Review: Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World E.1A-1B

After just a few minutes of watching Re:Zero I had the impression that it was a lot like Kono Subarashii Sekai Ni Shukufuku Wo! Both are about a shut-in boy in a track suit that’s whisked away to a fantasy land and both are under the impression that it will somehow be like a video game. Where Re:Zero differences itself is in its tone… and production. KonoSuba made it clear early on that it was a comedy through and through and while not the most amazing it was enjoyable. With Re:Zero, it had lighthearted moments and some comedy, but it was clearly a darker story.

The main character Subaru finds himself in this new world and follows the rules of MMORPG’s and begins to find information about where he is. This goes worse than expected and he soon finds himself drying in an alleyway. Three thugs come his way and he decides to test his skills and actually makes short work of two of them. He apparently works out. The third dude has knives and this sends Subaru cowering which leads to a boot party that only he’s invited to. At this point we meet Felt, a thief, as she’s fleeing from a victim and instead of asking the thugs to stop, she asks them to move out of her way. This leads to the victim arriving and helping Subaru because she can’t just let it go.

After the rescue she and her spirit creature, a cat, stay behind to make sure he wakes up and such. After a lot of talking he finally convinces the girl to let him help her find her stolen goods. Everything seems typical right? Sure we had a real world element of the city and the thugs, but we’ve introduced magic and had our meet-cute moment. Hold on to that feeling for a moment because that's what the story is counting on, you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

Eventually our main characters, through their good deeds, find the thief and head towards her neck of the city. Subaru decides to go inside the place where she’ll be and finds a dead body. He hears a woman’s voice and suddenly his stomach is cut up and he’s bleeding out. Our silver haired half-elf is quick to follow. You are no longer warm and fuzzy.

But Subaru doesn’t die. He doesn’t know what’s happened, but he finds himself in the same spot he started at… a little like a video game. He failed the level and must start over, but he doesn’t know that. The second episode then shows him going directly to the house that he was killed at. He for some reason, after being portrayed as smart, thinks he’s somehow survived the day and doesn’t piece together what’s happening… even after he dies again.

Now… this show has nothing on Erased from last season, but the Groundhog Day element to the story is interesting. Especially since Subaru’s not even remotely grasping the concept of what’s happening to him. This is very clear when on his third day he tackles the situation differently and things go completely awry again.

The ignorance of the characters is what works for this story. Subaru doesn’t know the world and so he makes simple mistakes that others take for common knowledge. After all, how are they to know he’s from another world when he doesn’t even know where or why he’s there. When the silver hair girl shares her name in the first episode it seems innocent enough with the exception of Puck’s response (that’s her spirit cat animal). In the second episode, the reason for the response becomes clear and it complicates the story even more. Subaru’s knowledge and yet ignorance is constantly shifting the story because he doesn’t have a clue how to keep everything in order and what can and can’t be said and done. More importantly he's trying to shortcut story and the story is making him pay. You can't just rush to the end because you know the end, it'll change you'll end up dead a different way.

The animation is by far the best I’ve seen this season. I’m sure there will be others that rival it or surpass it, but for now, it’s really good looking. The city is alive and not some empty area that’s only presented as being alive when its relevant to the story. There’s always someone or something going on which is perhaps the biggest difference between it and KonoSuba. There’s nothing particularly new about the style, but it’s an aesthetically pleasing anime to view with character designs that are familiar and yet really sharp to look at. The coloring for the anime is vibrant and gives it a movie feel. I hope that this doesn’t change or fade and that the high level of colors maintains throughout the series.

I’m curious to see what happens in the next episode which I guess will technically be the second episode even though there were two episodes for the premiere. None of these elements are that original as I’ve pointed out other properties that have used them, but it’s the combination of the elements, the characters and the presentation that have caught my attention. This one is definitely worth checking out and we can only hope that it will continue to balance the humor, light-hearted moments and the gore as it goes on.

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Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World E.1A-1B Official Website

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Review: Mayoiga – E.01

I had no expectations going into Mayoiga, but part of me wanted something creepy and strange to watch this anime season. This wasn’t it. I don’t know what this is. It’s trying to be creepy. It’s trying to be dark. It’s trying. That’s the point. It’s trying.

Thirty people are on a tour bus going to a hidden town to start their lives again. They introduce themselves by their internet message board names… and right about then I was done. When a character introduced themselves as Soy Latte I laughed and wondered what was really happening.

That’s the gist. They all want to start over and none of them are really being honest and no one knows what to expect from this new town. Some are taking it too seriously and others not enough. The bus drivers goes nuts listening to them all and gets puked on. Making me wonder why the fuck their going to a hidden town with a hired bus driver…

My favorite character was Jack… until he talked again. At first he just said his name and that was it. He won me over because of that. Which highlights the problem of their being too many fucking characters on the show and instead of taking a Lost approach and using the characters as needed, they introduce them all and then use way too many of them.

None of them do shit and we tend to follow on main guy and he seems normal, but as one character that’s weird and assholish points… he’s probably the one to look out for. Which I didn’t care about because I think we’re stuck following him no matter what.

The animation is fine, but the character designs are really uninspired. There’s a character you’ve seen from any other anime like this ever. Some of them are unusual looking and that made them stand out in a bad way, like the guy with the crazy chin and the eye patch… no joke.

The story is going for a Silent Hill vibe, but it fails miserably. There’s no atmosphere to the anime and every time there’s a chance it might build some it crushes it under the weight of its characters. It might get good when they all turn on it each other, but right now it’s so generic from its story to voice acting that it’s kind of a predictable mess.

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Mayoiga – E.01 Official Website

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Review: Hundred – E.01

Oh Hundred… you were basically doomed from the start. Have you watched Chivalry of a Failed Knight, The Instructor of Aerial Combat Wizard Candidates, Asterisk War, The Freezing or Absolute Duo? Then you don’t need to see Hundred. It is a watered down version of all of those things and since none of what I listed is any good it makes the Hundred that much worse. The plot is aliens/monsters/take your pick, with a cool codename attack the planet. Special kids that can handle the one and only type of weapon that can defeat them are chosen to train and use their weapon, but lo and behold… they can train against each other and not hurt each other so that they can be ranked! Our main character is rated off the charts and for some reason everyone at this school, new and old, want to welcome him because of this. He runs into a stranger that is a woman, looks like a woman and acts like every female character in this type of show, but is pretending to be a man. She jumps on him and hugs him. There’s two jokes about them both being men, one of which comes after the main character walks in on her getting out of the shower and putting on women’s underwear… he later headbutts her. Also he gets into a duel with the best student in the school because of rules.

