Friday, November 30, 2018

Psycho-Pass: The Movie (2015)


Psycho-Pass:  The Movie is set after Season 1 and 2 of the anime featuring a new original story (instead of being a compilation film).  The movie starts off with terrorists infiltrating Japan and before too long, after Akane suppresses them, we come to learn of the artificial island called Shambala, an experimental city that is the first to implement the Sibyl System outside of Japan.  In this world, the Sibyl System is able to determine the crime co-efficient or the Psycho-Pass of people and determine whether they are likely to perform crime, preventing it before it happens.  After his noticeable absence in the second season, Kougami takes on a bigger role here and the interactions between him and Akane are the highlights.  Once again, Psycho-Pass aims to depict the questionable elements of the Sibyl System and whether the result it brings is truly better or not.  There are a lot more action sequences with plenty of gunfights and fistfights, although there is heavy use of CGI for the police drones which clashes just a smidge too much with the animation.  Overall, Psycho-Pass:  The Movie is a solid movie with enough going for it to be interesting, although it is highly recommended to have watched the anime series first in order to understand and appreciate the deeper meanings behind the characters' motives.

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Book Review: Attack on Titan: Lost Girls Vol. 2


Review:  #796
Title:  Attack on Titan:  Lost Girls Vol. 2
Series:  Attack on Titan:  Lost Girls - 2nd and final volume
Author:  Hiroshi Seko
Comments:  While not as captivating as the first volume, Mikasa’s story is still insightful to her character.  It wraps the plot around the main story, where Eren was eaten by a Titan and Mikasa is on the brink of giving up.  She gets a flashback to how she met Eren, and the things that he said to her, about wanting to explore the outside world.  It is a bit violent for a couple of kids and they’re forced to see some horrific things.  There’s even a weird interaction between Mikasa and a random stranger towards the end that doesn’t make much sense.  That being said, it depicts similar kind of events that we already know about Mikasa from the main series, and so it doesn’t feel completely original.  It had a good ending though when it jumped to another part with Mikasa nad Annie speaking to each other.
Rating:  6.5/10

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

ReLIFE - OVAs (2018)


ReLIFE is based upon the manga of the same name and following the 2016 adaptation, four OVAs were produced to finish off the story.  It is a slice-of-life anime with a comedic take, and the anime frequently art shifts to chibi versions of the characters.  ReLIFE follows Arata Kaizaki, who was a 27 year old unemployed and with a bleak future and crushed outlook in life after failing to gain subsequent employment.  He ends up participating in the "ReLIFE" program.  This program reverts his physical appearance back to a 17 year old and allows him to experience one year at high school.  The experiment's purpose and the company's motives behind it are never revealed.


On the other side of the spectrum is Hishiro Chizuru, an emotionless classmate and in a twist in the previous episodes, she is revealed to also be a participant in the program.  The difference being that she had failed the program before and had to extend its duration by another year.  The original 13 episode adaptation cemented the fact that both characters enjoying their second chance at high school life.  They create plenty of friends and so it hurts all the more when they realize that their time limit is approaching and everyone will forget them once graduation day hits.  The anime manages to convey the sad truth and feelings that come with this sad fact with the characters having to come up to their own terms with it.


The four episode finale deals with, and concludes, the relationship between Kaizaki and Hishiro.  Both have feelings for each other but both do not know how to deal with them due to their unique circumstances.  It's a bit more interesting with Hishiro due to her emotionless personality (however, she has shown improvement and now smiles, displaying her feelings a lot more compared to the start of the anime).  The anime solely focuses on this plot point and ignores everything else, which is understandable given that they only have an extremely limited amount of time to work with.


With Kaizaki and Hishiro's emotions in constant turmoil, as they debate within themselves on whether they should express their feelings, the lead up to how this is all resolved is tense.  As the viewer, the big twist is the fact that because they are both ReLIFE participants, they will forget about each other thanks to the rule of any memories of them will be erased from everyone.  Knowing that this rule will probably stay for the ending, you start to wonder and anticipate how this will be resolved.


Once the final episode comes and you watch the ending, it was a little bit predictable, especially with the jobs they take after their ReLIFE.  However, it was still a solid ending and extracts the emotions from you.  This isn't withstanding taking into account their memories and all their friendships that they had made, the ending is more bittersweet than a true happy ending.  It does feel rushed as a result since we don't see the aftermath of the program and its effect on everyone.


Overall, ReLIFE would have been better as a full season instead of a compressed OVA, since it did remove a lot of events and character development from the manga.  Despite that, if you have no knowledge of the manga events, then ReLIFE is still a fantastic series to watch and these final four episodes are a definitely must-watch for anyone who has an interest in the series.

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Sunday, November 25, 2018

Toy Review: Transformers Generations Power of the Primes Rampage (Voyager)


Review:  #473
Name:  Rampage
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Decepticon
Line:  Generations - Power of the Primes
Year of Release:  2018
Size Class:  Voyager
Mold Status:  new

BEAST MODE:


Rampage transforms into a mechanical tiger.  He features a predominantly red color scheme which can feel bland compared to some of the other team members.


Rampage has the best weapon integration out of the group though since the gun acts as his tail in this case.


Rampage is approximately Voyager sized, above is a comparison against Generations Titans Return Optimus.


Poseability is very limited but is the best out of the Predacons thanks his front legs have more freedom.  There are various stickers to add details.


A good beast mode but still a bit static.

TRANSFORMATION:

The trasnformation, like the rest of the Predacons, isn't too complex or mindblowing.  The front legs become the robot arms, the rear legs become the first, and the torso forms a backpack.

ROBOT MODE:


Rampage's robot mode can be awkward looking thanks to the shoulders and arms being situated too close to the body.


