that, it’s a pretty tough ride and not a title that I would recommend for aspiring anime fans.

Kino’s journey is about a girl who drives around on her talking motorrad. She is a traveler, which means that she has no place to call home and simply visits towns as she travels the world. Her only rule is that she can never stay in a place for more than 3 days. She gets to see the worst of humanity and its best. Just about all of the episodes are stand alone adventures and some episodes even have 2-3 stories within them. As with most anthologies, this means that some episodes are good while others are really bad. Unfortunately, the latter is usually the case. Since the series is so short, lets take a look at most of the episodes.

The first episode has a Twilight Zone esque feel as Kino arrives in a town where machines do everything. Humans now live by themselves and avoid each other. The reason for this is that they have mastered telepathy and now know each other’s dark secrets. They are all so dark and mysterious that they can’t even look at each other. Kino listens to the sad tale and drives off, admiring the irony of how they originally just wanted to get to know each other better. This was a good way to start the series. It was an interesting episode and the plot was sound. It may not be very exciting, but it was decent enough.

Unfortunately, the second episode was the worst in the series and shot the series right into the gutter. Kino was driving across a snowy mountain when she noticed three human traffickers dying of hunger and thirst. She quickly murders a few rabbits and give them to these crooks, but not before they ate the people they were carrying. Kino quickly dashes off and realizes that she should have spared the rabbits instead of the humans, but 20/20 hindsight won’t be winning Kino any points. The episode is so dark and grim that it’ll just make you shake your head. Reading memes about Harambe is more thought provoking than this episode as Kino just proves that she has a lot more respect for saving humans than animals. The series really never recovered from this episode.

The third episode is an anthology inside of anthology. It was a little on the boring side since most of the stories didn’t have enough time to actually do anything. The first story is all right as a guy states that the world will be ending soon, but then another guy says that he counted the days wrong so it won’t be ending quite yet. Kino takes the opportunity to nab as much free food as she can and heads out. Another town showed up, which lived only to entertain travelers. Kino got out of there quickly to ensure the town’s demise. Well, the episode was a lot better than the second one.

Next was the episode where we finally saw Kino’s origin story. She lived in a twisted town where all kids had to undergo an operation to turn into adults. Luckily, a guy named Kino showed up. He was a traveler so he didn’t want to interfere, but when he saw that the town was going to murder Kino, he quickly stepped in. They murdered him and went to get Kino, but she escaped on the motorrad. This was the turning point where she lost her personality, design, and character in exchange for gun skills. It was a pretty fun episode and it shows how many towns are actually pretty twisted and you have to either get with the program of get out. I recommend the latter.

The 5th episode was fairly interesting even if it was a little repetitive. Kino discovers a land where there is an infinite cycle made by 4-5 guys. One guy spends his whole life taking apart the tracks, another guy spends his life putting them back, another guy polishes them, etc. They are all working together, but don’t see the other guys since they are a few miles apart. This means that none of them will ever make any progress or be able to return home to their families. It’s a shame, but they are getting paid so I suppose they should be grateful for that. Not to mention the fact that they technically could go home, but choose not to do so for some crazy reason. Kino decides not to mention any of this since she doesn’t want to change the customs and just tells them stories as she rides on. This was a good, calm episode.

The next two episodes contained the tournament saga. These episodes were the only ones with real action behind them so that was neat. Kino entered a tournament where she had to fight a lot of opponents to the death. Kino wanted to win without destroying anyone and steadily climbed the ranks. Then she realized that the leader was pretty corrupt so she decided to break her traveler law and shoot the guy in the face. A pretty dramatic Hunger Games esque ending to that event. Well, the tourney was pretty fun, but Kino was a jerk to everyone as per usual. She refused to keep anyone in the loop and just did what she wanted when she wanted to. At least this proved that she is certainly a very good fighter and someone who should be feared. It was a fun two parter.

The next episode had Kino be a supporting character for once as another character decided to build a plane. She did pretty good and completed the task. There’s not much to this episode, but there’s nothing wrong with it either. If anything, the main character was a definite improvement over Kino so that’s always a good thing. The one after that involved a land where books are forbidden aside from really family friendly ones. Naturally, that means that Kino didn’t like the books since she needs something with a little more edge to it. She meets a delusional author who believes that reality is fake and everyone starts chasing each other and the episode loses its sense of purpose by the end. There were fires and a lot of crazy stuff, but the episode was pretty jumbled and didn’t make too much sense by the end. It was all right I suppose, but Kino really needs to stop getting in everyone’s way if she’s not actually going to do anything to help.

Episode 10 saw Kino head to a house where the family were robots. It takes Kino a really long time to figure this out, but at least it means that she will get free meals all the time. Kino ultimately decides to move on, but it was a decent enough resting place I suppose. Robots get more realistic each day eh? The next episode was another anthology esque episode where Kino remembers the good ole days. There’s a boat and a lot of stories, but we can skim over this episode as well. It wasn’t really an attention grabber. The last two episodes certainly are, but I’m afraid that this is not in a good way.

Kino heads to another evil country where two powerful lands have decided to band together and murder people for sport. Whoever murders the most people wins. The two lands do this every so often and are pretty proud of themselves. Kino doesn’t bother to stop them or do anything about it since she’s just a traveler, but she does take a few shots at the people who are being murdered. In her defense, they tried to murder her first as it’s their past time to let their aggression go after being hunted. It’s a pretty vicious cycle of violence, but as mentioned earlier, it doesn’t matter to Kino if her neck isn’t on the line. She just drives off. It’s another really dark episode that makes you really dislike Kino.

Finally, we have another really dark episode. Kino heads to a town that is about to be destroyed in three days. The adults know it, but most of the kids do not. The parents have decided that the kids have to die alongside them, but they’ll spare Kino. Kino doesn’t know about this until she leaves and sees that everyone has died. Well, at least Kino has lived so now she can go watch more tragedies and suffering with the strange traditions that people have. Not a bad plan eh? Kino’s Journey decides to end the series on this low note and I do have to question a lot of its decisions.

As you can guess, I really didn’t like Kino. She’s easily one of the worst anime main characters that I’ve come across. By visiting all of these lands and not actually interfering unless it’s something that personally offends her, Kino is basically an accomplice to the crime. She can fight and actually could help people out, but purposefully chooses not to do so. There’s really no point to her journey and she should feel ashamed for making all of these bad decisions. Injuring animals, Watching people die, chatting it up with the villains, you just have to wonder whose side Kino’s on. She seems to just be in it for the thrills. Her cold personality is certainly fitting then as she always gives very vague answers, acts rude to everyone that she talks too, and also has a pretty bland design. There’s really nothing to like about Kino and it’s a shame since she was fairly all right in the flash back episode.

The only other real character in the show is the motorrad. The motorrad is fairly bland was well though as half of his lines are just repeating what Kino just said or asking a really obvious question. The motorrad was always super annoying and the voice was so raspy that you just knew that he was doing it on purpose. I don’t blame him since Kino’s no mean all of the time, but I was never invested in any of the characters. I think the old Kino could have ended up being more interesting, but at the same time maybe not. The other Kino also didn’t like to interfere, but he did prove that he would help in a pinch when he saved the current Kino. That makes me think that he has a slightly stronger moral compass. A shame that current Kino couldn’t learn from his example.

The animation is rather sub par and certainly one of the weakest ones that you will be seeing. The colors are all pretty faded out and you’ll notice that they reuse a lot of scenes to save on the budget. Watch out for Kino’s daily gun practice and how she starts up the bike in every episode. It just gets annoying after a while and even if the animation isn’t great, the show could have used some nice backgrounds to bluff its way past that. The show just looks a lot older than it actually is. It came out in 2003 and yet the original seasons of shows like Pokemon and One Piece can take it on. That’s a little sad. The soundtrack is also not very good. The theme song’s a little on the boring side and the music inside each of the episodes is very lifeless. You’ll forget the tunes as soon as they pop up. That’s not a great way to make people more excited about the actual episodes. Not by a long shot!

The main problem with Kino’s journey is just how dark and depressing the whole show is. There is nobody to root for and Kino herself drags the show down. If it wants to go the Twilight Zone route and have episodes where we can see places with a lot of strangeness, then tragic endings can work a little better. It still shouldn’t go as extreme as Kino’s last two though. However, by having Kino around, it makes the whole thing worse since the victims have Kino right there to help them, but she decides not to do so. It’s like having a villain as the main character and that’s no fun.

Finally, the show tries to be deep and thoughtful in its own way with text in between the episodes and scattered at random points. Kino will also beat you over the head with a message at the end of every episode. The problem is that most of the dialogue ends up feeling very obvious or just like rambling. At least Serial Experiments Lain had aliens show up and cool conspiracies and fights. Lain also had a much better atmosphere and characters. I didn’t even like Lain all that much, but you can feel the difference. Lain is what Kino’s Journey wanted to be, but could never reach.

Overall, Kino’s Journey is not a good anime. The animal violence is terrible and the episodes can get way too grim. If this show is supposed to be a calming experience, then it is clearly failing at that. The show also needed a far more likable pair of main characters if it wanted to get anywhere. Some plots never really went anywhere and just showed up to buy time like Kino training her gun skills every night. We get it, she can fight, but do we need whole minutes of her taking the gun out and putting it away again? That kind of training isn’t very fun if there’s no payoff and there should have at least been some music in the scenes. Ugh, I recommend watching just about anything else that I’ve reviewed instead. If you want a dark anime that handles itself well, watch Madoka Magica instead. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed in the slightest.

Overall 3/10

Justice League Review

Posted on November 19, 2016 by dreager1

This show always brings a lot of memories. Not only have I seen this show numerous times, but it is easily my favorite American show of all time and top 5 overall. It is the perfect adaption of a superhero team and I doubt we will ever see another such title top this one. Justice League ran for a very long time and got to fit in dozens of excellent episodes. They hold up well and you will be hard pressed to find a bad episode here. Even the worst episodes are still fairly good when placed in another title. Let us get started because this is an incredibly long review. Maybe it should be called a look back to be more accurate?

The show is divided into two parts. There is Justice League and then there is Unlimited. I count them as the same show but you could make the case for it being two separate titles. Part 1 is a lot more episodic, but each adventure was double length which made it easy to tell just about any story. Unlimited’s episodes were normal length, but they made up for it with long story arcs. Both had very different styles and worked well in their own way. I’ll talk more about Unlimited in a bit, but lets focus on part 1 first.

The show started off with ambitious three part event which showed how the league formed to fend off an alien invasion. Part of what made the DCAU so awesome was the continuity and Justice League builds off of what was already established. As a result Batman and Superman already know each other. The first aliens still manage to escape, but only because Superman was being telepathically attacked at the time. What starts off as a Batman and Superman story quickly transforms into a Justice League adventure. While I would have loved to have seen the team fight each other as per the trope, logically it makes sense that these veterans wouldn’t randomly start attacking each other when there are aliens to deal with. Priorities right? Superman may have been heavily nerfed so he wouldn’t steal the show, but beyond that I really had no problems with this start to the series. You could feel the tension and the danger from the alien invasion and the animation holds up extremely well. I dare say that it is the best looking episode in the series, particularly the first part of the 3 part adventure, but naturally there is a lot of competition there. You may see me nominating a few other episodes for that honor in this review.

I won’t go through all of the Justice League episodes of course, but the series had a lot of great episodes and I want to give a good chunk of them an honorary mention. After the explosive alien invasion story set the stage, the League got to fight many foes as a team. One solid episode was when the Manhunters arrived to arrest Green Lantern. I like this two part episode because of the great action scenes and story, but part 1 stands out particularly for the opening scene. The Watchtower is able to detect the arrival of these drones so the League quickly heads in to intercept them. Unfortunately, Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman aren’t available so the rest of the team has to make do. Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter, and Flash put up a decent fight and get some hits in, but they are clearly outmatched. That is when Superman comes in, for one of the most satisfying moments in the series. This episode may have less importance in the grand scheme of things than other episodes, but it is still a personal favorite moment of mine. Superman has a tendency to lose to things that he shouldn’t in these episodes and is under powered at times to make the others look good, but not here. He is taking all 3 of the Manhunters down and calmly walks through one of their large energy blasts. It was definitely a lot of fun to watch and I am confident that The Justice League would have won that fight if it hadn’t been interrupted. The other members were getting their second wind as well. The music selection was also really good for this moment. The only weak part of the episode is Green Lantern taking his judgment so passively. I understand that he was feeling guilty, but he definitely should have looked into the situation more. Especially considering that you cannot atone for your mistakes if you are dead. I just disagreed with Green Lantern’s whole rationale here, but he got the job done once his innocence was proven and took the Manhunter leader down.

Another all star episode, and one of the greatest episodes in any show period, is the Amazo saga. Amazo is a being who can copy powers and abilities. They can be physical equipment, mystical abilities, or even biological ones. Amazo doesn’t seem to have any limits and he can mix and match different powers during combat. The only downside is that he gets the weaknesses as well but since most of the heroes have no weaknesses, it is definitely a worthy cost for such power. This is one of the rare episodes where you get to see the entire cast fight at once and Amazo makes for a very good villain. Superman provides us with the highlight moment once again as he actually appears to have the upper hand during hos fight with Amazo even though the latter should technically be more powerful at the moment. It just goes to show that Superman’s battle experience and tactics should not be underestimated. Batman meant well, but he probably should not have interfered this time or maybe he could have waited a little longer to make his move. He can’t take much of the blame though because the other League members should have been ready to nab Amazo once he was weakened. I think the League could have used more teamwork to take Amazo and Luthor down, but overall it was still a great effort and an epic saga.

Amazo would later return for another great episode in Unlimited. Unfortunately, this one was only a single part so it didn’t have quite as much time for the adventure. The episode did its best to cram in as much action and intensity as it could despite this limitation. Amazo has now become a super being with unlimited power and he wants to destroy Lex Luthor. The expanded Justice League assembles all of its forces to fight him, but their combined might doesn’t really have much of an effect. I definitely think that Amazo’s power was a little exaggerated here. He was portrayed as being completely and utterly invincible, which is a bit of a stretch. Sure, they did injure Amazo once or twice, but thanks to the fact that he can heal and can move whole planets with his mind, it isn’t much of a consolation in the end. It definitely would have been nice to have seen a proper fight between Superman and Amazo here. Amazo typically just beat everyone with a single energy burst which makes sense because there was only one episode to cover such a big plot, but it still would have been really cool to see this gold Amazo fight.