Really he gets into a duel because we need to establish him as the strongest and like all male fantasy stories of this nature we have to put down the woman that’s the strongest. I don’t even know why the other main character is pretending to be a man, possibly to room with each other, but then she acted like she didn’t know she had a roommate and wasn’t very cautious about changing and shit in the room. The simplest and overused explanation is an uneven amount of boys and girls and that’s really what this story should have done.

The animation is good until you get to the weapon part and then it’s generic and CG. It’s sucked and I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot of it, well not me, I won’t be watching any more. Otherwise it clearly has some money backing it and I’m sure that the people who love and support the numerous examples I gave before, will also like this one.

I personally don’t care for this storyline. Dress it up however you want, it’s the same fucking story and they spend more time making the dude look cool than they do fighting this global threat that’s plaguing the planet every minute of the day. We’re likely to spend six episodes of him fighting others or just meeting people when really it should be a footnote to the rest of the story. Boring, uninspired and worst of all it cherry picks other series, but fails to deliver any real personality. It’s so overloaded with every trope possible that it fails to do any of them right, because if it did you might actually watch it.

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Hundred – E.01 Official Website

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Review: My Hero Academia - E.01

My Hero Academia is unfortunately one of those anime’s that just isn’t quite as good as the manga. Which is a shame. There have been a few anime that have really managed to bring the manga to life in a great way like Food Wars or One-Punch Man, but so far My Hero Academia feels a bit stiff. It’s not entirely it’s fault and it is still a good episode, but in trying to follow the pacing of the manga it really shoots itself in the foot. Without knowing what comes next in the story I don’t really see why you’d come back for more of this series after the ending of the first episode. In fact, knowing what comes next really makes me want to skip the second episode altogether and come back for the third.

The story, as I explained in my review of the first volume, is that the new norm is superpowers or quirks as they’re called. This opens up the job market for people to be superheroes. Our main character is quirkless, he has no powers, but he wants to be a hero. That’s the thing that sets him apart from everyone else. He wants to be a hero. Not have power. He knows that he basically needs the power to be a hero in this world and that’s the only reason he wants a quirk… to be a hero. To save people. To do it with a smile like his hero All Might.

We see how miserable and picked on Izuku is as one of his classmates not only makes fun of him, but physically challenges him as well. Here’s where that clear difference comes into play. Katsuki, the bully, only cares about power and being better than others with power. He wants to be a hero for purely selfish reasons. The simple fact of the matter is that he’s got “villain” written all over him, but for now he’s the other side of the coin to Izuku.

The comedy is spot on. It’s one of the few things that rings true for this, but the emotion is a bit stiff. Granted, I feel that in the comic the creator hits you over the head with how pathetic and sad Izuku is and how no one steps in to help him when Katsuki physically threatens him numerous times, but here it’s just stiff. I didn’t feel for Izuku the way I did in the manga because as much as the pacing struggles it’s also trying to cram as much as possible into this first episode.

The animation was solid and clearly this has a budget. It's getting the big push which makes sense since it's one of the few ongoing manga that's been adapted into an anime. It kind of needs to succeed and I don't see it failing.

Ultimately it’s an okay first episode. The reason for that is that the source material is really strong and I have a feeling that once we get to the school we’ll be fine. That was kind of the same for the manga as well. It’s a rough opening in either format, but if you stick with it, you’ll be pleased that you did. That and there’s a character called Mt. Lady which is just funny on multiple levels.

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My Hero Academia – E.01 Official Website

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Review: Endride – E.01

Endride should be called crystal swords or something better than “Endride” which currently makes zero sense with the story. Here’s the gist, we meet a dude that is obsessed and I mean obsessed with crystals and shit. The problem is, he doesn’t know dick about them. Sure we see him studying them at one point, but it’s after he’s gone to a shop that just has boxes of rocks and shit and looked at them like “Man there’s like a world inside.”

That’s called foreshadowing folks. Bad foreshadowing, but foreshadowing none the less.

Eventually he goes to find his dad at his dad’s lab because his dad missed his own birthday. There he types in the code to a special case (that later teleports to the other side of the room thanks to lazy animation) and picks up a floating crystal which goes inside him and then he goes inside it and you’re left wondering what the fuck anyone was thinking with this show.

Inside the crystal world it’s medieval fantasy. There’s a king that killed the former king and the former king’s son is looking for revenge. He fails and gets locked up where he meets the other dude as he comes teleporting above the stairs. There’s a fight, more fights, the new guy to the crystal world has a badass weapon that pops out of his chest whenever he’s in trouble and we meet our first female character at the end of the episode who informs fucking everyone that she knew the prince would run away.

I have seen this type of story done before and done better. It’s not a new formula, but this was by far the worst I’ve seen using it. It just goes to show how tired it is. I know that the new guy from our world is supposed to be our window into this new world, but figure out a different way. I mean it’s not like anime is a new thing, it’s not like storytelling in general is new. We don’t need something is generic and simple to explain why we’re in this world and really you could have waited and done a flashback and that would have been better. Instead, you bored me.

The art was whatever. It wasn’t good, it wasn’t bad. The CG on the weapons was pointless because it’s only for a second. That and the weapons themselves were pretty uninspired. My last gripe with this show is the fact that the fucking kid knew his dad’s secret code to his secret fucking container in his office and just started touching shit. WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT!!! If my kid did that and got transported to another world, he would be dead to me even if he came back alive. I couldn’t hate this fucker faster.

If you liked this show, don’t tell me, tell the comments. That’s where other people who liked it or didn’t will likely be.

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Endride – E.01

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Review: Ace Attorney – E.01

Well the Spring Anime season has kicked off and what a bunch of shit I’ve seen so far. I figured I would just start getting these out of the way rather than waiting for all of the first episodes and instantly losing motivation to write anything. Welcome.

Have you ever played or watched a YouTube video of the Ace Attorney game franchise? Then don’t watch this anime. This show is like watching someone play the game only with commercial breaks. It’s clearly geared towards kids which hey… maybe it’s popular with little kids in Japan… it’s not here and that’s on me for even bothering to watch this one.

The show is dumbed down for kids in an insulting way. If a kid can’t figure out the clues before the characters it’s probably because like me they got bored, hated the voice acting and hated how much the animation was imitating the game.

Here’s a scene so that you know what I mean…

It’s just like the fucking game… only you’re not playing it. Also the voice acting was generic as fuck and all the characters sounded like sub characters from better animes. I will never watch this again or deal with this franchise in any capacity. It’s not for me and if it’s for you please explain why, I won’t read the comment, but maybe someone else will.

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Ace Attorney – E.01

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Flashgitz Presents Pokemanz

Disturbing and hilarious. Well I guess only hilarious if you like Pokemon, but I do so this was hilarious.