Another rock solid episode is the return of Mongul over in JL Unlimited. That episode is easily one of the all time best and it certainly has one of the best music selections out of all the episodes. The constant rock music really amps the episode up to the next level and the fight between Superman and Mongul is intense. Wonder Woman’s fight with Mongul is also pretty great even if it is very one sided. I could care less about the future fantasies everyone was having. They were all right, but at that point I just wanted to see more of the fight. It’s true that this episode makes no sense in continuity since Mongul was fairly weak in the original series, but it is an adaption first and foremost. Making Mongul this strong is a good move since he is always a big threat in the comics. Also, having an episode with just the main 3 League members was certainly a treat. The banter and intensity can’t be matched by the side member.

Next on our list of really good episodes is the debut of Shazam. It starts off with a fun mini fight as Shazam beats Superman to the rescue. The latter begins to feel jealous the whole time and makes things hard for Shazam. This escalates when Superman finds out that Lex has planted a bomb under the new city that he built. Lex even invited a lot of kids to this to make it even more stressful for Superman, but Lex denies this. Shazam chooses to believe Lex and that begins the big fight between Superman and Shazam. It’s definitely one of the better fights in the series as they both possess powers that are a blast to watch in combat. Superman is always my pick to win despite Shazam’s strength being magic based. Superman is simply more powerful. Still, Shazam does land a lot of good shots in and there is even a nice homage to the famous punch between Superman and Doomsday. Naturally, Superman wins this exchange. Superman was a bit extreme with how rude he was to Shazam in this episode though. That is probably the only negative that I would have with this episode. I do think Shazam should have shown up another time as the series went on. He may not be a member, but he is still a hero so I’d expect to see him during the alien invasions.

One fun episode involved Flash Appreciation Day as the Speedster got a whole museum in his honor. It is nice to see a hero being appreciated since a great number of them are treated like crooks and vigilantes. This episode may not have been incredibly action packed or plot heavy, but it was a fun episode that was handled well. The pacing was very quick and the writing was solid. Batman should definitely have put up a better fight against the Rogues, but I guess I can always just try to say that he would have won if he didn’t have to save the Flash. Flash also got another good episode a few seasons earlier when the Justice League went up against Eclipso. The JL was quickly taken out of action as they got mind controlled by an alien rock. Batman wasn’t around of course since that may have made things too difficult for the Flash. Be that as it may, Flash did a stunning job of taking on the League long enough for him to find a cure. The episode had some fun commercials and most shows don’t really deal with the PR angle enough. It is definitely something that the League has to deal with in order to keep their great reputation. Flash may have been outsmarted by the media in this episode, but he was still wise enough not to volunteer for the final commercial.

Green Lantern had a solid story where he went to an alien planet to rescue his mentor. Her squad had been attacked by a group of priests with white energy blasts which could actually break through the energy constructs that Green Lanterns could make. The opening fight scene is definitely very epic and starts the episode off on a solid note. The rest of the episode isn’t quite as interesting since Green Lantern has to relearn how to use his powers and the villains suddenly get a lot weaker. They had to nerf them since the strong members like Superman and Wonder Woman weren’t around, but it would have been the perfect time to just have a bunch of Green Lanterns show up. Still a good episode in the end, but one that had a pretty weak conclusion. Despero is a real fighter in the comics, it would have been cool to have seen that here.

Justice League had its fair share of aliens attacking the planet and one of the deadliest threats was the arrival of the Dark Heart. It was a self replicating machine that can eat anything and use the material to duplicate itself. This even worked on all kinds of energy so projectiles and physical blows would only make it stronger. This was the first time we got to basically see the entire Justice League Unlimited get in on the action. Towards the end even the stronger members like Wonder Woman were starting to weaken. It’s safe to say that Superman and Supergirl are the only ones who would probably be totally safe thanks to their durability. The Dark Heart was definitely impressive and its mechanical monsters made for good minions. This episode is definitely a classic and it even got to squeeze in the government acting shady at the end.

Aresia’s debut made for another fun story. Unfortunately she never got to appear again. She made for a fun good villain so that was too bad. She wanted to rid the world of men and gathered up a group of villains so she could accomplish this task. Defeating Superman is probably her best feat. It was cool to see a Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl team up. Unfortunately, Wonder Woman was nerfed as a result and I’d say that her mom was as well. Surely she should be able to fight off a human with a sword right? She is supposed to have super strength and must have been an incredible warrior to have become the queen. I’m not sure where it all went wrong for her. The episode also started out very strongly with Batman showing up to deal with Aresia’s group. He was super close to winning even though he was heavily outgunned. His fans would definitely be pleased.

While it didn’t have much of a plot, we can’t forget the Christmas special. It was a fun little episode where we got to see the team just hang out and enjoy a peaceful day for once. Flash definitely got the best plot as he had to try and find the perfect present for the kids. Ultra Humanite was even a decently likable villain here. This was the only Justice League episode that wasn’t a one hour special so it felt like a nice little bonus to the rest of the show. It’s always good to see a Christmas special and naturally one with Superheroes would be a lot of fun.

Back to the intense action episodes. Metamorpho was a really fun episode and that’s mainly because it was another episode where the whole team could fight. Having a 1 vs 7 (Usually more like 1 vs 5 since one or two members will be missing) fight is just a lot of fun. Granted, there is definitely some plot hax to be found here since Superman should be enough to deal with Metamorpho. Sure, Kryptonite gas is scary, but Superman should be able to keep on fighting a little better. It was especially sad for Green Lantern during that match. Metamorpho may have been a little overpowered, but it just continued to show why he is such a good opponent to have. As a character he wasn’t great though as he was fairly gullible, but more on that later. Even the giant monster fight was actually cool because it had a real cool theme as Superman flew towards it. He got wrecked of course, but I liked Superman’s confidence. No matter how many times he loses, Superman tackles the villain without hesitation.

An interesting episode was Task force X. It involves a lot of plot hax and instances where you will wonder how this can possibly be aiming to be realistic, but I suppose the episode did its best considering that having a team of humans infiltrate the Justice League would never really work. Superman and Batman weren’t around so that does add a little credibility. Throwing either one of those two into the mix would have not been wise. The Task Force definitely weren’t all that likable, but they were all right as the antagonists. I am glad that the government got to throw their weight around for once and this is probably the best depiction of the Suicide Squad in all of animation.

Wild Card was an interesting way to end Justice League. It didn’t have the same weight that an average finale would have, but it was a great episode regardless. We got to see the Joker show up and as he rarely gets to face off against the whole League, it was pretty interesting. His Royal Flush gang probably looked a little tougher than they should have as the League should destroy them in a fight, but the League did take the win in the end so that’s what counts. It was also one of the only times where we got to see a reality warper get in on the action so that was definitely interesting as well. She is a little overpowered and Superman should be able to resist this, but she was a good villain. The romance in the episode wasn’t handled all that well, but it very rarely is. It’s the only weak point of the episode and the adventure is pretty epic otherwise.

A fun episode which didn’t have a lot of stakes or importance in the plot was the Legion of Superheroes episode. Every series has an episode or two that has nothing to do with anything, but still ends up providing us with an great epic. After all, a solid self contained story can still have a lot of depth and excitement. Seeing the Fatal Five take on members of the Justice League is not something that you would expect. There was a lot of action here and the episode was great from start to finish. While it is one of the stronger episodes, I did have some power level complaints here. Is the show really trying to say that the Emerald Eye is stronger than the Power Ring? I definitely have a tough time buying that. While fewer people will agree with this, I do think that Supergirl could probably take out the whole Legion of Superheroes on her own. Mon-El and Ultra Boy would prove to be the toughest opponents, but I am confident that she would prevail. It would have been cool to have seen Superman break into the future and help out, but I suppose it would all be too easy if he did that all the time.

The Vandal Savage three part event was one of my least favorite episodes when I first saw it. It was a big deal because my cousin came over to watch this live with me and the rest of the family, but I wasn’t impressed. It was a swarm of plot hax all converging on the same spot. Random robots were handling the League and they had a tough time back in World War 2. The episode had aged decently and I like it more than I did the first time, but the concept is still better than the execution. Vandal Savage also just isn’t a very good villain. He is immortal, but beyond that I have a tough time seeing him as an actual threat.

He would end up returning in the Death of Superman episode where he apparently destroyed the Justice League. I don’t buy that. Even if he is immortal, there are many ways to beat Savage. The team may be a lot weaker without Superman, but they are still tough. I think the show was low balling them this time. Still, it was fun seeing a destructive future where WWIII occurred. It’s too bad that Superman’s powers were on the fritz though. I suppose it would have all been too easy otherwise. The present subplot with Lobo was definitely fun though. It had been a while since we got to see him in animation. Batman arriving on the scene without prep time against the villains was a little cheesy, but if there is any character who can save Batman fair and square, it is Superman.

A good one shot episode was the one with the underground arena where Huntress investigates why Black Canary has grown weaker. It turns out that JL members have been kidnapped and forced to fight in brutal battles. Ignoring how bad this makes the League look for not noticing this, it makes for a fun episode. Who doesn’t want to see a lot of good hand to hand fights? I am also glad that Wonder Woman was completely defeating the other members. Let’s face it, numbers alone isn’t enough to overwhelm this amazon. The soundtrack was really good in this episode and matched up well with the quick fight scenes. It was definitely a lot more fun than the first underground episode with Wildcat. That one needed more cool fight scenes like this one.

The Felix Faust saga is one that I have seen many times. It is a fun two part event because we get some fights that you wouldn’t typically expect to see. Hades vs Superman? That is definitely a winner right there. We also got a brief fight between Superman and Wonder Woman. Naturally, I do have to point out that there was a lot of plot hax here. I don’t care how magic based Hades is, he can’t take down someone as strong as Superman. He even beat the Flash. I don’t remember how GL lost, but I am pretty sure that he was in the fight. As always, it was great seeing just about the whole League getting in on the fight. If you ignore the power levels, then you can just enjoy the great visuals and hype. Imagine that Hades is a whole new character or something who was made to be Darkseid level. This saga also got a sequel where Felix Faust returned to get his revenge on Hades. One of the reasons I liked that episode is because the first time the Destroyer armor appeared, it could not be stopped. This time, the heroes got to actually destroy it, which is a lot more satisfying. WW and Hawkgirl were the only JL members on deck this time, but they were enough.

Now we are getting near the end so let’s look at some of the best episodes in the series. A really solid two part episode was the battle between Darkseid and Brainiac. The former asks the Justice League for help, but as you would imagine, it’s a trap. Superman did see it coming though so I’ll give him props for that. The only part that brings this episode down a little is the subplot with the New Gods. They’re all very unlikable characters who are overhyped to oblivion and are ultimately pointless. Still, the main plot is good enough to overshadow this as Superman finally gets a big rematch with Darkseid. Darkseid is one of those guys who really gets on Superman’s nerves and you can tell as Superman is a whole lot more aggressive in this episode than he usually is. He was really raring to go.

Time for what is still the best two part episode in the series, the Justice Lords! It features another universe where Superman crosses the line and takes a life. This causes the League to become crueler as they go about getting Justice through any means necessary. They don’t start murdering everyone or rule the world out of the blue, but they begin to take away freedom of speech. It is handled very realistically. If Superman did ever lose sight of the heroic path, this would be a reasonable direction to go in. He believes that he is doing it for the greater good even if the civilians may not like it. Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Wonder Woman would likely get on board right away because they are used to a system like this. Flash wouldn’t go for it, but that wasn’t really an issue since he was dead. Martian Manhunter would roll with it, but it is hard to see Batman rolling with this. The show did do a good job of making it feasible though. The Justice Lords aren’t going around murdering people or anything like that. They’re just acting as dictators now for the greater good. It’s not the right approach, but at least you can understand their reasoning.

We even get to see how they fight as a team when the Justice Lords take on Doomsday. It would have been cool to have seen Doomsday take on the League, but this was a fight that nobody saw coming and was just as satisfying. It really helped start the saga off on a good note. Naturally, things got even better as both teams fought each other. The only missed opportunity was not having both Supermen fight each other. That would have been a blast. Crisis on Two Earth’s, the movie also skipped this fight so I’m not sure what the deal is here. Still, seeing Flash take on Superman was cool as well. The Justice Lords never got to really return (Androids don’t count) but they had a nice impact. It just goes to show how one moment can completely change an entire planet. You always have to stay vigilant.

Continuing the Doomsday plot was an episode in Unlimited. I didn’t really buy the recon origin for Doomsday, but I’ll take it I guess. It felt unnecessary but seeing him get to fight the real Superman was definitely a blast. Superman definitely should have put up a better fight, but we can attribute that to the fact that he was fighting while inside a volcano and couldn’t go all out. Doomsday is a tough villain as well so the fight shouldn’t be one sided anyway. The Batman subplot was also engaging as he does what he always can beyond the shadows. While Superman was dealing with the obvious threat, Batman still saved just as many lives on his own. It was a solid episode and certainly one that holds up well as part of a bigger saga, but also as a stand alone. It also had a great soundtrack and if you’ve noticed, that typically happens. Great episodes have great themes to accompany them.

The Deadman episode was definitely a lot of fun. It took place during the Legion of Doom arc. He is a ghost because of a mistake Deadman made a long time ago and he needs to balance the scales to move on. The problem is that he never gets any closer to this goal. His temple is attacked one day and so he is forced to ask the Justice League for help. There is no time for backup so it is just the main 3. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. That’s part of why the episode is a blast since it is the three of them against the whole villain army. Needless to say, they clean shop. The villain group is actually pretty powerful since they have heavy hitters like Bizarro, but that just speaks to how strong the Justice League is. The episode is basically one large action scene and does a good job of ending Gorilla Grodd’s plot. It also reminds you of the difference between heroes and vigilantes. Deadman makes a call but it isn’t the right one. I don’t think he should be able to control Superman, but it’s not that big a deal. The music is great as expected and the episode has the thematic atmosphere that always elevates the episode to the next level.

Another personal favorite of mine is the epic Back to the future two part event which sees the return of Batman Beyond and a lot of other characters from that series. It is like the crossover that we had been waiting for. The first episode takes place in the past so it isn’t nearly as good. The guest stars aren’t very interesting and the villains are weak. The second episode is just so awesome that it makes up for this. Seriously, having the really cool futuristic music of Batman Beyond back once again is definitely very cool and even seeing the villains again was nostalgic. It does remind you that maturity isn’t always a good thing though. The old Terry would have jumped into the fray with Wonder Woman and the other JL members right from the start while this one decides to retreat. First of all, there is no way that the JL should be losing to these Batman Beyond villains. Superman isn’t there, but Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Batman can take these guys on. The fights definitely had a Lot of plot hax to try and make the villains look tough. I didn’t buy it for a minute, but it did make for some good fight scenes. Also, the Hal Jordan cameo was definitely really cool. Little tributes like that are always fun to see. It was definitely an epic way to end the season.

It’s time for another really epic finale, the return of Brainiac. It wrapped up the excellent Cadmus arc on a really high note. I also would have loved seeing the new Amazo body, but this is just as good. Brainiac’s fused form has a great DBZish design and he is certainly one of the toughest foes that the League has dealt with. I also really enjoyed the brief Justice Lords cameo. The music was really good and they made excellent use of the mindgames. I do like that the Flash was immune as he shouldn’t have any doubts that can be used against him. That’s pretty much Flash’s whole deal. Batman and Wonder Woman also didn’t seem flustered. In the end, Flash pays a pivotal role in stopping the threat and I’ve always considered him to be one of the secret heavy hitters. When the writers aren’t having him trip on everything and get knocked out by nonsensical plot lines, Flash can hold his own with the best of them. The thing is, you can say the same for most of the JL members, which is what makes the team so special. Flash fans had definitely earned this after seeing their favorite character downplayed for so long.

We can’t forget Lex Luthor’s original criminal group from the first part of the show either. He made his own mini Legion of Doom involving Ultra Humanite, Shade, Star Sapphire, and a few other members. Team vs Team fights are always a lot of fun and while the Justice League should have the huge edge over this team, the villains use a lot of teamwork to make it close. Throwing in the Joker also added an extra dynamic. He held his own pretty well considering the fact that he doesn’t have any powers. It was just a fun two part event. There weren’t any world shattering stakes or big guest stars, but it was a solid action two part event which showed that Batman still considers himself to be a loner at heart. For the record, I don’t disagree with his call. He’s the most experienced member and breaking into a villain base on his own seems reasonable.

Another good episode involved yet another team battle. Dr. Fate had gathered his own team to stop a supernatural menace. The problem is that he intends to sacrifice Solomon Grundy in order to do it. Superman decides that this is inhumane and while Grundy has given his consent, it’s hard to say whether he really understands the stakes or not. So, the Justice League decide to do battle with Fate’s Defenders. This episode involved a heavy amount of plot hax to make Dr. Fate’s team stay in the game. There’s no possible way that Aquaman can beat Wonder Woman. The only incarnation of his that has any shot is the New 52 version and that still doesn’t work because it’s also Wonder Woman’s strongest depiction and she’s still ahead of him. I think Fate should have beaten Hawkgirl, but having a magic disrupting weapon does make things tricky. Superman’s fight with Aquaman is the best part of the episode. Yeah, this was definitely an awesome two parter and it’s one of the episodes that I’ve seen the least so it’s always cool to revisit it.

Finally, we’ve got the final two parter with the return of Darkseid. The first part is exclusively used for a big villain team against team battle as half of the Legion of Doom sides with Luthor and the other half go with Grodd. There’s a lot happening in the episode so you have to keep your eyes peeled if you want to catch all of the background fights. The main bout with Grodd and Luthor is also handled really well and was epic despite both characters not usually being combatants. It all goes back to how great the show is. The second part is mainly Darkseid’s fight with Superman and Batman while also showing all of the other heroes handling the minions. This definitely should have been a three parter to fit it all in as it is very rushed, but the fight is still satisfying. Whenever Superman and Darkseid are on screen, you know that cool things are about to happen. One slight issue I have is the fact that Superman loses in the end. He really deserved this win after all of these years.

That’s it for individual episodes, but I’d like to quickly give a shout out to the overall Cadmus arc. It was a superb addition to the show and is part of why Unlimited was so good. The first part of the show always stuck to self contained episodes while the Cadmus arc connected a whole season of Unlimited. Amanda Waller’s group were portrayed well. They were outgunned, but there is a lot that you can do with science. The verbal debates between her and Batman were always good to see and the arc always asked the tough questions. It has the honor of being one of the only pieces of media to properly portray a more complex/darker Superman. He was forced to look at the gray lines and betrayal from his friends. Superman never snapped and took a life though, but he would get visibly irritated and temperamental. It doesn’t always make him look good, but it does show how he is still only human. Bending the rules to save Question was a morally iffy move, but one that I felt was completely in the right and I was glad he made the call. Whether you can prove that Cadmus is evil or not, it doesn’t change the fact that they kidnapped and tortured one of the League members. I’d have been very disappointed if Superman had not broken in ASAP. There was definitely no time to call in the League and no real need anyway. Superman can handle whatever they throw at him. Galatea, The Ultra Men, the Captain Atom battle, Luthor’s Presidential Subplot, there were a lot of awesome plots within the arc. To really understand just how great it was, you’ve got to watch it. There’s a reason why many consider this to be the high point of the franchise, it was just very awesome to watch and you’d be at the edge of your seat the whole time. I think Cadmus got off a little too leniently, but the fact that they are currently disbanded is a start.

We may as well start off strong with Superman in the characters section. He is easily the best character in the series and it isn’t even close. His character is portrayed to perfection and beyond in this series. While Superman does take a beating throughout, you have to remember that he is constantly holding back so that he doesn’t injure someone. He only really goes all out a few times and even then he goes to great lengths to ensure that he does not destroy the villain that he is facing. Superman is the ultimate hero and the Unlimited Cadmus arc did a good job of also showing that he can get angry as well. Storming into the Cadmus facility and rescuing Captain Atom may not have been playing by the rules exactly, but it was certainly the right thing to do. Even if Atom was a total traitor there. It is certainly hard to forget that and it will hurt the character in his right up. Superman has always been meant to be the ultimate symbol of heroism and justice. He does a great job of upholding this role and is portrayed as an intelligent guy in addition to being the world’s strongest fighter.

Next up is Batman, another highlight of the show. The DCAU is really how I became a Batman fan. His character is definitely a lot tougher to get right than Superman’s. That is because Batman can be more of a vigilante at times and some authors like to make him cross too many lines or show off his Bruce Wayne alter ego a little too excessively. In Justice League, these problems are nowhere to be found. First of all, Batman is portrayed as being very heroic in Justice League. He even gets along with the cops a lot more than he usually would. His voice is very iconic and helped make his scenes even cooler. He ended up saving the League several times and he started this tradition in the very first multi part story. Batman is basically perfect here and he is right under Superman. It is no wonder that both of these characters are my top 2 comic book characters of all time.

Wonder Woman is next on the list and she is very good. You are going to quickly notice that a great number of characters are pretty likable in this show. With the writing so on point, it is to be expected. Wonder Woman is always eager for a fight and that is really why she is such a great character. Once again, I have to point out For The Man Who Has Everything as a great example of this. Wonder Woman is eager to fight Mongul right from the start and doesn’t give up even when she is completely outmatched. The two part time travel adventure in Unlimited is another good example of why she is so likable as Wonder Woman declares that Justice League members never retreat even when the other characters were losing their nerve. WW is a warrior so she is made of sterner stuff. While the gap in power between her and Superman is rather large in this show, she is still quite formidable.

The Green Lantern in this show is John Stewart as opposed to Hal Jordan. Hal is still my favorite GL, but John is handled well here. One thing that I typically don’t like about army characters is that they tend to follow the rules a little too closely, even if it means letting a teammate get a bad deal. It is why I typically like the rebels like Batman…or Hal Jordan. Luckily, the army angle isn’t played up too much. If anything, that is Green Arrow’s role this time. John is maybe a little too quick to doubt himself at times like his terrible appearance in the Manhunter two parter, but just about every character is entitled to having a bad day or two in a series that is this long. He has plenty of good scenes to counter all of the bad ones like when he was able to get up and fight on in the Legion of Superheroes episode after getting blindsided. He also put in a great effort during the Starcrossed invasion. I also do appreciate the fact that he doesn’t have to keep his secret identity a secret. He just transforms whenever he wants too and that lets him act a lot quicker than some of the other heroes. As with Superman, his power is low balled quite a lot to make the villains look good since he should be able to take most of them down without a sweat. The Justice League is just too strong though so it is to be expected. Guys like Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, and Superman can take whole superhero teams down on their own. With all 7 united, there are very few foes who can last against them.

Next up is the Flash. This isn’t Barry though as the show opted to use Wally West. This means that his personality is closer to Spiderman’s than Superman. Wally can be fun to have around as he always keeps the atmosphere light. He can flirt a bit too much at times, but for the most part he is actually funny instead of just being super annoying the whole time. He does have a tendency to trip quite a lot, but that just goes back to the plot hax issue. There aren’t many villains who can legitimately land a hit on Flash so unless the writers can be really creative, they end up having to wave the flag of defeat by low balling Flash. One episode that did a good job of giving Flash a real challenge without a lot of plot hax was the Flash museum episode. Mirror Master’s abilities make him a decent match for the Flash and once the hero is stuck on a boomerang, there is only so much that he can do. So far, all of the characters that I have mentioned are likable and can hold their own episode with ease. That is about to change as I do not like the final two members.

Next up is Hawkgirl. She is the perfect example of a character who talks a great game, but can’t really back it up. She has some slight super strength as her stats are similar to that of a super soldier. Hawkgirl’s mace is a great weapon to have around as well. Unfortunately, we all remember how her character went down the tubes in Starcrossed. Granted that it was the movie so whether or not it should be counted in this review is up for debate. It colors all of her actions in a new light and I’d say that it is all right to count it here. Hawkgirl’s drama in Unlimited was also not very interesting and I missed the mask. A positive trait that she has is her eagerness to fight, but this time it was simply not enough to turn her into a likable character. I’m still surprised that she was chosen as one of the original 7. There were definitely other characters who could have worked better. At least Justice League’s writing is still top of the line so Hawkgirl is never terrible aside from Starcrossed. Put her in another show and she would probably outshine most of the characters, but we can’t just ignore Starcrossed. Thanks to that, she is definitely a very bad character.

Finally we have the Martian Manhunter. Theoretically he should be one of the strongest members since he has a great array of useful abilities. Well, I don’t think that the show agreed. He gets some super strength and still has his intangibility and everything, but despite all of this he never looks that good. He spends most of the time getting wrecked by everyone and panics quite a lot. When he tries to scan for Lex Luthor in the Amazo two part adventure, Manhunter is so distressed that he has to fly away and reconnect to himself. He also quite the team for a little while towards the ens of Unlimited and becomes a complete by the books fellow, which hurts him quite a lot. If you’ve read my reviews in the past, you will probably know that I think comrades should always come before the rules. Considering that a teammate was kidnapped by Cadmus, he should have been quick to approve the plan. He is not someone that you can count on in a pinch so there was no way that I was going to like him.

Aside from the main 7, I’d say that Lex Luthor deserves the first mention. He is portrayed very well in Justice League and is often the one who brings a lot of villains together. While he often acted on his own in the Superman show it would appear that he finally saw the value in having underlings work for him. He is easily the most likable villain in the series. His super powered Brainiac form was definitely quite the sight as well. It was a solid power up.

Justice League had a good track record with the more strategic villains. They don’t all have to be powerhouses although those tend to be quite good as well. Amanda Waller is another good example of a solid villain. She may not have been quite as charismatic as Lex, but she still did a pretty good job through and through. Cadmus needed to have a good leader to make them credible and she was really suited for the role. Her banter with Batman was always a lot of fun and she certainly did not lack in confidence.

Mongul is the polar opposite of Waller as he is all about physical combat. I didn’t care for him much in War World as he was portrayed as more of a pretender to power who needed blackmail to win. In Unlimited, they powered him up quite a bit which I thought was a really good idea. He should be able to give Superman a really good fight. I mean…isn’t that the point of a good Superman villain? He has tough competition to compete with there though since Darkseid, Doomsday, and Brainiac are all around as well. Brainiac was a mix of strategic and powerful. Needless to say he is also a great Superman villain. He didn’t get a whole lot to do in the series as his appearances were limited, but he made a big impact whenever he would show up. The two part fusion with Lex was definitely a big moment.

Doomsday is easily the best of the power villains. His first appearance really sold him to be as he had a very Vegeta sequel character to him. He wanted a challenge and was disappointed after wrecking the JL. In Unlimited, he kept his confidence and lived up to the hype. Honestly, I’d say that he was even stronger than Mongul and Darkseid in this continuity but I’d say that you could make a real case for any of the three. They were all very close in power.

Darkseid got the series finale to himself so he definitely had a big role. His final power up was a lot of fun to have and he was always a very cunning villain. Just look at how he baited Superman into doing one last Dash attack with a few well placed words. That’s part of what makes him such a good villain, he is anything but one dimensional. His voice actor did a good job with him and the episodes really gave him the status and recognition that is due. Darkseid is a planetary threat and he leads an incredible army. There are few foes who are this dangerous.

One kind of villain that is usually fun is when a hero gets a dark counterpart. This is a trope across all of media and Justice League was glad to throw a few in as well. Aresia is essentially Wonder Woman if the hero ever went too far. They have a brief fight and are fairly evenly matched. Aresia is an interesting villain who was a little underused, but still managed to be interesting. Galatea is basically evil Supergirl and she got a sizable role. She was one of the stronger villains in the show since she is Supergirl, but physically a little stronger. I’d argue that it’s debatable though as clones are rarely as strong as the original. Galatea’s Ulta (Ultra? Something like that) Men were less impressive, but they were mainly around as a distraction anyway.