Us Versus Movies: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny

It's the podcast for the sequel you didn't ask for! Both myself and Kevin were pretty big fans of the original film so we took a chance on what became a Netflix exclusive (minus the budget support) and dived into a sequel that only brought back one character from the original cast and added Donnie Yen. Did it fly high in the bamboo this time around or fall into a waterfall? Also, Fuller House... its in there for some reason.

Previously on Us Versus Movies...

VIZ Media's NARUTO Feature Film Catalog Launches On STEAM Digital Content Platform

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest publisher, distributor and licensor of manga and anime in North America, brings the action and excitement of NARUTO to Steam, a leading interactive content delivery platform by software company, Valve Corporation. All 10 full-length feature films from the NARUTO and NARUTO SHIPPUDEN story arcs are available (English dubbed) for purchase and rental on Steam in the U.S. and Canada, including:

• NARUTO THE MOVIE: NINJA CLASH IN THE LAND OF SNOW
• NARUTO THE MOVIE: LEGEND OF THE STONE GELEL
• NARUTO THE MOVIE: GUARDIANS OF THE CRESCENT MOON KINGDOM
• NARUTO SHIPPUDEN THE MOVIE
• NARUTO SHIPPUDEN THE MOVIE: BONDS
• NARUTO SHIPPUDEN THE MOVIE: THE WILL OF FIRE
• NARUTO SHIPPUDEN THE MOVIE: THE LOST TOWER
• NARUTO SHIPPUDEN THE MOVIE: BLOOD PRISON
• ROAD TO NINJA: NARUTO THE MOVIE
• THE LAST: NARUTO THE MOVIE

For a limited time only, a special promotional price will be available on the movies. Please visit http://store.steampowered.com/ to access these films.

“With its kinetic on-screen action and iconic characters, NARUTO has captivated millions of dedicated gamers and anime fans, and the movies are a wonderful complement to the content Steam offers its substantial user community,” says Brian Ige, Vice President, Animation. “We look forward to the future of this partnership.”

Steam is a leading content platform with thousands of titles and millions of members. Through Steam, fans can easily buy, play, share, modify, and build communities around Valve products as well as titles from other independent studios. Steam is available in 237 countries and 21 different languages. Since March 2015, Steam has also added more than 100 film titles, with more coming soon.

In the NARUTO manga and animated series, Naruto Uzumaki wants to be the best ninja in the land. He's done well so far, but Naruto knows he must train harder than ever and leaves his village for intense exercises that will push him to his limits. NARUTO SHIPPUDEN begins two and a half years later, when Naruto returns to find that everyone has been promoted up the ninja ranks – except him. Sakura’s a medic ninja, Gaara’s advanced to Kazekage, and Kakashi…well he remains the same. But pride isn’t necessarily becoming of a ninja, especially when Naruto realizes that Sasuke never returned from his search for Orochimaru. Plus, the mysterious Akatsuki organization is still an ever-present danger. As Naruto finds out more about the Akatsuki’s goals, he realizes that nothing in his universe is as it seems. Naruto is finding that he’s older, but will he also prove wiser and stronger?

VIZ Media is the North American master licensor for NARUTO and distributes the NARUTO and NARUTO SHIPPUDEN anime series and feature films as well as publishes the bestselling NARUTO manga series in print and digitally.

Additional information on NARUTO and NARUTO SHIPPUDEN is available at www.Naruto.com.

For more information on anime titles available from VIZ Media, please visit www.VIZ.com.

Review: Lucifer 1.2 – Lucifer, Stay. Good Devil

After enjoying the first episode I was curious to see how they would actually pair Lucifer and Chloe up so that they can continue to solve crimes together… the answer is not very thrilling. The episode is unfortunately a lot like most second episodes… rehash of the first. The reason being that pilot episodes are usually created in a bubble. They’re more standalone than jumping off points and so it’s usually pretty difficult to continue stories from the pilot when the second episode is filmed six months later and the entire direction of the show has changed. If you need any bigger proof of this just watch the first two episodes of Constantine as they abandon the entire premise of the show and recast a character. I know, I know… I’ve brought up Constantine again. Well… that’s because this show is a lot like Constantine in some ways. I fear that based on this episode that it might be heading towards cancellation like Constantine. Really the only thing saving it is that it’s a late season premiere and Fox hasn’t announced anything else coming down the line. That and Million Moms continues to give it great publicity by not shopping at places they don’t already shop at because “Lucifer” is the name of the show and god forbid kids watch it… what fucking kid wants to watch procedural TV shows based off a comic book they never read? I don’t know, but they’re a pretty cool fucking kid and their mom should back off.

In this episode we explore Chloe’s movie star past… in painstaking detail. We meet a Paparazzi she hates as he confesses to running someone off the road and getting them killed. The case is, who actually ran them off the road and if you pay attention you’ll figure it out before they do. Lucifer just tags along… that’s how he continues working with her. It works considering Chloe never checks in with a boss and is technically on Medical leave because Lucifer could save her life, but not heal her arm. At one point Chloe invites Lucifer to tag along because it’s easier than dealing with him just showing up. That was an actual exchange between them.

Maze and Amenadiel do the exact same thing and say practically the same lines.

Maze: “What are we doing here Lucifer? Why have you changed?

Amenadiel: “Go back to Hell Lucifer, there’s a balance… also, you’ve changed”

Wow, I hope in the third episode they remind us that Lucifer has changed and that he’s not being very devilish anymore… except for when he is. Tom Ellis isn’t perfect this go around either. Having Lucifer look at everyone and say, “Tell me your desires” is more like a pickup artist trying to land a date then it is an interesting story device. Try just having him look at them and adding a sound effect rather than boring us with the same line over and over. That and I will say that him sweet talking the desk officer, who just so happened to be a woman each time, was the biggest chunk of convenient writing I’ve witnessed since giving up on The Flash.

Let’s not forget Dan, who is the newest addition to the cast and has the lamest name. I mean Trixie and Chloe are nothing that grand, but fucking Dan? Why not shoot for the stars and call him Dante just to make it interesting. His character makes zero sense. He’s nice to his ex-wife and really he doesn’t come off like a bad guy making his character motivation strange. At least the previous Dan looked like a smug dickhead, new Dan just looks fishy.

I’m used to second episodes being rehash of the first, but this was a bit too much. It’s not enough that I’ll give up on the show, but it leaves me to believe that there’s not a lot of faith in this show succeeding which is always a bad sign. It’s like, why should I get invested if the studio didn’t? Too bad it’s not like Gotham and they just let them fuck around and do whatever for two seasons.