Green Arrow is one of those characters that I didn’t remember being awful until I re watched the show for the 10th time. He’s definitely worse than I could have ever imagined. He only joins the team because he hopes to get a date and then he does his best to sabotage the team at every angle. He is supposed to represent the average joe who may find the team scary. Maybe this is good in theory, but certainly not in practice. We don’t need him egging on the civilians after the League was hijacked and nearly destroyed a lot of people. Even when he is “defending” the league, he makes sure to do it in a bad way so that they all look bad. After the Question is kidnapped and the team finds out that Cadmus is responsible, Arrow is against attacking them. (Martian Manhunter agreed…) Arrow just stands for the worst of the League and I was waiting for everyone to boot him out. When the going gets tough, Arrow gets going and that’s not the kind of guy that you want on your team.

Black Canary is a far better character. She is always ready to fight and doesn’t mind breaking the rules when necessary. Her rivalry with Huntress always made for a cool dynamic even if the fights were a little one sided. I still say that Huntress should have the edge in a pure hand to hand fight, but it is what it is. Huntress was even better than Black Canary. She became a mercenary and was booted off of the League. Once she became a loner, Huntress was able to help out a lot more from the shadows. Without her, the Question definitely would have been forgotten. She acts like Batman to an extent as she is certainly a vigilante through and through.

The Question and Captain Atom are two characters who are sort of good at first and then fall down the ladder. Atom’s decent is in a league of its own though. He betrays the whole League and allows the Question to be tortured while he just waits in another room. He did it for the Army, but that just shows that he has no moral compass. There was no way he was going to recover from that and he ended up being one of the worst League members. The Question also cracked as he went off to go destroy Luthor. That was never going to work, but at least I can understand his reasoning. It’s the wrong move, but it was logically sound so it wouldn’t make the character drop all that drastically at all.

Amazo is one of those figures who isn’t a good character, but makes for a good villain. I like having him as an opponent for the League because he’s super strong and his adaptive abilities are really fun. His personality just isn’t that interesting though as he goes from being super naive to super emotional. He also looks embarrassingly bad in his final ever appearance. That was definitely a nice moment of plot hax and Unlimited went a little too far with how powerful they made him. Still, he gave us some of the best episodes in the series. His first two part fight with the League was definitely awesome and his gold mode felt like something out of an anime with how powerful he was. I definitely wish he had gotten to appear more.

Solomon Grundy’s another good villain to have around. He got a really good power up in Unlimited that allowed him to finally have a really good fight with Superman. They’ve had good matches in the past I suppose, but it was always obvious that Superman would wreck him by the end. This new form changed all of that. The show handled the ending pretty badly though. Certainly not the way that the climax to such a fun episode should have went down. Grundy’s not very smart and the show tries to portray him as a nice guy sometimes, but I don’t really buy it. He’s not too bad though.

Gorilla Grodd is one of those villains that I never really cared for. He’s a classic “Talks tough, but can’t back it up” character. Thanks to the fact that this show is amazing, he’s not all that bad. Grodd will never be my kind of villain, but at least you can actually take him seriously here. His ultimate plan was pretty terrible and I’m glad that Luthor called him out on it. Grodd’s overconfidence was ultimately his downfall, but he made for a good sub villain.

Back to League members, Supergirl was certainly a great character. She got a lot of character development during the show as she went from being a pure hot head to an experienced fighter who was still eager for a challenge. Unlike a lot of the petty characters throughout media who don’t like to be in someone’s shadow, Supergirl embraced the fact that people would think of Superman when they saw her. She was proud to be related to him and continued to excel. It was a shame that we couldn’t see her in the final two episodes, but she had a great role in the series. She was one of the strongest fighters and she was the first one to charge in against Amazo once he made it to Earth. The League shall definitely miss her.

Aquaman’s one of those League members who gets a little too close to politics. I think he’d choose that over his ties with the League which is why I wouldn’t trust him much. This was before the New 52 days so he isn’t all that strong either. At least he’s fairly good at Chess right? Dr. Fate was the leader of the sub Justice League group and he was pretty annoying. He was always very cryptic and making the wrong choices. Sacrificing the few for the many…no wonder he never became a League member!

Felix Faust was a pretty weak villain who eventually became strong by grabbing a magical armor. It shows just how important a good artifact can be in a fight. I definitely didn’t like him as a villain, but at least he was tough in Unlimited. Hades is a villain who was definitely over hyped in Justice League. He actually takes down Superman and Flash, which is pure plot hax. His design is cool, but the character is not. It’s a bit of a trend for some of these villains, but if it makes for good fights then I’m game. There are certainly a bunch of other characters in the show so enjoy meeting them all once you start! Some characters are pretty cool like Star Sapphire and Mirror Master while others aren’t handled well like Hawkman and the Ult(r)a men.

You will not be surprised to hear that Justice League is a technical masterpiece. The animation doesn’t just hold up well against the newer shows, it destroys them. There has never been an American TV show with better animation and I’m starting to doubt that there ever will be. The character designs were all on point and that made the 3 fight scenes even better. Fights can only be so good when the character models are bad so having really good ones like the type found here can make quite the difference. Some episodes in particular also stand out for the great animation. One such example is the opening three part special. I dare say that it may have had the best animation in the series. It was also a rare example of a night time fight done right. The animation stays solid throughout the rest of the series and into Unlimited. It was simply way ahead of its time. There was never a moment where I looked at back at a full episode and didn’t find it to be brilliant.

We also can’t forget about the great soundtrack that the show had. It used a wide variety of themes over the course of the show. In particular, I’d say that Unlimited had the best themes. For The Man Who Has Everything’s music was extremely good. It had a lot of good rock music and really threw you into the episode. We also had a quick moment of Batman Beyond music. Another good tune was the one that played during the battle between Superman and Doomsday in Unlimited. Opera type themes like that can be quite epic. There are a lot of other great themes like that scattered around. As for the first theme song, its decent. I do appreciate it a little more than I used too, but it still isn’t great. Unlimited’s theme song is a big step up from the original as it sounds pretty inspiring. It is still rather low budget as far as the images are concerned, but the audio is good.

I think a perfect example of how great the show is on a technical level can be traced back to Luthor vs Grodd as I mentioned earlier. I don’t care for Grodd and I can’t usually take Luthor seriously in a fight. Despite this, the fight was actually very well done. This is due in part to the crisp animation during the fight. It was visually on point throughout. The music chosen was very fitting and illustrated just how important this fight was. The writing was good as proper trash talk can also really help a fight. Finally, the character development that both of them had already received had built up to this fight for a very long time. If a typically uninteresting fight like this one can be very good under this show’s direction, you can just imagine how awesome the other fights are. Superman vs Shazam, Captain Atom vs Superman, Superman vs Mongul, Darkseid vs Superman, Doomsday vs Superman, etc. It’s hard to describe just how awesome they are.

I really want to go off on a tangent about why I think the Justice League are so much better than the Avengers, but I do verbally attack the latter quite a lot lately. I’ll just briefly say that of the 7 members in the show, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Superman could probably beat the Avengers on their own. Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter, and Batman teaming up could also potentially pull this off although it would be very close. Ignoring the power levels though, the Justice League are just a lot more likable because they are loyal. The Avengers are constantly splitting up because the government plays them against each other or adds some new law in. The Justice League have never taken orders like that and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. In the latest Avengers Assemble episode, The Avengers allowed the Hulk to be given a thunder collar that would constantly zap him and while they halfheartedly talk about it, they simply allow it to happen. They let the government treat the Hulk like a slave or an animal. The Justice League would never allow one of their members to be treated like that. Nuff said.

Overall, This was definitely a long review. Typically I discuss the arcs more generally or just choose less episodes, but Justice League has always been a very special series so giving it a more thorough review was fun. It’s my 5th favorite show of all time and if we discount anime, then it’s number 1. There is no comic book show even remotely in the same league as Justice League and I dare say that nothing will ever reach its level. It is American perfection as far as I am concerned with animation. I could go back and talk about the positives as I wrap up, but you already know what I think of the show in great detail. So, instead of all that I’ll just recommend that you go watch the series if you haven’t already. I have a policy of only giving one perfect score per field on the blog so Yugioh GX already claimed the 10/10, but that’s the only thing stopping this show. It’s essentially perfect and it will show you why the Justice League is and always will be the greatest superhero team in fiction.

Overall 9/10

One Punch Man Review

Posted on November 17, 2016 by dreager1

It’s time to finally review one of the most legendary anime titles out there. It got very popular and mainstream in a short amount of time.The concept is easy for people to get behind and the execution of it was on point. There’s a lot to like about the show and it is certainly one of the best in the biz. It’s managed to grab 5th place on the all time anime list for me and future seasons/series should help to cement its position although I just have a hard time imagining season 1 being surpassed.

The plot revolves around a guy named Saitama. He wanted to be a hero all his life so he underwent a tough training regimen. The problem was that this worked a little too well and now he can defeat any opponent in a single punch. Being a hero is just boring now. One day, he saves an android named Genos, who convinces Saitama to tutor him. The two heroes then join the hero association and this gives Saitama a goal to work towards. He can rise up the ranks of the hero league and get paid for his efforts. It’s a win-win situation.

As the show is only around 12-13 episodes there hasn’t been much of a plot yet. Plus, keep in mind that this show is basically a parody of the superhero genre. Saitama is portrayed as being completely invincible because he’s an exaggerated version of Superman. You’re not watching this for the tension or the threat of a villain winning. It’s a comedy first and an action second, but it manages to pull off both genres spectacularly. There are also a lot of plot lines which are set up for future arcs and the show is gradually turning into one of those shows with a large cast and a lot of fights. After all, Saitama can’t lose, but his friends sure can! The flip side is that Saitama is one of the most interesting characters and some of the supporting fighters aren’t nearly as good.

The main reason why One Punch Man is great is because it is a technical masterpiece. The animation is stellar and is some of the best in the business. The fight scenes are all very flashy and are movie level. Most of the action scenes are fairly short, but I imagine that it’s why they can all look so good. Genos vs Saitama is certainly one of the best fights in the series and you can’t forget Genos vs the Ultimate Monster either. Finally, the show ends with Saitama vs Boros so you can imagine how good that fight is. You’re always at the edge of your seat for the battles.

Even when there isn’t a fight going on, the animation is very good. The transitions from hardcore Saitama to normal Saitama are handled very well. The visual gags are thrown in seamlessly and all of the humor is done very well. The show can shift from its happy tone to a very serious one with ease. It almost goes without saying that the music keeps up as well. There’s a very excellent danger theme, battle theme, Genos theme, etc. The soundtrack isn’t very large, but each theme is flawless. They really take you into the heat of the moment. Genos has the best theme which isn’t a coincidence, but they are all awesome. I hope to see them return next time, but of course I want some more new tunes as well. The only song that I didn’t care for much was the opening. Surprisingly, I just couldn’t get into it. The lyrics just didn’t work too well with the music. The ending was fun though, it was surprisingly happy/sad for the show. It’s a mix of emotions which made the piece more complex than I would have expected. No complaints here though, it was just a bit unexpected.

One Punch Man also does a really good job of setting up the universe and making it very intricate from the get go. Having the rankings system for all of the heroes was a very good idea since it makes for a lot of fun matchups. You can wonder how characters like Sonic would fare against Genos or the mysterious S ranked fighters. It’s the kind of show where there are so many fighters that the speculations will never really end. It has its strongest impact at the beginning though as its exciting to see them all start showing up. The hero meetings are always fun to see and the show knows how to introduce a character well. You’ll never be bored during the show as the pacing stays nice and fast. Even when nothing is technically happening, the show’s still awesome. Just about every other show could take a few lessons from this title. Few shows are able to constantly keep you entertained like this one.

As mentioned earlier, Saitama’s a great main character. He may not be the most heroic of guys as he only helps out when he feels like it, but he’s a lot of fun. Saitama also does get serious when he has too and he doesn’t take the villains seriously at all. It can be fun to see him just walk in and wreck all of his opponents. There is just something satisfying about him not having to break a sweat. Maybe it’s because usually villains deal a lot of damage and the heroes eventually stop them. This is probably the first show where there’s never any doubt that the good guys will triumph. Sure, there is a lot of collateral damage due to how extreme it all is, but the heroes win in the end. Saitama also has his moments where he gains a lot of insight and imparts wisdom over to Genos. It’s not too often though as Saitama doesn’t like to be so serious.

The best character in the series is easily Genos. The English Dub got the perfect voice actor for him. He has the best action scenes and takes things very seriously all the time. It’s the perfect contrast to Saitama and it’s also good to have a rival who isn’t jealous of the main character all the time. Genos just wants to avenge his family so he doesn’t care about being the best. He’s already S Rank and I like to think that he could beat most of the other top ranked fighters at this point. Another character who is fairly close to Genos, but not to the point where I had any trouble picking my favorite is Speed o Sound Sonic. He’s an assassin who really wants to defeat Saitama. He is incredibly fast like Genos, but his attack power is a little lower. The two of them are fairly evenly matched and it is a bout that I am really looking forward to in season 2. Trust me, that’s going to be the highlight. Sonic’s overconfidence is a perfect trait for a villain. He doesn’t get too many action scenes yet, but always brings the hype with him.

Another solid character is Mumen Rider. You’ll feel bad for the guy since he is one of the weakest heroes in the series. He doesn’t have any special powers and the only way he can attack is to throw his bike at villains. He never stands a chance against anyone, but has a lot of determination. It’s fun to see him try to help out and he is certainly earnest. Maybe he’ll find an opponent that he can actually defeat someday. The number 1 A rank fighter, Sweet Mask, also gets a role. He shows up to hurl threats at Genos and Saitama. The guy’s got a lot of confidence, but I like to think that he wouldn’t be able to beat either one of those two. Still, his scenes are always intense and the final episode reminds us that he shows no mercy. The mask hides how much he despises the villains.

The array of S rank fighters show up briefly, but most of them haven’t had much of a role yet. Atomic Samurai got to show off his sword skills and he’s useful to have around. Metal Bat will remind you of characters from the Yu Yu Hakusho series with his classic 90’s design and straight forward method of battling. These two characters are good. The best S rank member is probably Tatsumaki. She gets a lot of hype and would certainly be able to give Saitama a better fight than the others. A rivalry is already brewing between the two of them although it is rather one sided at the moment. Bang wants Saitama as a student, but that’ll never happen. He’s a reasonable guy and I do like the fact that he acknowledged how Saitama is stronger than him. Drive Knight is fairly mysterious and hasn’t done anything yet, but he did offer some foreshadowing to Genos. Metal Knight definitely seems suspicious and certainly isn’t trust worthy. Unfortunately, I didn’t find him to be that interesting. Along with Prisoner, he is the only unlikable character. Prisoner is just pretty bad and all of his scenes are tough to watch. He’s another exaggerated character all right, but not in a good way. King is pretty hype so far and I look forward to him appearing more in season 2…heh.

As for the villains, we got a nice array of monsters of the week. The Attack on Titan homage was certainly awesome and I do like that the Dub did its best to make the tributes even greater with its choice of voice actors. The Vampire lady who fought Genos was a fun monster as well and episode 2 showed you just how high tier the show would get. The first fight was already at a high level. Carnage Kabuto continued to up the ante as he could actually sense Saitama’s presence and was able to land a lot of good hits. He was actually a pretty good villain although you may feel bad for the scientists. Kabuto certainly got rid of a lot of them.

The Deep Sea King is one of the really big villains and the only one to get more than one episode aside from Boros. I’ll admit that his fight with Saitama was probably the only disappointing fight in the whole series. It makes sense that it would be quick since Saitama was serious, but I had still been hoping for more. Despite that, Deep Sea King lived up to expectations as he took on and overwhelmed Genos and Sonic. Both cases were very circumstantial though. The King also beat a lot of random heroes along the way and solidified himself as a real threat. He was certainly a fun villain to have around.

Finally, we get to the aliens. Melzalgald had the biggest role from the three generals and was able to take on several S ranked fighters at once. His overconfidence is what ultimately held him back as his abilities were very impressive otherwise. Having instant regeneration is just such a handy ability to have and one good hit could take out even the most durable S rank fighters. Of course, Boros would be the highlight. He’s a villain who also grew too strong and now he wants a real challenge. His fight with Saitama keeps escalating over and over and over to the point where you have to wonder what his limit is. He’s also the first villain to keep on going even after Saitama punches him a few times. It’d be awesome to see him return and I honestly think it could be possible. It probably wouldn’t happen for a very long time, but it would be really awesome to see. After Sonic, Boros is definitely my favorite villain in the series.

There’s really nothing to dislike about the show. It manages to go on without any real fanservice which is very impressive in this day and age. There are some scenes where the violence can get pretty crazy, but it’s used in a comedy way. I still question how it ever became funny to see blood splatter everywhere in crazy amounts, but the show is mostly tame aside from a few moments like that. It’s actually a more kid friendly show than most of the Shonen titles alongside it. That also gets back to its light hearted nature. It’s the kind of series that you can basically have anyone watch. As mentioned before, the only thing is has to be careful of is giving the supporting characters too much screen time and not enough to Saitama. I don’t believe that will be a problem though and I do want some of them to get their own fights because there are a lot of awesome potential match ups that I want to see.

Overall, One Punch Man is a superb show. It does an awesome job of adapting the manga. They really spared no expense for this show as all of its technical aspects were top of the line. You’ll definitely be left craving more content so the wait for season 2 will feel like a very long time. At least it is confirmed though so it’ll be coming soon. It’s hard to describe just how awesome the show is in words. It easily has some of the best comedy moments of all time along with some of the best action scenes of all time. Even the tension scenes are some of the best. Mix that in with a great universe and a lot of foreshadowing and it’s a ticket to success. It’s easy to see why this series took the world by storm. Hopefully the franchise keeps on going for a very long time.

Overall 9/10

Air Review

Posted on July 3, 2016 by dreager1

It’s time to look at an anime that’s a little different from the average title that I review. For starters, this is not an action anime. This is a tragedy mystery story where a guy must try to repair the lives of 3 girls and their respective families in the process. It’ll be tricky and the show will take you on quite the roller coaster. It’s definitely a solid title and a show like this can be a nice change of pace, but unfortunately it is hurt by the terrible ending. I had to slash away a full 2 stars on account of that and was tempted to take more away, but the rest of the show had been consistently good and the ending, while dark, could have been darker.

Yukito, a homeless guy with no possessions or money, finds himself in a small town after walking for a very long time. His mission is to find a girl with wings that his mother told him about. He doesn’t stop to question if this was literal so he continues to search. The main problem is that having no money really limits his options so Yukito tries to put on little shows with his telekenetically controlled puppet for the kids so they can pay him. As you may expect, this isn’t his greatest plan and he never makes any money off of it. Luckily, a nice girl by the name of Misuzu shows up and offers him a home and 3 square meals in exchange for being her friend for the summer. Yukito grudgingly agrees and so begins his adventures in this crazy town.

The show really has 3 main arcs, one for each dilemma so let’s take a look at each one individually. First up is Kano’s plot. Yukito was given a job by her mother (or if not mother, a close relative) Hijiri. His job is to do odd jobs around the house and to entertain Kano at times. Unfortunately, it turns out that Kano has been cursed by a feather and has a split personality. This new personality shows up once in a while and tries to destroy herself. If she is not cured soon, Kano will end up being gone for good. As you would expect from Air, there are quite a few fakeouts and even a scene where you’re led to think that Kano’s other side may have succeeded. It’s definitely tricky to stop Kano when she’s always vanishing and her alter ego has super strength as well. One grab was nearly lights out for Yukito…permanently. The arc went over smoothly though and the resolution was good. It definitely had its share of sad moments, but had a happy ending in the end.

Next up was Minagi’s plot. Her mother suffers from forgetfulness and has been unwilling to accept that one of her daughters died at birth. As a result, she believes that Minagi is actually her dead sister. As a result, Minagi’s been forced to assume this identity for years, resulting in a very awkward dynamic in the house. Things get worse when the mother finally realizes that the sister is dead, but then goes to the other extreme as she forgets that she ever had any daughters. Distraught, Minagi is forced to move out and live at an abandoned train station. Now she’s finally in Yukito’s home turf so he decides to help out a bit. He gives her the option of leaving the town with him or finally confronting her mother about who she is. There is also a plot twist about Minagi’s friend Michiru who happens to have the same name as the dead sister. Makes for an interesting dynamic although it leads into the arc’s sad ending. It’s sad, but at least it’s not tragic and all of the characters still had a good time in the end. Minagi is also given a nice epilogue as she leaves this mysterious town and gets to go to a happier place and meet up with some relatives. It was another solid ending to the arc.

Next was the big final arc and unfortunately, it was the one that didn’t go over so well. Misuzu has a unique condition, derived from a curse and a fate of an infinite time loop of very limited possibilities. She can never get a friend as she suffers from painful spells and seizures whenever someone gets too close. The curse also gets partially transferred so if someone wants to be friends with her anyway, then they will both die. There is no way to break the curse and Misuzu is even given the extra discomfort of knowing when she will die. As the show repeatedly states on this tale being the 1000th summer and how this show is essentially about having the best summer ever, it is also her deadline. Misuzu will not outlast the summer, try as she might. She will also have to continue to die every summer, forever and ever. Meanwhile, her aunt Haruko has decided to never get too close to Misuzu. She inherited Misuzu when the girl’s mother died and her father decided to run off. The problem is that the Dad could reclaim her at any time so Haruko didn’t want to get attached. As a result, they’re on good terms, but you couldn’t really call them great friends. They each lead their own lives.

As a result, Misuzu’s been all alone right from the start. Nobody even wants to be her friend no matter how much she asks. Well, Yukito’s helped out a few people already so this shouldn’t be a problem right? Well, unfortunately this is not the case. In fact, he just adds to her troubles by helping her emotions seesaw all over the place as he leaves and returns multiple times. In the end he realizes that this was a mistake and wishes for a do-over, but things don’t go as planned. Now, it should be made clear that Misuzu did get to have some fun in the end and you’re supposed to be content with the fact that she finally got to walk and go to the beach. If there was never any hope given for her to avert this fate of death then that probably would have been okay. It would have been a little more somber throughout, but so long as the core anime was not really changed, it may not have affected the score all that much. Unfortunately, the show keeps on giving you hope that the powers of friendship will be able to free Misuzu. There are dozens and dozens of fake outs that keep occurring and the viewer is left to think that we have finally made it past the darkness and into the light. Over and over again until you finally realize that the anime has just been toying with you from the start. Yes, I’m still irritated at the ending and just thinking about it makes me annoyed.

It doesn’t help that this infinite loop of 1000 summers will never end. If you decide to believe that the kids at the end are the final reincarnations of the two main leads, then it’s possible that this was the final death Misuzu had to endure and now she’s free. It’s a bit of a stretch if you ask me though and either way this version of Misuzu will keep on dying. If Yukito had found Misuzu’s winged form after being given a random speech in the final minutes of the show, then that would have helped to clear things up quite a lot. Instead, it turned into another fruitless search for the guy.

Still, as a lead, Yukito is a good protagonist. I found him to be a lot more enjoyable than the guy from Kanon as he was nicer and more understanding. He did his best to help all of the characters out and did so without having to flirt with everyone. He helped the other characters out as a good friend and he got a pretty sad fate in return. Ah well, he was never looking for a reward in the first place. He’s not too smart though as trying to earn a living by entertaining little kid in exchange for their pocket money will never work. Not to mention that his show was rather lackluster since he could only make his puppet walk back and forth in a straight line. In his second reanimated form, he lost all of his personality so he couldn’t really add much to this.

Misuzu’s a solid heroine as well. I found her to be more likable than any of the other girls. As we get to see her events twice, once from an outsider’s point of view and one from within, she does a good job of keeping up a brave face even when she’s feeling down. She’s had a rather miserable life after all, but always does her best to make the most of it. She turns sad ending into a happy one for herself. The only time I found Misuzu to be annoying was when she lost her memories as she suddenly became a mean person. I don’t think memory loss should change your core personality and subscribe to the Medaka Box theory instead. I feel like Misuzu would still be super polite even if she had no idea what was happening. Regardless, her likable personality is why I was hoping she would have a happier ending.

Kano’s not bad either as she would love to fly, but real world physics don’t allow it. Her dog, Potato, is pretty cool and Kano’s nice as well. She just never got a whole lot of personality besides being a nice person. I guess the split personality counts, but luckily she grew out of that. Her mother, Hijiri was good as well even if she never actually got to even try and help out Misuzu. She’s a doctor so it would have been nice to have seen her make an attempt even if Misuzu claimed that it would be of no use.

If there’s a character that’s a little weak in this series, it would be Minagi. That’s more due to the fact that I don’t really care for soft spoken characters though. There’s really nothing concrete to dislike about her and she has a lot of things to deal with as well. She’s always glad to help out someone in need with free coupons and a place to stay. Air doesn’t just give characters annoying gimmicks to make them different. The show did a really good job of making everyone very nice and sincere even if they end up being pretty similar at times as a result. Michiru was more entertaining as she was very over the top. She constantly beat up Yukito and the two of them were always getting into fights until Michiru became super serious towards the end. She certainly had a lot of energy and I was glad that she channeled it into productive things like blowing bubbles as opposed to constantly accusing Yukito of stuff that he wasn’t guilty of. That would have gotten old very quickly if she hadn’t stopped.

Haruko is Misuzu’s aunt and she gets a very large role in the last 2-3 episodes. She started out as a supporting character and quickly replaced Yukito as the main character once he died and reincarnated the first time. The new scenes gave her a lot of extra character development and ultimately turned her into the best character in the show. She drinks a lot and certainly isn’t the most responsible parent. It took her a while to realize that she should be more helpful, but was better late than never. The ending is particularly rough on her since she will always have some regrets as a result, but at least she’ll have a few fond memories from the last days. As for Misuzu’s dad, the show tries to make him seem like a reasonable character, but it’s hard to buy it. He completely ditched her for 10 years and shows up out of the blue to take her back. If she hadn’t gotten amnesia at the time, his offer would have completely been rejected. He never even has any defense to explain why he left. I’m glad that he didn’t appear as a super evil character or anything like that, but there’s no way that you can root for him by this point.

There was also a random flashback mini arc that happened after Yukito died. It involved three new characters which included the original winged girl, Kanna, her friend, Uraha, and her bodyguard Ryuya. They decide to flee the land so they can have some happy adventures, but they’re caught and Kanna is destroyed. The other two decide to have a kid so that he can keep on being reincarnated to protect her future versions. It’s a very flawed plan at best. This episode gives you some extra context I suppose, but honestly I’d call it total filler. These guys will never show up again after all and they weren’t useful in the fights. Kanna and her Mom could level mountains with a single slash and yet they die to a casual arrow? That was probably the worst showing that I’ve seen from such a powerful being in some time. Not to mention that the Mom could have mentioned that she was cursed before Kanna made contact with her. It would have been more effective than simply saying “Don’t touch me” for no real reason.

The show did do a good job with the following episode though as it played out like a bit of a mystery. Why are we reliving the first episode? Has Yukito been given a chance to change everything? At first it seemed like that, but instead he gets a double take in addition to his original version so there are now two of him living in the same place and time as each other. It’s a pretty novel concept and as mentioned earlier, it’s interesting to see everything again from a new angle. If only the ending hadn’t spoiled its efforts.

The animation looks good. It’s not particularly awe inspiring, but it does look a little retro. (In a good way of course) We do get a quick action scene that is good and the character designs are all solid. I enjoyed the soundtrack to an extent as well. The themes in the actual episodes are all forgettable, but the opening is good. It’s an emotional theme that fits very well with the episodes. As a result, it’s not something that you are likely to listen to for fun at any given time, but if you just saw an emotional movie, then it’s a fitting theme to look up on Youtube.

As for negatives, there really isn’t much here. There is a little fanservice as characters dramatically shed their clothes to embrace the sky as they fly around. The aunt is also very casually dressed so she isn’t wearing much most of the time. Luckily, this show isn’t a shonen so the camera angles never really focus on it. I am still of the opinion that a risque costume does not necessarily have to be fanservice as long as the camera handles it appropriately. Air is a good example of this. There’s certainly no problems with language or violence here. This is something that you could easily show a kid although he/she would likely get bored due to the limited action scenes.