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Score: 2/5

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Lucifer 1.2 – “Lucifer, Stay. Good Devil Director: Nathan Hope Writers: Tom Kapinos, Joe Henderson Airs Monday’s on Fox

Review: The Magicians 1.3 – Consequences of Advanced Spellcasting

SyFy marketed The Magicians wonderfully. They showed all the magic and fucking that the show had to offer in the teaser. Women floating in a skirt? Check. Floating while fucking? Check. A shirt being blown off a woman in a scene that turned out to be more rapey than sexy? Check. It was marketed wonderfully because it caught the attention of everyone looking for a Harry Potter fix, but with sex as the reviews the show quotes over and over tell us. So much so that they made it their tagline… I checked it out because I downloaded the SyFy app on my X-Box One and realized that there wasn’t shit to watch on SyFy anymore. I figured, well… let’s watch their one and only new show. It is Harry Potter with adults. It’s kind of sad in that way because the author of the books doesn’t outright acknowledge that, but he sure as shit doesn’t shy away from it. The actual premise is that it’s Harry Potter mixed with Narnia and it’s like a grad school course. Because you only get invited after college… and yet the show complains that the magicians don’t know enough and they don’t have enough time and wait… maybe if they were kids they would have had enough time! See what I’m getting at? Change the age, change the locations and keep the accents, but it’s still a Potter knockoff. Don’t worry, I actually think that knockoffs can be fun and enjoyable.

At any rate our main character is Quentin Coldwater, he’s the chosen one, but who the fuck knows why. It’s the typical, “I don’t actually do anything, I’m just told I’m special” type of chosen one story. He’s a dick. There’s nothing really to like about this guy because when he discovers magic he turns into a complete dick to his best friend Julia. Sure he had a crush on her and she dated his friend instead. Sure she told him to grow up when it came to the Narnia esque books (Fillory in this world). Sure she… wait, that’s all she did other than tell him she knew he was in a hospital for being mental. Also we’ve seen her perform more magic than him at this point in the show, but hey… chosen one.

The third episode sees their two worlds meet again. Julia has been practicing magic with a bunch of… I don’t know what the fuck to call them. Basically magicians that don’t get to go to school and have to steal their spells anyway they can and as we learn, that can include sexual favors if need be. As we saw at the end of the second episode, there’s a traitor in the midst at the school and Quentin and Eliot track down a stolen book and that leads them to Julia. Quentin and Julia have another unprovoked argument in which Quentin furthers Julia’s motivation of learning magic in spite of him.

As for the rest of the episode, they assign a magic discipline and we learn that Penny can transport himself with a thought (like Jumpers), and that the teacher lady that does nothing but drop her accent can do it too… with a car though. Penny is apparently really fucking powerful and yet not our main character or the chosen one. I kind of hope he dies so we don’t have to deal with his one emotion that he busts out for everything… confusangry, confused and angry at the same time.

Alice’s story is about her brother haunting a fountain. We learn what happened to him and it’s pretty fucking lame actually. He was doing too much magic and turned into nothing but magic. On the plus side, Alice won’t be releasing anything dangerous shit trying to find him since he’s gone-gone now. She’s leaving the school supposedly and frankly I don’t care because it’s obvious the she’ll be back and that her and Quentin are going to lose their rose petals together.

The endings of each episode are pretty awkward. This one has Alice leaving and Margo telling her, “I like challenges.” That’s how it ends. I said, “Booo” outload. Even with all my bashing there were some good parts, but really there needs to be better character development. Right now Elliot and Margo are the only characters I like and something tells me I shouldn’t actually like their snotty attitude that much. Otherwise more character development please. There’s been zero effort in that, they’re just throwing these characters into situations and frankly without getting to know them, I don’t give two shits who lives or dies. It’s better than most SyFy shows, but it needs work. Because it’s SyFy it’ll run five seasons before being cancelled so that they don’t have to pay for syndication.

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Score: 3/5

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The Magicians 1.3 – “Consequences of Advanced Spellcasting” Director: Scott Smith Writer: Henry Alonso Myers Airs Monday’s on SyFy

"Justice League vs. Teen Titans" to Premiere at WonderCon

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and WonderCon will offer fans the first opportunity witness the animated clash between veteran super heroes and their youthful counterparts when "Justice League vs. Teen Titans," the latest DC Universe Original Movie, has its World Premiere at WonderCon during the March 25-27 weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The announcement is now live on the WonderCon website at http://www.comic-con.org/toucan/justice-league-vs-teen-titans-world-premiere-exclusively-wondercon-2016.

"Justice League vs. Teen Titans" welcomes the Teen Titans to the ever-expanding canon of classic DC Comics characters within the DC Universe Original Movies. When Damian’s over-aggressive tendencies almost destroy a Justice League mission, he is sent to learn teamwork by training alongside the Teen Titans. However, adjusting Damian’s attitude turns out to be the least of the Teen Titans’ troubles as Raven’s satanic, world-conquering father Trigon begins an escape from his inter-dimensional prison. To complete his return, Trigon must have Raven’s assistance – and to accomplish his goal, he spreads his demonic forces across the globe, infiltrating the minds and bodies of the Justice League to do his bidding. To save the universe and prevent a literal hell on Earth, the Teen Titans must rescue – or defeat – the Justice League, and intern Trigon for all eternity.

The voice cast for Justice League vs. Teen Titans includes several actors reprising their recent Justice League roles – Jason O’Mara (Complications, Terra Nova) as Batman, Jerry O’Connell (Crossing Jordan, Stand By Me) as Superman, Rosario Dawson (Sin City, Rent) as Wonder Woman, Shemar Moore (Criminal Minds) as Cyborg and Christopher Gorham (Covert Affairs, Ugly Betty) as Flash. Sean Maher (Firefly/Serenity, Batman: Bad Blood) also returns as Nightwing, as does Stuart Allan (Batman vs. Robin) as Robin/Damian. Making their Teen Titans voiceover debuts are Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story, Wicked City) as Raven, Jake T. Austin (Wizards of Waverly Place, The Fosters) as Blue Beetle, Brandon Soo Hoo (Tropic Thunder, From Dusk Til Dawn: The Series) as Beast Boy and Kari Wahlgren (Phineas and Ferb, Legion of Superheroes) as Starfire. Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead, Daredevil) takes the villainous center stage as Trigon.

Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment, Justice League vs. Teen Titans is directed by Sam Liu from a screenplay by Bryan Q. Miller and Alan Burnett based on a story by Miller. James Tucker is Supervising Producer. Burnett is also co-Producer. Sam Register is Executive Producer.

Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment, the film will be available from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 29, 2016 via Digital HD, and April 12, 2016 on Blu-Ray™ Deluxe Edition, Blu-Ray™ Combo Pack and DVD.

Review: Forever – The Complete Series

Forever can easily be summed up as a Sherlock Holmes style of story, if Sherlock was an immortal doctor that had learned all his deduction from years and years of experience. That is of course the big twist of this otherwise procedural show, the main character Dr. Henry Morgan (Ioan Gruffudd) is essentially cursed to live forever. Whenever he dies he wakes up naked and in the nearest body of water. We’re introduced to this fact very quickly in the pilot episode as a train explodes and he winds up in the river. There are two possible answers to this immortality that the show introduces, but never ultimately has the opportunity to answer. The first is the pocket watch that Henry has had or found off and on throughout his life. I personally believe that this is the source of his immortality, but the show offers a second option later in the form of the gun that originally killed Henry. His immortality began on a slave ship heading to America. The ship is actually his families ship and this repugnant fact is addressed later when he finds out and wants no part of the family business.

In the modern timeline, Henry is a medical examiner. He’s forged modest papers to get the position in New York where he’s lived a great deal of his immortality. He’s not alone though, he has a son (played by Judd Hirsch) … who is not immortal. His son is also adopted as he and his wife took the baby post World War II. You see, there’s the interesting part of all this. Henry, has for the most part lead a normal life since World War II. He’s had a family and only married once. We later learn that his wife disappeared and her disappearance drove Henry mad for a time.

At any rate, Henry is the head medical examiner and of course he’s kind of a genius having absorbed more knowledge than most can in one life-time. He attracts the attention of a detective whose assumes they have an open and shut case only to have Henry proclaim murder. That becomes a familiar element of the procedural part of the show.

For a great deal of the episodes Henry doesn’t die. He just helps Jo (Alana De La Garza); his detective partner solves crimes. You have to suspend your disbelief here because the only other detective to bring a medical examiner along is iZombie and so that should tell you how ridiculous it is. I’m sure there’s some pretty basic rules in place as an officer that you don’t let medical examiners question your witnesses, but it becomes a running element of the show.

The adversary of the show is a very Moriarty character. They enter into Henry’s life after discovering he’s immortal like they are. Though Adam, as he likes to be called, has lived so long that he’s lost a lot of interest in humanity especially after being experimented on by Nazi scientists all throughout World War II. There is a very Holmes/Moriarty relationship between them though as they both understand what the other has gone through for the most part. They’ve both lived so many fake lives, but they’ve chosen different paths. Adam, turns out to have a great origin. I won’t spoil it, but I will say that it is a famous historical figure. It really set the stage for the possibility of other historical figures being introduced later in the series, but atlas… that won’t happen.

The final showdown with Adam had an outcome with great consequences. It wasn’t amazing because there was a lot of sloppy writing leading up to it, but the actual consequences of it made of an interesting predicament for later episodes in the show. Adam could potentially come back as an even crazier character and I really found that to be interesting and dangerous.

The show avoids the pitfall of making our two leads romantically involved or in this case interested, until nearly the end of the show. Then, almost as a desperate gasp for attention it begins developing a storyline between Henry and Jo. It’s unfortunate because they bonded over being without their spouses, Jo without her dead husband and Henry without his wife that disappeared and could be alive, but probably isn’t. That brings me to my next point in that the show never really finds itself.

From the beginning to the end it tries to figure out if it’s a procedural, if the leads will be romantically involved, if it’s going to rely on the flashbacks of Henry’s past, if it’s going to run his beginning timeline parallel with his present timeline. It never finds itself and it stops relying on Henry dying to allow him to have more interesting outcomes and instead opts for putting Jo in harm’s way to protect him. It was interesting one episode and then overkill any other time it was attempted thereafter.

The series also wastes a lot of time just being procedural. Here’s our murder of the week that doesn’t look like a murder, but Henry says it is and he’s never wrong. Henry’s story is slowly developed and we see a lot of flashbacks to his early immortal days that attempt to tie into the episode’s story or just peel back a layer of his personality. Personally, I grew to hate the flashbacks as they reminded me of Arrow and that wasn’t a good thing. They quickly became overused and forced feeling.

The mystery of the disappearing wife ends up being a great deal of the finale and it’s stretched far too thin. To the point that it kind of gets ridiculous. Especially when they tie it into another story element. At that point you really have to acknowledge the convenience of the writing to tie together two elements that really have no business being anywhere near each other.

The sad part is, I actually really enjoyed the show despite all my criticism. It’s my joy for it that made me so critical of it. I was disappointed when it was cancelled, but not entirely surprised. The show really needed to pick a path and stick to it, but instead opted to change at someone’s whim. I don’t know if it was the networks, the producers or the showrunner, but the first six episodes of the show are the tightest and most interesting. There’s several after that, that manage to be quite good, but after those first six is when the emphasis on just solving murders takes over and it began to look a bit like Bones which is not a compliment.

I would recommend the DVD set if you liked the show. It contains several deleted scenes for each episode and while I don’t know if they really add anything to the story, it’s at least an interesting add-on to give the one season solid replay value. I did in fact say DVD earlier because let’s be honest we don’t need every TV show on Blu-Ray. If you were a fan of the show, then it’s worth the purchase. If you never watched it, but you’re a fan of Elementary, Bones or hell even Highlander, then you might just enjoy this hidden gem you missed.

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Score: 3/5 (Show), 4/5 (DVD)

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Forever – The Complete Series Studio: Warner Brothers Price: $47.99 (Made To Order) Release Date: 1/19/16

Trailer Time: Wynonna Earp

Well this marks IDW's first foray into TV/Movies and oh boy... does it look cheesy. It's a comedy... which I don't recall anything in the description of the comic being a comedy. Well comedy in the sense that everything on SyFy is trying to be like a Joss Wheadon show and never really successful at it. I'm down for checking out one episode, but really there's very little appeal here.

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Trailer Time: The Stare

This movie look fun. Not good, but fun. Here's the gist of the movie if you really need to know:

Former AKB48 member Tomomi Itano plays an assistant director at a TV station investigating the mysterious suicide of a troubled young man. Before he died, the victim claimed that something was watching him...

It looks like it'll make it's way State side since "The Stare" is the American title and when it does... expect it to make an appearance on Us Versus Movies.

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Trailer Time: Kubo and the Two Strings

First off... even with Matthew McConaughey this movie looks great. McC is no fucking voice actor though and ruins the only joke that could have been good. The rest of this animation... looks fucking amazing. I'm all in for this one and I hope that this style of animation does well in the box office so that we can see more of this great style.

Speedrun: Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens

Ah man... I wish they had released this sooner, I could have saved some money. #Accurate!