In the end, how does this compare to Kanon? Well, Kanon takes the definitive win here, but it’s not a lopsided contest by any means. Air has the better characters including the lead and has a better resolution to most of the plots. Kanon counters this by having the far superior ending and much better animation. Kanon was a lot sadder than Air despite the ending, but I’m not sure if I’d really call that a good thing per say. The soundtracks were more or less equal. I think “Ugu” beats “Gao” as a character gimmick as well. Really, the only thing separating these two series is the ending. Without it, Air actually takes the solid win here. After all, with better characters and better arcs, how could it lose? Kanon does have less filler though so that’s something to consider. Both deal with amnesia plots, but Kanon’s was more enjoyable.

Overall, Air is a solid title, but the ending really saps the joy out of it. As they say, an ending can make or break a title. It breaks this one, but it still makes for a good ride to I’ll recommend it to you all. If anything, just watch the final episode until the initial commercial break and you should be okay more or less. It’ll have ended on a much better note for you or even just ending on the second last episode although I forgot exactly what the cliffhanger there was. The town’s certainly very deserted so it makes you wonder how living there would be. I doubt the wifi signal would be all that good so you could forget about online gaming for the most part. With this title down, it’s back to action titles. Still, we’ll see if the next tragic title can beat this one. It’ll likely all ride on the ending rather than the journey, but you never know.

Overall 5/10

Future Card Buddyfight 100 Review

Posted on June 4, 2016 by dreager1

Buddyfight 100 started off really great and it was looking like it would easily be the hype replacement for the original show that I was hoping for. The first few episodes were loaded with high stakes and awesome fights. Unfortunately, the middle of the show is bogged down by an incredibly large amount of day to day monster filler. It doesn’t really get great again until we start nearing the end and by then there was no way that it could catch the original Buddyfight. It’s still a fun show and one that I’d recommend, but it’s a step down.

The immensely powerful Yamigedo has arrived on Earth. He has already devoured many planets and even the universe is not safe from this beast. Gao Mikado and his friends must stop him, but the only way is to find the 8 Omni Lords so that they can seal them. Yamigedo’s human partner is Ikazuchi and he has the 100 Demons on his side so the heroes will have to fend those fighters off as well. It’s going to be tough, but Gao has a lot of friends on his side and together, they can do just about anything!

Right from the get go, Buddyfight 100 tried to have more tension. Gao’s first big duel with Tenbu was great and Ikazuchi has a great design. Yamigedo’s an imposing villain and even the intro before the theme song was epic for once as it has Tasuku and Gao talk about how they’re probably doomed and that they might not be able to save everyone this time. Considering the fact that Yamigedo can literally eat planets as well, this should have been awesome. Let’s tackle the main issue with the series right off the bat.

After the initial attack and the villains retreat for a while, Ikazuchi decides to send one of the 100 demons each episode. We have around 20+ episodes of that being the plot. He sends a monster, Gao defeats it, rinse and repeat. It doesn’t help that Shido is typically the host for the monster so it’s like watching the same duel over and over and over again. Once in a while the formula is changed a little as a friend gets mind controller or something, but it doesn’t help. I don’t mind seeing the same duel a few times, but it gets really stale after a while. The episodes may hold up well against the average show, but certainly not one that I had such high hopes for like Buddyfight. The plot would move at a snail’s pace as a result. A similar formula was used for finding the 8 Omni Lords and it definitely took a while.

The Omni Lords plot was infinitely more interesting and satisfying, but it doesn’t change the fact that it was very formulaic. You knew everything that was going to happen in the episode before it ever did. There were twists and surprises regarding the identities of the Omni Lords though and most of the true forms were satisfying. The only disappointing part is that Kazane was not an Omni Lord, nor was her buddy even though there was a lot of foreshadowing for her to get a big role. In the end, the twist was that someone she barely knew was an Omni Lord. That twist fell flat if you ask me.

By the end of the series, Buddyfight regained its stride. It was definitely too late to boost it to the original Buddyfight’s level, but it was great to see the show end on a high note. We got back to the high stakes battles and there was even a celebrity guest star who dueled Gao and helped him get back to dueling with his heart. The final episodes involved a lot of big duels against Yamigedo including one where the beast had a super ability that was basically unbeatable. You have to defeat him 20 times for the monster to stay down and that’s never going to happen. Luckily, Gao had a deux ex machina card that is just as crazy strong. Lucky eh?

Gao remains as one of the cooler main characters out there. He’s not quite as awesome as he was in the first show though. He went around wrecking everyone there and managed to go and defeat everyone who stood in his way. Here, he finally goes through the “shaken confidence” phase that most heroes seem to go on at some point or another. It gets to the point where he can’t hold a card without getting severely burned, which puts him in a pretty rough spot. You can’t duel if you can’t hold onto a card right? Once he gets over that he goes back to being the hero that I remember though. The good news is that this likely won’t affect him in the third show since most of the time this just happens to someone once. He’s easily still the best character in the show even if that was a bit of a set back.

Drum makes for a decent partner. He isn’t quite as charasmatic or likable as most toyetic partners like Megaman or Pikachu, but he’s not bad. Drum’s matured a lot since the first show so he’s no longer running away from Gao or being rebellious the whole time. By now, his bond with Gao is quite strong. He’s done well in preparing to be the leader of the Dragon Clan someday. At least he gets a role unlike Gao’s two friends. They never quite became big and that’s the problem with not being able to duel. You end up getting written out of the plot right away.

Tasuku still gets a large focus in this season as with the last one. Jack gets damaged at one point so he goes on a quest to find someone who can fix him. It involves a lot of time travel and traitors, but Tasuku always gets down to the bottom of a mystery. He’s always pretty serious about how to handle a situation and it’s good to have a pro on the team. Due to Jack not being around as much as usual, he doesn’t get a whole lot of duels this time around. Still, you can always count on Tasuku in a pinch and he makes for a solid rival to Gao. I dare say that he has been surpassed by Noboru so he would be my third favorite character in the show now. Still pretty high though and he appears a lot more than Noboru so it’s always good to see him.

As with Drum, Jack has gone through a lot and he’s had many different forms. I wouldn’t say that his personality has changed all that much since he’s always been reasonable. His quest for vengeance on Variable Cord at the end never really went anywhere and came out of nowhere, but I suppose he really doesn’t like traitors. Who does right? I definitely prefer Jack to Drum and he is the best Buddy Monster in the show.

Noboru finally comes back to town and I’m instantly reminded how much I’ve missed the guy while he was away. Noboru made for another good rival to Gao and his overwhelming confidence is always good to see. He immediately challenged Ikazuchi and nearly defeated him which was definitely impressive. Having him as a big villain for a while was also cool. His evil personality was just as likable and I’m just disappointed that he never got to have a big fight with Gao in the end. I was waiting for that since it’s been ages since they’ve gotten to fight. Speaking of which, while there were a lot of throwaway duels as a result, one good thing about the episode count being so long is that every character got to have his/her share of fights. Pretty much everyone from season 1 got to Buddyfight and Noboru eventually turned almost everyone evil so they could fight the heroes again. It may not have been the most thrilling thing in the world since I can’t take most of the season 1 friends seriously, but it’s good for their fans. Having the 8 Inverse Omni Lords was definitely quite the stretch though.

Tetsuya’s about the same as last season. He’s a nice enough guy who always dances and sings while he duels. It’s an intriguing way to fight, but not any more so than wearing actual bananas on his head. He gets a medium sized role as he gets a few episodes to himself and gets one of the big final duels. His skills aren’t that bad and he gets a lot of character development, but he really should take the duels a little more seriously. It’s easy to see why Zanya gets so annoyed with him. Tetsuya could get away with his antics more if he was one of the greatest duelists out there, but that’s not really the case. It’s good that he’s forgiving though since Asmodai constantly tries to keep secrets from him. The two of them need to work as a team more since trust shouldn’t be an issue at this point. It’s a little sad for Asmodai since most of his plans don’t work out so well, but he does come through quite a few times for the heroes.

Zanya gets a new ninja in addition to his normal one for this season. The ninja’s gimmick is that he’s super chatty so now Zanya won’t have to always be so silent all the time. The talkative one is actually pretty decent though and he is certainly cooler than the silent ninja. Zanya helps the heroes out and gets quite a few episodes of his own during the adventures. His “must avoid girls at all costs” shtick can get a little tiresome, but this running gag isn’t used quite as much as it was in season 1 so that’s a good thing. He’s one of the more skilled supporting characters, but I don’t see him ever getting a huge role again. He has basically been replaced by the newer fighters to an extent although him and Tetsuya still had the biggest roles this time.

Rouga was a big rival in the first season and keeps that role here. He is still always eager to enter a fight and plays by his own rules. The show makes it a point to show off his advanced skills, but Rouga’s role was still very small in the end. He never got to fight Ikazuchi and only had a few battles in the entire series. I was expecting more of a reaction when Kyoya appeared as well since he wants to be friends again someday. Rouga’s my kind of character and I hope he gets more of a role in the next season. At worst, he can be a little generic, but for the most part he performs his role quite well. He just needs a cool new monster since he hasn’t gotten a power up since season 1.

Kiri gets a huge role here. In season 1, his personality did a 180 towards the end as he became a hardcore fighter instead of the little kid who looked up to Gao a lot. That happens here once again as he realizes his destiny of being one of the big Omni Lords. As a result, Kiri becomes a pacifist and prefers not to use his super powers. His new form has a cool design, but my favorite version of Kiri was probably his hardcore one from the end of the first series. This is still a big improvement over his initial form though. I’m assuming that he is one of the people to decide to stay on Earth, but if he did leave, then I guess he may return as a guest star someday.

Sofia has always had a lot of hype and is always making plans in the background. Her teleporation ability is incredibly useful and makes her a dangerous character to have as an enemy. That being said, she does get intimidated by Gratos and playing all of the sides was a very dangerous way to go about things. The show still hasn’t really discussed what her motivations are for working with the villains yet. After two seasons she is still as mysterious as ever. Sofia’s a solid character, but I want to see the heroes directly challenge her a little more. It’s the opposite with Shido as he gets completely wrecked numerous times throughout the series. He rarely ever wins although he does get one serious fight at the end where he proves that he is actually a very good duelist when he is trying. I thought that it was actually a very solid episodes and it occurred during the final 4 of the series so he got some major props there. Shido is a likable character. He’s typically used for comic relief and doesn’t mind being a villain if it’ll help him out in any way, but he’s ultimately not going to try and destroy the world or anything like that. Now that the villains are gone, he may be able to finally have some peace and quiet for a change.

Kazane was one of Gao’s rivals to an extent, but that’s not really her role this time. She has to prove to the Count that she can protect herself and helps the rest of the heroes in the final battles. Ultimately, her role was not as big as I had anticipated it to be. She still had a pivotal role in the end I suppose. Cracking under pressure when fighting the frog guy was not great though. Between her and Gao, we had a lot of cracking in this season. She still should have gotten some kind of twist after all of the foreshadowing. Jin and his fellow season 1 fighters deserve a quick shoutout here, but that’s about it. They all returned for some quick fights, but they don’t really do anything here. They’re really meant to be cool guest stars, but these guys were never all that great so it doesn’t work too well. Jin and the others aren’t bad characters, but to be a cool guest star you need to be someone a little better like Noboru. Now having him return works a lot better as a guest star.

Ban Enma is one of the new characters in Buddyfight and he’s definitely cool. He’s a good fighter like Gao and it’s always fun to have some hand to hand fighters around. His true form is just as cool and I’m glad that his personality didn’t change. In another series, he easily could have been the fan favorite character or the big rival. This series has enough rivals at this point so I’ll just call him a friend, but Ban is definitely a likable guy. I would definitely love to see him have a big role again next time. His followers are definitely some of the more loyal ones around and that’s because of Ban’s charismatic personality.

Mukuro is a character that I actually mixed up with Variable Cord the first time around. I just figured that they were the same character. Mukuro’s big plot twist in the end about how he’s actually a hero was definitely out of the blue and felt a little off, but he’s a cool character anyway. All of his appearances signified that something epic was about to happen. His deck was really cool as well and in the end he proved just how heroic he can be. His role wasn’t huge, but he made his presence known. I’d say that he’s even a little cooler than Ban.

Tenbu is one of the 8 Omni Lords and he is unfortunately a pretty bad character. Just think of Brock from Pokemon or a similar character like that. He flirts quite a lot and spends most of the time getting beaten up or knocked out. He even lost his memories of why he was trying to warn the heroes in the first place, which ends up making him a huge liability. If the heroes had known what was going to happen a little earlier, it’s safe to say that things may have turned out very differently. He never got better as the series went on.

Ikazuchi was a really cool villain in his debut. I didn’t care for the plot twist that he used to be a hero though and ultimately that’s the route he took. Ikazuchi made the right move of course, but it also resulted in random hijinx of him trying to live a normal life and then getting wrecked by Yamigedo for a while. He was cool as a villain, but we rarely got to see him actually do anything. His first duel with Gao was still the highlight of this character’s career. That being said, I like him more for the design than for his personality so it barely counts in the end I suppose. If handled right, he could make for another good rival in the next season though. He is apparently skilled enough to win 99 games against Gao after all, although I find that hard to believe.

Yamigedo was the big hyped monster and he got a big role. He even got to talk quite a bit in the end during his final form. There’s definitely no reason not to like this fighter. He’s huge and is one of the more impressive giant monsters that I’ve seen in a while. His ability to petrify anything that he touches is quite the lethal ability as well. His best deputy, Gratos was also pretty cool. Gratos was actually treated like The main villain for a while and he was certainly very imposing. He never backed down from a fight and he handled the situation very well the entire time. He even seemed to figure out that Sofia was hiding something, although he never really made any moves to stop her. He relied on scare tactics and they were effective to an extent. He even came with his own throne. It’s hard not to recognize this guy as the best villain. If we don’t count Kyoya since his role was small and he is supposed to be more of a hero nowadays, then Gratos definitely takes that honor.