Review: Anime Winter Season 2016 – Second Episodes

If you enjoyed my reviews for the first episodes of the anime winter season, then I’m back for the second episodes. I couldn’t quite make it through everything for a second and third episode roundup, but hopefully before the fourth episodes I’ll get there. You’ll also notice that this list is much shorter… like much shorter. I trimmed the fat quickly and I don’t regret it. If there’s something you’re watching that I’m not, let me know how it’s going and maybe I’ll check it out again.

ERASED – 5/5

FUCK! This show is so fucking good! This is one of the few I already watched the third episode of, but the second episode didn’t disappoint. We see the main character, who’s 29, in his younger body trying to figure out school. He’s trying to remember his friends, where he sits and figure out why he’s gone back in time so far. We also see him connect with his mother and remember moments that he had clearly forgotten when he was older. Their relationship is very different from what we saw in the future. The only thing better about this episode is the next one. So fucking good and I can’t stay away. I had thought about waiting until it was over to binge it, but I can’t. I’m dying to see more and unravel the mystery.

SHOUWA GENROKU RAKUGO SHINJUU – 4/5

Not quite as good as the first episode because it was missing some key components, mainly the characters that were so good. It was still a really good episode though as we see the Rakugo master becoming an apprentice and the events in his life that lead him there. It’s interesting for sure and it really makes me wonder how the story arrived at the point we saw it at. I’m definitely sticking with this one and looking forward to the third episode.

DAGASHI KASHI – 2/5

I love the art. I love the character designs. I hate the story. It’s just a candy ad. Some of it is cultural and so it’s lost on me, but comedy is universal and these jokes suck... a lot. The purple hair chick should be 200 lbs considering all she eats is candy, but she’s not. She really only eats candy and the plot didn’t move forward at all in this episode. I don’t know if I’ll bother with the third.

GRIMGAR OF FANTASY AND ASH – 4/5

Grimgar is surprisingly good. We see our group kill their first goblin and it’s rough on them. They get injured and see that this goblin wants to live as much as they do. Killing it, isn’t a simple and careless task. There’s a lot of emotions put on this episode on all ends of the spectrum. Also the art looks like something off of the promo art for Final Fantasy Tactics which should be enough reason for anyone to check it out.

GIVE BLESSING TO THIS WONDERFUL WORLD – 2/5

Talk about a disappointment. The beginning of the episode was okay, but then it added the eventual third character which is a shame. This series really could have broken the mold and just kept it a duo, but nope… had to go typical. The third character is so bad and over the top that they’re not funny. Their motivation sucks and they’re there just to pad the character count. I’m giving it another episode, but I was really disappointed by how boring and generic this episode was.

MYRIAD COLORS PHANTOM WORLD – 3/5

This second episode was okay. They add another character because… anime. The new character eats the yokai to seal them and there’s more boob stuff. I did enjoy the scene in which the main character attempted not to be typical during the mandatory “fall on top of each other scene”, but that his little fairy friend got in the way and made it worse. Otherwise it was just okay and I will give it another episode.

PLEASE TELL ME! GALKO-CHAN – 2/5

Remember when I said that this was worth 8 minutes of viewing… I was wrong. Second episode sucked. The jokes are for teenagers that know nothing about human biology or at least the biology of the opposite sex and the jokes just wear thin. It should be a nice trip down, “I remember being a dumb teenager” lane, but instead it’s a little too dumb. I might watch one more episode, but the effort to view it is starting to outweigh the entertainment.

GIRLS BEYOND THE WASTELAND – 3/5

This series gets a point just for not wasting my fucking time by having them spend half the season collecting their characters together like Boring Girlfriend did. That doesn’t mean I like it, just that it didn’t waste fucking time doing that and I appreciated it. Ever since the swerve at the end of the first episode I have been bored by this “let’s explore the otaku genre” story. Once or twice is special, every damn season… not so much. It’s like a comic book about making comic books that reboots every six issues. I’m tired of it.

DIMENSION W – 3/5

I checked this one out again because Robert aka Mr. Skippo said he liked it. It was actually okay. I’m still not in love with the world and I find the mystery to be extremely transparent. Here’s a hint… there are no such thing as illegal coils. The characters are okay and I’m really not sure why they’re making the girl robot/not-robot be cutsey with the main dude, oh wait… anime. I liked his backstory and I think that would have made a better series to follow. And I have to mention that I find the dancing during the opening to be beyond ridick and doesn’t match the tone of the show. I will probably give this another shot.

BUBUKI BURANKI – 3/5

I want to rate this higher, but the story is just too fucking confusing. I like it and we get a bit more info, but some of it still doesn’t make sense. Why did the mom go to the island to stop other Buranki from falling? Why the fuck are they up there in the first place? Where the fuck are his sister and father? The entire landscape of the world is still super confusing and the dickhead character is beyond unlikable. I feel no sympathy for him because he basically kicks puppies and we’re supposed to feel bad because his dad’s got a drinking problem, pshh! My dad’s got a drinking problem I don’t go around beating up animals and being an utter dickhead. I might ride this one out to the end, but I’m beginning to think that there’s too much the world needs to explain in order for it to work and it’s not showing it, but rather telling it and even that is a rarity.

ACTIVE RAID – 2/5

More of the same. A villain is introduced and big surprise, the new girl sent to spy ends up doing the same amount of damage as the rest of the team. This series would be great if it wasn’t trying to make fun of politics at the same time. It’s too corny, too often, for me to give a damn. And as good as the art is on the suits, the rest of the animation is pretty generic. It’s good, but nothing we haven’t seen before. That and one of the gags for the episode involved the boss and her sister and they were the exact same animation. I get that that was the joke, but it wasn’t funny. Kind of lazy and stupid if you ask me. It was a maybe before and now it’s a no.

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Well there you go, second episodes done! I should have the third episodes done sooner than later and be just in time for the fourth episodes or just barely late for them. Let me know your thoughts and if any of these shows have caught your attention.

Review: Lucifer 1.1: Pilot

Since Constantine went off air I’ve been desperately waiting for Lucifer to premiere. Not because I’m some diehard of the original comic (though I have started reading the new series), but rather because the trailer for the series sold me on it. We meet Lucifer and we’re introduced to his “power” in the cold opening. It’s a scene just to establish that he’s “bad” and has an effect on people. It’s not the best cold opening, but it’s a safe opening. After he makes it to his nightclub LUX, we learn through exposition and a visit from an angel that Lucifer has left Hell in favor of owning a club off of the Hollywood strip. A famous singer that he helped guide stops by the club to ask if she in fact sold her soul to the devil to which he tells her no. He seems to really care about her as he asks her to just get her life in order and nothing more.

Then she’s gunned down… along with Lucifer.