Count Dawn is an all right character I suppose. His gimmick of constantly turning to dust can be a little repetitive though. He also goes a little power crazy in my opinion. He’s a relatively new character and yet he quickly assumes command and acts like a big shot. I don’t think that it has been earned. So, maybe I’ll downgrade him from all right so slightly sub-par. Captain Answer finally gets to fight here which was pretty neat. He had one fight in the first show as well I believe. My main problem with him is that his human alias is completely unlikable. I can’t believe that the guy was ever a big hero based on how he acts. It’s too extreme and he never got to do anything cool since he was mind controlled almost immediately. It’s a shame since I love Answer himself.

Variable Cord is an intriguing character. While he may not have had his memories for a while, I can’t say that it really excuses him from being a total villain for most of the series only to let us know that he was a hero all along. I didn’t buy it and I feel like he was just playing all of the sides until a victor was near. He has a really cool design and he’s definitely a very powerful foe, but I feel like you’ve got to count him as a villain. Regardless, his episodes were always fun and the subplot with him and Tasuku’s future adventures was always enjoyable as well.

Kyoya was the big boss of season 1 so it makes sense that he would show up here. I’m glad that he didn’t deny being the hero by the end even if it wasn’t true. Still, I feel like the writers dind’t think his plot through all that much. His big plan is hyped up for many, many episodes. Yet, when he finally goes through with the plan, it fails miserably. It wasn’t even close to succeeding and it has to be one of the worst attempts that I’ve ever seen. Even his cool monster which made a lot of big threats back in the day got one shotted by Yamigedo. I think Kyoya was squeezed into the plot for no real reason and ultimately his plot never actually went anywhere. He’s still a cool character though and easily one of the most charismatic figures in the series. I think it’s safe to say that he’s still the best villain since I find it hard to believe that he’s really turned over a new leaf.

Well, one thing’s for sure, the moment where Gao lost his first duel was a pivotal moment in the series. It was treated as a major event which is what should happen. Gao has never lost a duel before and he’s dueled all of the strongest fighters in the world. This showed just how much of a threat Ikazuchi and Yamigedo were to have such a feat. Instead of the episodic One Hundred Demons and Omni Lord finding episodes, I would have continued that with a big training montage. Maybe send Gao to the future where he is trained by himself or something like that. I think it would have made for a very epic adventure.

The animation is solid as expected. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it is a big step up from the original Buddyfight show, but it is a little better. You can see the difference if you watch an episode from both titles, but it’s a subtle one. It’s probably just because the series came out afterwards by a week so it had about a year’s worth of time to beat the respective episode from the first series. Regardless, it’s definitely solid. When it comes to the soundtrack, it is a huge improvement over the first series. Most of the themes are catchy, but there are 3 that stand out above the rest. One is a “hope is lost” theme that plays whenever something super tragic just happened or when the villain is winning. The cool thing is that the theme only consists of a single sound for the most part that keeps on repeating. It has some background elements after that, but it’s quite effective for being so simple. A second really good theme is another despair one that pops up quite a bit for the villains. A third one is your average battle theme. There were probably a few others in there as well.

It’s also worth noting that the openings for this show have been much better than the first one. The main one with the Giant Monster running around and Gao vs Tasuku the mini fight is the best one. It feels more like an anime opening than the first Buddyfight show, where it was a little too unfocused and just about showing off the visuals. This show remembered that foreshadowing and a good amount of action can go a long way in an opening.

Overall, Buddyfight 100 was a good sequel to Buddyfight. Considering how many great new characters were introduced, you’d think that this series would have beaten the original. Unfortunately, the bad pacing ended up hurting the series quite a bit. Still, with its length and solid replay value, Buddyfight 100 is still a series that I’d recommend to anyone. It’s one of the weaker card shows overall and I’d say that it may be the weakest unless we count Capsule Monsters, but that just shows how high the bar is set for these kind of titles. I’m confident that the next series for Buddyfight will reclaim its former glory even if it’s not off to the greatest of starts. It feels a little like a soft reboot and the characters are certainly a lot more expressive than they used to be. It’s very odd and I’m waiting for the twist that this is actually a parallel universe. Well until then, wait and see what other anime reviews I’ve got in store for you all soon.

Overall 7/10

Cardfight Vanguard G Review

Posted on June 3, 2016 by dreager1

It’s time to take a look at G, the next era of Cardfight. It already has three seasons so this era could end up being just as large as the original. That’d be great since Cardfight’s been a great franchise thus far and a worthy rival to Yugioh. G is the weakest installment so far, but that’s typically the price that you pay for pushing the old cast to the side and introducing new main characters. It’s still fun though and a good show in its own right.

A decently large amount of time has passed since the previous Cardfight Vanguard season. The world that Kai and friends protected has finally arrived into an era of peace. Aichi has taken the time to head to America after quickly bumping into Chrono. The other Vanguard warriors still reside in the city, but they mostly just stop by for the occasional guest star appearances. Kamui is the semi manager of the new cardshop though so he is a main character. He meets up with Chrono, the new hero of this story. Chrono isn’t a very approachable guy and typically looks like he has a bit of an attitude so he doesn’t have any friends. That’s when he is introduced into the game of Vanguard. Through it he finally starts to make friends and really gets to know two other characters, Shion and Tokoha. The three of them decide to form a team known as Try3 and go around entering tournaments. The more tournies that they win, the higher that their ranks will get.

This series is mostly a slice of life adventure. There is a bit of a plot towards the end and a lot of foreshadowing, but this season is mainly used for character development. At 48 episodes, that is definitely a lot of time for it. The cast is quite large though and this gives the show time to ensure that everyone gets a fight. It’s also used to have the main characters go through their slumps early on. Chrono doesn’t really know what he’s fighting for and works to get better at talking things out. Tokoha wants to get out from her brother’s shadow and Shion has trouble balancing his duties as the heir to the Kiba family while still playing Vanguard. The three of them all get through these troubles by the end of season 1 so the good news is that we won’t have to worry about this for season 2.

As for the bit of plot that I mentioned, one of Chrono’s friends used to love Vanguard. Then he made the mistake of joining a clan to work on getting better and has lost all of his nice emotions. Chrono figures that the training regime is not good for the kids so his team goes to their headquarters to see what’s up. They will have to defeat the head honcho there though and the guy is fascinated with the mystical Depend Cards. Those will become more relevant in the next season. Either way, Chrono can’t back down now! Of yeah, did I mention that Chrono has been mysteriously receiving cards for the one of a kind Gear Chronicle deck? It’s part of what gets him into the game in the first place and also helps to give him a bit of an edge since nobody’s even seen the deck before. Chrono’s Dad also mysteriously vanished a long time ago and is presumed dead, but is he really?

One unfortunate change for Cardfight G is that the card fights are no longer shown in their entirety. In fact, most of the time nearly the whole fight is off screen. The next season fixes that a little, but it’s still nowhere near the days of old. In the original Cardfight show, you would see each move and you would always see the characters activate their counter blasts and triggers. It was more fun that way, at least for big card fighting fans like me. Instead, the fights will either start in the middle here or just show us the virtual reality part so we see the avatars making moves, but they don’t explain what happened in real time. You can get what’s happening anyway for the most part if it’s just an attack, but not if an ability is used. It also makes the characters make some odd decisions like just attacking with the vanguard and not summoning any support units. It feels like an easy way out for the writers since they don’t have to think up a whole duel this way.

I like seeing the virtual part, but not at the expense of my thrilling card fights. As I mentioned though, you want to go into this show with less of an emphasis on the action and cardfights and more on just watching the characters have a good time. The main cast is likable so that helps quite a lot. Some shows can’t handle this approach very well, but even if it’s just an episode of the characters going shopping or fishing, it will still be fun. In that sense, the show was definitely not going to go under a 7, but it wouldn’t go higher than it either. This is probably the limit for a show like this, but so long as the show was fun in the end, I can say that the approach was successful. In theory, it should be all uphill for the show from here.

The animation is nice and sharp. I always thought that this company did a good job with the animation. I’d say that Legion Mate and Link Joker still defeat it, but this show can hold its own with the average modern show. It’s not going to be making a run at the top shows of course, but the animation isn’t lazy or sloppy. It works well here. It’s always good to see the monster fights and the character designs are always a bright contrast to the surrounding area so they stand out. Unfortunately, I can’t say that the soundtrack is quite as good. I actually liked the English theme song for this one by the end. That being said, I can’t say that it’s really fitting. It’s pretty emotional and downcast while the series is always very chipper so it’s an odd contrast. It’s the reverse of Madoka Magica in a sense. There aren’t any really good themes here. Not to say that music is all bad though. The themes are fairly fitting for the scenes and maybe it’s just because there haven’t really been any scenes that would need great themes. Cardfight Vanguard just had a very large array of awesome themes back in the day. G’s are more on the generic side. It’s not so much that they’re too upbeat, but where aren’t any real battle themes, which is my problem on that side. Still, it’s not a bad soundtrack by any means and while you’re watching the show you probably won’t think about it all that much.

Chrono is the main hero and he’s a solid lead. His character arc of looking mean, but actually being a nice guy on the inside is a good one. Not everyone can come across as super happy or approachable like Naruto or Aichi. Some people just naturally look mean and Chrono’s haircut in and of itself probably makes him look tough. Once he starts dueling, Chrono develops into a very good character. He definitely looks out for his friends and does his best to rescue the various duelists from the final boss of the series. With the various mysteries plaguing him from all sides, Chrono will have to keep his guard up at all times. In a show like this one, a character’s duel avatar is important and Chrono Jet Dragon is a solid go to card.

Shion has to balance a whole lot of duties so he probably has the toughest time behind the scenes when compared to the other two characters. Attending a lot of functions, being a kendo master, and an expert duelist is a lot to ask of a kid who still has to attend school as well. He does a good job of completing it all silently and without a complaint though. At first Shion is very with drawn, hiding in the shell of formality, but by the end he warms up to the others. Chrono’s still my favorite character of the main 3, but Shion makes for a good rival. He blurs the line a bit in the sense that he may count as more of a friend than a rival at this point, but he could work as both. Either way I want a Chrono vs Shion rematch at some point with high stakes. Maybe fighting at a tournament soon once they are both at peak strength. Shion uses the Royal Paladins so I certainly want him to fight Aichi at some point.

Tokoha is the third member of the group and easily the most outgoing person on the team. She really keeps the team together and helps to jump start their bonds by having the team help in clean up activities and volunteer all over the place. Her subplot of getting out from her brother’s shadow definitely would have been annoying if it had lasted too long so I’m glad that it’s over now. She came to terms with it well and now she has less drama to deal with than the others. Shion’s troubles carry on into the next season along with Chrono’s to an extent. All of them will still deal with future troubles, but for the most part their core personalities have been solidified. Tokoha uses the Neo Nectar Deck so she has a lot of grass based fighters. The deck doesn’t look as imposing the other two’s, but her skills are certainly at their level. At the moment, I would consider Chrono to be the strongest followed by Shion and then Tokoha. At least by the end of this show, but we’ll see if that changes at some point.

Kamui is a main supporting character which was good to see. He was always one of the weaker members of Q4, but he is still a world class duelist just the same. At this point, I feel like he should definitely be considerably stronger than the main 3. If the world is ever in danger again, Kamui would likely be the first line of defense. He still uses a very offensive deck to suit his fire style and he’s a solid character. Since Emi is rarely around, he is usually fairly serious the whole time. His character has a lot of depth and that’s the result of being a main character for all 5 seasons.

Kanzaki is the final boss of the show. He doesn’t have much in the way of charisma or development though. He gets a cool flashback where we find out that his horse can run on skyscrapers though. He wants to be ultra strong and to be the best. Those are decent motivations though, but he is certainly a villain with how he handles his base. The kids there also just have low will power, but that’s a whole other issue. Kanzaki is certainly powerful though and winning 3 duels at the same time was certainly very impressive. I wouldn’t mind seeing him again at some point.

Shouma is certainly a more interesting villain though. He likes to take shots at those who were born with enormous riches and political power. He loves to see his opponents humiliated before defeat and has a lot of mind games against Shion. His abilities are certainly quite real and he even has a short physical fight against Ibuki. I’d actually say that Shouma is easily the best villain in the series and it’s safe to say that he should have a big role in the next season right?…..

Rin is Tokoha’s rival. She makes sure to remind Tokoha about how her big brother Mamoru is a much better duelist than her all the time. The tactic works a little too well, but once Tokoha got over that she was able to surpass this villain. Without her mind games, I’m wondering if Rin has enough character to make another appearance necessary. She’s rather similar to Ren’s teammate after all. She wasn’t a bad villain, but not as interesting as Shouma.

Sugiru easily had the smallest role out of the three villains. He made the mistake of underestimating Chrono and that’s never a good move to make. He was basically written out after his defeat so there’s not a whole lot to say about him. I suppose that we needed an expendable and he fit the bill. He’s rather similar to Shion’s fencing rival. The guy is around and he’s relevant I suppose, but he really just stuck to having a bit role.

Kouji is a mysterious figure. You can’t really call him a villain although he is hyped like one at first. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t take him seriously as a result. His duel against Chrono was probably the first epic episode in the series, but after that he had too many happy scenes just drinking and eating with Mamoru. That was around where I started to figure out that he couldn’t be a villain. I think the show handled his approach incorrectly and he still hasn’t had much of a real duel at this point. I do think that his character design is good though and having a mysterious rival for Chrono could be good. I think they should just save him for moments like that though or just make him a total good guy. The second season basically does this and that’s an improvement over straddling the line between protagonist and antagonist. He was never meant to be a villain so it was misdirection, but it wasn’t needed.

Mamoru is Tokoha’s big brother and the head of the Dragon Empire branch. He’s a relatively powerful fighter and he gets a good amount of hype. I want to see him have a serious duel before I buy into it, but he’s a good character. He just hasn’t had anything really big to do at the moment. Jaime is another character who gets hype, but I don’t like this guy at all. His constant flirting got annoying the instant that he first appeared and his catchphrase of (My Heart!) is always annoying as well. The show couldn’t have made this guy more irritating if they tried. It gets worse when you consider the fact that he is actually portrayed as a tough character so he’s going to be around for quite a while. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. He’s easily The worst character in the show.