He actually gets back up and questions the shooter who was hit by a bus. From there he decides that he’s going to basically solve the case. He meets a detective that no one on the force wants to work with and his charms don’t work on her. Their paths cross again as Lucifer seeks answers for the woman’s death and we successfully see his powers in action.

The first episode does a fine job of introducing Chloe our soon to be co-main character. For Lucifer its easy, read the bible or just the quotes that it leads off with. The point of Lucifer’s story is to present another side of the story that’s written in the bible so we don’t need backstory on him. We do need it on Chloe and we learn everything. She was an actress at one point and took her top off on camera. Then she became a cop and stood against other cops which is why she’s a pariah in the department. Her ex-husband is one of the villains from Arrow season 2 and he’s there just to look like a dick.

Lucifer, played by Tom Ellis, is the best part of the show. His voice is what does it. He has this distinguished voice. It doesn’t quite sound British, but it kind of does. I don’t know, it’s just fantastic and he really makes the entire show worth watching. I laughed hard when he said “Trixie is a hooker’s name” to a small child. A) Because it is and B) his delivery was great. Chloe, played by Lauren German was okay. She was a bit too polar for me at times. She was extreme either in her dislike or like of Lucifer and it got in the way of the believability of their budding relationship.

Interestingly enough I watched the leak pilot from a while back and noticed a startling difference… they re-cast the ex-husband. I wish they had stuck with the original guy, but Kevin Alejandro (Arrow’s Sebastian Blood) is the perfect guy to hate. Rachel Harris who plays Dr. Linda, is actually not annoying in her role as well. Which is good because according to IMDB, she’s in the next twelve episodes.

For a pilot it’s quite good. There’s some hokiness to the story in the fact that an officer would never bring along a civilian to question or arrest a suspect, but that’s TV for you. Happens every week on several different shows and we keep watching. Otherwise, if I score this just against the typical pilot, it scores high.

My only concern for the show is that it’s going to be procedural as fuck and that will kill it, just like Constantine. For this show to be successful you can’t honestly have Lucifer be a crime fighting consulting detective every week. There must be something else for him to do, but I have a feeling that it will be exactly that. Hopefully Fox’s audience will like that and support it because I really want to see more from Ellis.

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Score: 4/5

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Lucifer 1.1 “Pilot” Writer: Tom Kapinos Director: Len Wiseman Airs: Mondays on Fox

Review: Anime Winter Season 2016 – First Episodes

There are a ton of new animes this winter season and rather than just reviewing a few I decided to do a quick review of all of them. Well, not all of them. Just the ones that were new or weren’t continuing a new season. I’ll be honest I think I skipped one or two that I just knew absolutely weren’t for me. After watching over twenty episodes… well there were a few more I wish I had outright skipped. More than likely I will check in with these reviews narrowing down my list because watching twenty plus animes is really time-consuming just for these small reviews. Though a few of the better series may actually get full episode reviews in the near future. At any rate, I will also be adding whether or not I plan on continuing with the series or not. Enjoy and please leave a comment letting us know what you’re watching or not watching.

ACTIVE RAID – Maybe

It wasn’t the worst show I watched, but it seemed fairly obvious with its formula. Mech suits and bureaucracy. The humor comes from the bureaucracy and the red tape that the team has to cut through in order to get the job done. They bend rules, blackmail and really a bunch of non-morally questionable stuff that of course goes against the rules and shit. Frankly it wasn’t very interesting and it’s pretty predictable as to what’s going to happen. The only reason I would check it out is to see if there’s any real meat to the story or if it’s just formulaic shit.

AJIN – No

I hate the art style. It’s that’s cell-shaded CGI stuff and while this is probably one of the better looking series to use it, the story wasn’t there. Ajin are basically immortals that just showed up a few years ago on everyone’s radar and now I’m to believe that they teach about them in grade school even though no one knows dick about them. Big old pass for me. Especially since it’s the whinny crybaby lead, “I don’t know why life is like this!” Yeah… me either.

FOUR RHYTHM ACROSS THE BLUE – No

Four Rhythm Across the Blue is a harem comedy of sorts. It’s about an island with flying shoes and they race calling it a fucking circus or some shit. I could actually tell you what it is, but it’s just dumb. There’s a boy that doesn’t like to use the flying tech, obviously there’s something tragic tied to his past, but a new girl will bring him out of it. I was bored with just how typical and average this was. I’m also really tired of thinking I’ve found a show without a male lead only to be duped by the art.

ERASED – Yes… hell yes.

Erased was one of three shows that I enjoyed the ever-loving shit out of from the beginning to end. The concept behind this show is kind of like the movie the Butterfly Effect, but our main character gets “Revival’s” that Groundhog Day him a few minutes into the past. After a big event happens he finds himself transported back to his childhood. Fan-fucking-tastic.

BUBUKI BURANKI – Yes

This is a very soft yes. I loved the opening and the concept there, but then it moved settings and picked up a lot of tropes that are a bit overdone now thanks to Attack on Titan. It has the potential to be good, but it depends on how revealing it’s going to be. The opening saw a father and his two kids shot back down to earth in a mech suit. The government used the crash to cause drama and basic magic users are hunted and imprisoned. There’s more, but it would take a full review. The art is great and again, there’s potential, but the main character is a bit of a crybaby and there’s a large cast of supporting characters.

DAGASHI KASHI – Yes

I expect nothing from this show. It’s about a candy shop owner who’s been recruited by a candy company heir to work for her. The catch is that he wants his son to take over their candy shop and he wants to be a manga artist. It’s weird and funny and that’s about all there is to it. It could get really typical, but for now it’s enjoyable and has great animation.

DIMENSION W – Maybe

The world has clean and free energy being pumped to it from another dimension… go ahead and guess which one. There’s a collector dude that chases down illegal “Tesla Cells” in exchange for gas for his classic car. He loves blades and runs into an android girl that’s a bit more than she appears. It was okay. I doubt very much that it has anything to offer in the way of surprises that I couldn’t already figure out for myself and may give it one more episode.

DIVINE GATE – No

Divine Gate has a tragic hero who can use water powers. Why? Because certain people can use elements and via a device and such. Our main character is literally always crying either inside or out. His parents suck and his brother probably killed them, but he took the blame because they served him cold food and made him live in the shed. It was real whatever and quickly became a chore to get through. The art was good and that was about all.

GRIMGAR OF FANTASY AND ASH – Yes

Basically a bunch of high school kids are transported to another land in which they get to live like RPG characters. It’s some real D&D type stuff and its pretty damn cool, even if they don’t know they’re living like that. I’m curious about why they’re there and if they can be successful. That and one of them actually got to pick to be a thief and join a guild. It’s cool stuff and the animation is very different. It’s like a water painting a lot of times. Hopefully it continues to be just as good as the series goes on.