Trinity Dragon has a catchy jingle whenever they appear so I’ll give them that. They’re basically the equivalent of Dex from Megaman. They’re comic relief characters who can’t duel for beans, but they always have a lot of confidence anyway. They don’t back up from any group and are always determined to one up Chrono. I like the leader of the group, but I don’t care for the other two. They’re doomed to their roles for the duration of G so if you don’t like them in their first appearance, odds are you won’t like any of their moments after that. There are a lot of them so hopefully you become a fan. Shin was a big supporting character in the original Cardfight show, but he never got to do anything. It was said or implied that Shin was a world class duelist at some point, but it was never really delved into. Even during the Link Joker debacle where Shin stepped in a little, he never got to do much. G is setting him up to be a bigger player this time around. He has a serious duel with Chrono and you can bet that he’ll still be around for the next season. Shin does get serious from time to time and this upcoming fight involving Chrono’s past will be more personal than usual. I’m ready for a serious Shin, but hopefully the contrast between him being serious and comic relief isn’t too drastic.

There are some other minor characters who appear in the show like Takeru. He faces off against Chrono in a tournament and they become friends while travelling across town. He’s a fairly strong duelist and I would definitely expect him to appear again someday. That being said, Naoki returning makes this guy a little irrelevant since they are so similar. Tokoha also has a friend who wants to learn how to duel and loves eating pastries. I don’t see her ever being a big character, but it’s always nice to have a supportive friend. The final big character is probably Taiyou. He’s the kid who is brainwashed by the evil branch and wants power at any cost. He is shown to have a lot of latent potential as he quickly surpasses almost everyone and nearly defeats Chrono. Now he’ll learn how to win the right way. Taiyou was fairly annoying the whole time though and added a lot of drama by letting himself be warped so easily. I didn’t care for him, but with that whole situation behind him, he should start being a good character now. At the very least, his plot did add some real stakes and tension though so it was good that he was in the show. The fights with the villain group were some of the best in the series.

This show is at its best when the tournaments are going on or when Team Try3 is having its grudge matches against Kanzaki’s group. Those episodes felt like they could have been right out of the original series. That’s the personal level of stakes and trash talking that I missed in this season. Tournament battles are always cool after all and remember earlier that I mentioned how the series did have 1 or 2 good tunes. If I recall correctly, both of those played during the fights with Kanzaki’s team. Still, G’s character introduction approach works well. The characters have all been securely introduced and most of them got a lot of development. Just look at Jaime, he had 3 episodes to himself although he’s still a terrible character. This show won’t be beating any of the Cardfight or Yugioh titles anytime soon, but it does defeat BuddyFight 100. That’s a start and with how much the next season has improved, it could make it back to 9 territory someday.

Overall, Cardfight G is another solid show to add to your collection. It’s the definition of a fun Saturday Morning Cartoon. It all goes back to my definition of what a good TV show, Comic, Manga, Video Game, or any sort of media should be. It should be fun. You should walk out of the experience knowing that you had a good time. A grin should be on your face and you should be glad to talk about it for a while. If those things didn’t happen, then something went wrong. The term “slice of life” may have a bit of a negative connotation to it when placed in the context of a show like Cardfight, but it really shouldn’t. The Earth isn’t always in danger and you know that the show will get back into the action genre soon. Having some time for the heroes to actually enjoy the world that they have protected these all years is good. G is a show that is very easy to talk about and there is a lot to discuss. Each episode was a blast and I can’t recall any bad ones. A lot of plots have been set up for the next season so there is a lot to wonder about. Most of the episodes also have an after credits scene so I recommend being on the lookout for them. One of them even solves the mystery of who has been leaving Chrono his new cards. Whether you like Card fight shows or not, I recommend checking this one out. Just about any kind of anime fan can get into this one with ease. I’ll have a review for the next season shortly.

Overall 7/10

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen Review

Posted on April 30, 2016 by dreager1

After watching all of the Slayer seasons, it was time for a slightly more serious take on the fantasy genre. By “slightly” more serious, I mean that this one is very somber and dramatic for the entirety of its run. (Ignoring the sequel series/season) You can tell that this is the tone that it is going for as soon as the first opening plays. It’s catchy, but the images are also quite sad. It depicts a barren wasteland and a solitary hero who must wander through life on his own even when his friends are near. His mission is a fire one and the stakes are high. It’s a fun series even if one of the characters goes through a personality shift a little too quickly at the end. (Azalie)

A long time ago, Orphen was taught magic at the Tower of Fang. Things went well for a while and Orphen became one of the strongest magicians in the world, but his mentor (Azalie) became greedy with power and used a mystical sword to stab herself which transformed her into the dragon, Bloody August. The Tower of Fang decided that she must be eliminated which caused Orphen to leave on a mission to save her and to defeat the Tower of Fang if necessary. On his travels, he ended up meeting up with a kid named Majic and a rich lady named Cleao. Majic gets involved in the quest because Orphen decides to take him in as an apprentice (For a good amount of money of course) As for Cleao, her family owns the legendary sword that transformed Azalie in the first place so Orphen decides to take it back. Cleao follows him so that she can take the sword back once he’s done with it.

The sword isn’t powerful enough to change Azalie back to her human form though so Orphen needs to find a few relics to amp up its power and allow him to cast the spell. Is it that easy though? A lot of complications occur and naturally the Tower of Fang aims to stand in his way. Along the way, Orphen softens up a little with the group, but for the majority of the series, he’s serious business through and through. He can’t relax until the mission is complete.

Orphen’s plot is pretty engaging and this first series builds up a lot of the universe as we learn about the current status quo. The Tower of Fang seems to be the only ruling body in the world or at least the main one by which all others look to for advice. I wonder how they got such a high rank since the group doesn’t seem all that tough. If I could change one thing about the show’s plot, it would be that I’d like a better resolution at the end, fight-wise. There wasn’t really a big fight to end the series surprisingly and Orphen never got to have a big fight with Childman. Even fighting Azalie in her final form would have been a blast to see as the student surpassed the mentor. Unfortunately, all of these fights never got to happen which was a little disappointing. The series had a good amount of action in its run, but I feel like all anime should end off with a big fight. End on a high note right?

Orphen’s the lead of course and he makes for a good one. He’s completely focused on the mission so he rarely humors his comrades on their comic relief subplots. He’s an excellent mage so he rarely ever loses a fight. He reminds me a little of Train Heartnet although he is typically in denial a little more. Azalie isn’t quite as selfless and nice as Saya was in Black Cat. It’s still a noble goal to save her of course, but he certainly bites off a lot more than he can chew here. Regardless, Orphen’s tough personality and ace combat skills make him a great lead.

Cleao’s the main heroine and she always means well. Unfortunately, she’s not much of a fighter. She gets into arguments with Orphen quite a lot, which ultimately help him not get too focused on the mission to the point where he’ll lose everything else. When a fight starts, Cleao’s glad to try and help even if it’s only a little. It’d be great if she could learn a spell or two, but Cleao is certainly charasmatic so she’s got that going in her favor. The group needed an energetic character in the mix for the good banter and contrast that it brings. She owns Leki, a magical dog of immense power who comes in handy quite a bit. This also ended up helping Cleao a lot since Leki is immensely powerful and can blow away most opponents with ease. When Leki grows up, he could even end up being stronger than Orphen if the bigger versions of him are any indication.

Then…we have Majic. Unfortunately, he’s a bad character. He’s one of the main comic relief characters of the series and a running gag is that his magical abilities are terrible and seem to never actually improve no matter how far the series ends up progressing. One scene towards the very beginning of the series doomed him though even if it was meant as a quick comic relief scene. Majic uses his spells to make a mirror next to where Cleao was bathing so he could watch. It’s a pretty despicable act and while Orphen put an end to it, it shows that Majic definitely has no standards. It’s a quick scene and Majic never does anything like it again, but there’s no way that he could be a likable character after that. When you’re in a small group on the road, you have to be able to trust your partners. After an act like that, there’s no way you can really trust Majic so it’s good to see him fail at performing spells for the rest of the series.

Volkan and Dortin are the other comic relief characters. Volkan always acts as the voice of reason against Dortin while Dortin forces him to come along anyway. Dortin is like Hercule or other comic relief characters who always talk a great game before getting wrecked. It works really well for Dortin though and he is easily one of the best comic relief characters of this type out there. He gets most of the best lines in the entire show and the banter between him and Orphen helps to make the series so enjoyable. Typically, any scene with the two of them is going to be pretty good and a lot of Dortin’s schemes are fun even if they’re doomed to fail. I don’t really care for Volkan, but then again, I typically don’t care for the “straight man” in jokes or the serious comic relief character. It just doesn’t work for me at all and destroys the point of a comic relief character.

The whole show is really about saving Azalie so she has a big role in this. For the first half of the series she’s essentially mindless. Not completely as seen when the dragon turns into Childman and he still has control, but it is hard to see what her plan is. Later on, we find out a lot of startling plot twists about her. The sword transformation may have not been how she planned it to go, but she was aiming for power for all the wrong reasons. She always wanted Childman, but as he was a reasonable mentor, he placed the friend zone card. That’s what Azalie wanted vengeance and she ultimately ends up taking over Childman’s body.

From there, she freezes one of the Fang members, tries to destroy Childman, and also breaks the mind of one of the Elders. She is a complete villain through and through, there’s no way to get around that. Despite all of this, everyone treats her as a likable hero by the end who just went a little off course. You can make a plot like that work such as Cardfight Vanguard where Kai went around doing quite a few evil things before being taken down, but it has to be gradual. In Orphen, this turnaround is just about instant as soon as she is essentially defeated and Childman is turned back into a baby. Also, we learn that she essentially becomes the boss of the Tower of Fang in the sequel series. She never gets to pay for her crimes of murder and assault in the slightest.

Don’t get me wrong, Azalie makes for a great villain, but it’s incredibly hard to buy the fact that she is now a “hero.” It’s not that easy and quick to switch sides and especially not when we see her being evil for quite so long. All it took was for Childman to remove the friendzone card from the table, but it’s way too late for that. So, while Azalie is cool, I think that the end plot development simply did not make any sense by the end. It could have been handled better.

Childman is Azalie’s mentor and seems to be generally considered as the strongest magician in the world. His abilities are quite high and it is revealed at the end that he could even have defeated the Bloody August if he had wished to do so. I don’t like this guy though because he is supremely annoying. All along he wanted to save Azalie as well, but he just decided not to tell anyone and as a result, he made no real progress in his quest. Either way, he would need some artifacts if he wanted to do anything, but he never got any of them and then Azalie took his body with ease while Childman was in awe of her. He really could have handled the situation 100x better than he actually did. I respect his power, but that’s about all.

Hartia is Orphen’s childhood friend, although you could barely tell from this season. Hartia acts like a friend and tries to act as a mediator between Childman and Orphen, but it’s tough since Orphen wants nothing to do with him. It also doesn’t help that while Azalie was in Childman’s body, she kept incriminating herself and Hartia intentionally to further widen the wedge between the friends. By the end, Orphen and Hartia had some all out battles with each other. Hartia could certainly have done a better job of explaining things at different points, but in the end the fact of the matter is that he chose the tower over Orphen and that’s probably at the heart of Orphen’s grudge. I like Hartia’s superhero identity even if it certainly doesn’t help to smooth things over with Orphen. He’s actually a lot stronger than he lets on.

Flameheart is one of the main villains and he is the first opponent to flat out defeat Orphen before the fight was interrupted. He may not be the coolest villain around, but he is quite powerful. He meets with a bit of an anticlimactic end though as he made the same mistake as Azalie as he tried to grab the sword. I suppose that the sword is just hard to resist. I’m not really a fan of this guy though and he does do a lot of whining when things don’t go his way. Good villains have to keep their calm and activate a backup plan when things don’t go well.

The show has some mild fanservice towards the beginning and the end. For the end it’s mainly through the astral projection of Azalie appearing for no real reason. It’s her astral form, but it is still overused quite a bit and Cleao also gets some towards the beginning, but by and large Orphen manages to dodge this trap for the most part. There are definitely a few filler esque episodes, but they’re typically not bad. At the very least, filler helps you appreciate the real episodes a whole lot more.

Power Level wise, I’d place Orphen the character above several magicians like Dr. Strange and Lina Inverse (Definitely a close fight though and composite Lina could be another story with her Sword of Light) but physically he is around human level which can hurt him against fast opponents. As a series, Orphen is fairly realistic despite the magic so it wouldn’t rank too high next to other anime titles, but I’m sure that we’ll be getting some power ups as the franchise goes on.

The soundtrack for the show is pretty good. We have a solid opera theme that plays for the big moments like when the Bloody August attacked the Tower of Fang. It was a great scene I have to add as it came out of nowhere and was pretty unexpected. Who would have thought that the big villain organization would be taken down so suddenly and in the span of around 2 minutes? These guys talked such a big game, but they crumbled in the end. There are quite a few other good battle themes in the series as well. Both of the openings are also quite good with the second one having better action scenes, but the first one probably encapsulating the themes of the show a little better. In the end, I will actually choose that one as my favorite for this series.

As for the animation, it looks pretty solid. Especially when the high budget scenes show up, there is a noticeable difference. The colors are nice and vibrant and this is especially useful for the action scenes. Even when the budget is normal though, the show looks very clear. Naturally, the sequel series looks a lot richer with detail, but this one is definitely solid. There are even some illustration type shots towards the beginning of the series which are always fun. As long as they aren’t spammed of course, but that’s not the case here.

Overall, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen is a solid show. It’s definitely one of the more somber anime that I’ve seen in a while at times, but there is no shortage of comic relief characters, which keeps the atmosphere fairly light at well. The animation and soundtrack hold up very well and fight scenes are solid as well. It’s an all around solid show and one I’d recommend to all fantasy or action fans. If you like good banter a lot, but are not necessarily an action fan, I think you can still enjoy this show quite a bit as well. I’m just about done with the sequel series so you can expect a review for that as well fairly soon. It opts to drop the serious angle so it’s more of a lighthearted adventure which works well enough in its own right, but it is definitely different.

Overall 7/10

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