HARUTA & CHIKA – No

I actually gave this one two episodes because I wasn’t quite sure after the first. It’s a solid “No” now. I love stories about musical instruments, but this one… well it could be anything. It could be a fucking kickball team because the music really doesn’t matter that much. There’s a of research, but it doesn’t seem genuine. It comes across more like someone watched Kids on the Slope and thought, I can do a story with musical instruments. That and the main character knows way too much for his age making him a very Sherlock-lite type of character, but twice as annoying. I honestly hope to never think about it again.

GIVE BLESSING TO THIS WONDERFUL WORLD – Yes

At first this seems a little like How To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon, but then it got strangely good. An otaku dies saving a girl only to learn that he died of shock and the girl would have been fine. The goddess that’s in charge of his afterlife assignment entices him to pick another dimension to go to. He’ll be able to keep living there rather than be reborn or go to heaven. He’s allowed to pick one item to bring with him and he picks her. They bond in the first episode and it’s pretty deep and quite good. I really enjoyed this one and the art was of course really detailed and colorful.

KOUKAKU NO PANDORA – No

This is one of those that I should have trusted my gut about and skipped. The concept is okay. A girl has been put in an android body because of an accident or medical reason. A crime lord runs into her and befriends her, manipulates her and uses her. It’s pretty obvious where it’s going. I might end up giving it one more episode to see if I’m correct, but I won’t lose sleep over it. Great animation because it’s 100% women, I think maybe one dude might have been accidentally animated.

SHOUWA GENROKU RAKUGO SHINJUU – Yes, Fuck Yes!

This might end up being the crown jewel of the season. The first episode is the length of two normal episodes and it was incredibly good. The animation has the production value of a movie rather than a weekly TV series. The story, well that’s hard to explain. It’s about the dying art of Rakugo and it will make you want to revive it yourself. The characters are complex, the stories they tell are fitting and match what they’re going through in life, it’s by far one of the most impressive animations I’ve seen in years. Watch it!

GIRLS BEYOND THE WASTELAND – Maybe

I’m getting a little tired of the Otaku harem genre. This one almost seemed interesting because I didn’t read the synopsis beforehand, but then when the swerve came at the end I sighed a lot. Let’s make a dating sim… oh well. The animation was actually really good, mostly it was the coloring and I enjoyed how it started off just showing this dude’s life and how he was a bit different from everyone else. Then it went typical and that sucks.

SCHWARZESMARKEN – No, Hell No

Schwarzesmarken is the result of combining Attack on Titan with the mech suit genre and some weird fascination with Germany post World War II. If you know your history you should be a little concerned about this fascination because the creators are trying to basically make a new Nazi empire, but they’re doing it subtly. It’s not great. It’s pretty bad. The characters suck. The world sucks. The CGI on the aliens suck. It’s not a good story and you really could have played another angle with another country and maybe been fine. Instead it went risqué and it didn’t pay off in my book. Instead it raised some flags.

UNDEFEATED BAHAMUT CHRONICLE – No

Let me get this straight… you have a school of elite soldiers, all of which are women, but when a real attack comes they all run and leave the one dude on campus to do most of the work in defeating it? Now that doesn’t unempower the entire school now does it. This story has one and only one interesting thing going for it: the former royalty has to wear collars as punishment. That’s it. The rest is so typical fan service, with mech’s as the added element. Lots of mech stories this season, not a lot of fan service shows and even less that are actually good.

PHANTASY STAR ONLINE 2: THE ANIMATION – No

This is a commercial for the game right? The game that you can’t play because Sega is a shell of its former self. The story is about a high school boy picked at random to be the student council vice president and his only job is to play Phantasy Star Online… 2. It’s terrible. It’s predictable. It made me want to play the game, but I know it’s so far past its prime that it’s not worth it. It brought back some good memories and for that I thank it, but I will bow out before it ruins said memories.

PLEASE TELL ME! GALKO-CHAN – Yes

This is one of those really mature short animations. There’s not really a story, just a big boobed blonde and her know-it-all friend. They’re all sexual or weird questions that are asked and then answered and then somewhat acted out by the blonde… because she’s dumb. It’s okay, for 8 minutes I can keep watching it and hope for a few laughs.

NURSE WITCH KOMUGI-CHAN R – No

This was another show I knew wasn’t for me. What I didn’t know was that it was for kids. It’s basically just the magic girl genre mixed with the new idol genre that seems to be growing and growing. Sorry, but cartoon idols aren’t interesting to me and so I don’t watch any show with idols in it. Also, no idea where the name comes from. Must have missed it when I started zoning the fuck out.

NORN 9: NORN + NONET

Everyone’s got powers, the time line is wrong, they’re on some kind of fucking space ship and one of them is a traitor. That’s all I got from this show. I could again tell that it wasn’t for me, but I tried. I hated it. The story was intentionally confusing which isn’t the sign of complex storytelling, but rather people who think they’re being complex. It came across as a show that was trying to give people characters to cosplay rather than characters to care about.

RAINBOW DAYS – Maybe

I didn’t expect much from this one since I usually would have passed on it. An emotional teen boy has found his dream girl, but she’s weird and sleeps a lot. She also works at a karaoke club and sleeps on a teacher’s couch a lot. It was okay, but only because of the supporting cast. I would give it another few episodes before I decided to drop it completely. After all, it’s rare to find an anime about one boy and one girl.

MYRIAD COLORS PHANTOM WORLD – Maybe

Fan service and yokais. That’s basically all there is to this. I’m not joking. I have nothing else to say about it. It could get decent, but considering the main female character must rub her breasts to use her magic… well that says it all.

MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM THUNDERBOLT – Yes

You cannot like the mech/Gundam genre, but you’d be hard pressed not to like this series. It’s mature, its animated like a movie and the jazz is great. It’s Gundam through and through, but there’s just something really gritty about this iteration. The story is pretty typical at the moment, but it’s clearly going to follow two soldiers, one in the Gundam and one in whatever they’ll deck him out with. But it’s an interesting look at war and reminds me of World War II dog fight pilots. Good stuff.

LUCK & LOGIC – No

I’ve seen enough magic harem comedy/actions to know that Luck & Logic isn’t anything special. It’s trying to be, but it introduced all the tropes for this hodgepodge genre in the first episode. It also took forever to get rolling and even longer to make sense of what the timeline was. It was really whatever and I didn’t even care to finish the last few minutes it was that redundant of a show.

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Well there you have it. Since the second episodes for most or all of these shows are already out, more than likely I’ll jump back on with the third episodes for my review, but you can expect at least three individual series reviews in the future as well. I’d love to hear what others are watching or not watching.