He carries a massive backpack, this piece is required for combined mode (in order to bulk up Predaking's torso) but is hollow, so it doesn't affect his balance here.


The headsculpt is okay, for some reason, the head seems to tilt downwards just a smidge.


Rampage is slightly taller than most Voyagers.  He is built more solidly and feels heavier too (but he is the smallest of the Predacons).


Articulation is decent, with joints for his neck, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.  All of them are either hinges, swivels or pins.


The beast legs dangling underneath his forearm is a little bit annoying but it doesn't impede on any articulation.


Rampage's weapon is a single barreled gun.


The gun can be held in either hand.


One of the annoying things about the sticker placement on Rampage is that the piece required for his foot is not on a flat surface.  The adhesive on the stickers aren't great, and since this part requires the sticker to be folded, it tends to peel off.


A good robot mode, especially considering that he also forms part of a combiner.

OVERALL:

Rampage is decent in both modes.  Again, he feels static in beast mode and the transformation scheme doesn't have any clever engineering to it.  The robot mode is fine, just that some of the stickers like to peel off.

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Saturday, November 24, 2018

Book Review: Attack on Titan: Lost Girls Vol. 1


Review:  #795
Title:  Attack on Titan:  Lost Girls Vol. 1
Series:  Attack on Titan:  Lost Girls - 1st volume
Author:  Hiroshi Seko
Comments:  Lost Girls is a spin-off from the Attack on Titan series and volume 1 focuses on Annie Leonhart.  It takes place one day before the fateful mission where the Female Titan occurred and changed the course of the story.  As a result, there are big spoilers on Annie’s abilities.  It is a side story where on Annie’s day off, she takes up a favour for a friend in order to search for a missing girl.  Through her investigative abilities, it tells an interesting story as it unfolds.  We also learn a lot more about Annie’s background, why she learnt martial arts and her relationship with her father.  It goes into her thought processes and how she thinks about the world.  The best thing is that the story is self-contained and completed within the volume.
Rating:  7/10

Friday, November 23, 2018

A Silent Voice (2016)


A Silent Voice is based upon the manga series of the same name.  It tries to compress seven volumes into two hours and thus it changes the plot in order to do it.  The end result is still an emotionally intense film but with a few plot issues.  The film follows Ishida Shoya when he was in elementary school, and a new girl transfers into his class.  Nishimiya Shoko, who is deaf, ends up being bullied by Ishida.  What Ishida does is beyond cruel and makes him extremely unlikable.  He gets his just dessert but then what happens to him feels beyond cruel either, as everyone including his friends and teacher turn against him.  Fast forward to high school and he is still burdened by the past, being friendless.  This is the biggest issue with A Silent Voice, the actions of the characters doesn't feel justified.  Characters do these things, including a major event involving Nishimiya and Ishida, but the film doesn't explore enough of the characters' justification for the viewer to make sense and accept it.  Ishida meets up with Shoko again during high school and they begin to reconcile, along with all their other elementary classmates.  The film cycles between sweetness, sadness, bitterness and happiness again and again in an engrossing manner.  You want to see how Ishida fixes his life and his mistakes, and how he blames the incident completely on himself yet other people had blame too.  The film has a unique and melodious atmosphere that suits its content extremely well.  Overall though, A Silent Voice is still an extremely polished and solid film, well worth a watch as it will set you thinking not only the difficulties a deaf person might face, but also a person's relationships.

Thursday, November 22, 2018

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Vita)


Danganronpa V3:  Killing Harmony is the third mainline game in the series released for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.  It is not a direct sequel storywise to the previous three games but has the similar premise of a killing game at a school.  It is more of a reboot taking place in a different world.  The game opens up with a student waking up in a locker and finds out that she, along with 15 other students, were kidnapped and placed in this abandoned school.  Instead of the iconic Monokuma, it is instead hosted by the five Monokubs, each of a different wacky design.


The 16 students, who are all known as Ultimates, have unique talents.  These talents aren't as strange as some previous characters; we get the Ultimate Pianist and Ultimate Tennis Pro, but there are also ones like Ultimate Robot and Ultimate Supreme Leader.  The over-the-top scenes return in full force.  Dialogue is highly exaggerated and the series has given up all pretense of at least being plausible with giant robots, metal bars surrounding the school like a birdcage and high tech gadgets.  Swearing and heavy sexual innuendo are rampant.  In the writer's bid to make everything bigger and more over-the-top than previous games, it ends up making the characters unlikable.


Monokuma constantly breaks the fourth wall and while all these can be funny, you feel that the writers has tried too hard at times and finally crossed the line of it being like this for the sake of it and thus becoming pointless.  The game is broken up into various sections.  You'll start off each chapter where the characters are still recovering from the effects of what they have learned.  Some relatively normal events happen like trying to find the escape, hanging out with each other and exploration of each section that is opened up.  You get "Free Time" where you speak to various characters and learn their backstories and individual quirks.


Exploration around the school is done in first-person, and rooms are rendered in 2.5D which has a very unique look as furniture and character portraits are like cardboard cutoffs.  A murder will inevitably happen and you spend the next section finding clues and ammunition for the Class Trial.  You cannot progress the story nor can you exit the room until you have found all clues, which is helpful to make sure you don't aimlessly wander around trying to find what you have missed.


When investigating rooms, you use the reticule to select points of interest.  Unfortunately, the bad part is that while it doesn't allow you to leave without investigating everything that the game wants you to, there are many small items that are easy to miss and it can get frustrating when you know that there is more but the game doesn't give you a hint on what you have missed.


Finally, there is the Class Trial where debates happen as you try to find out the culprit and how they committed the murder.  There are more than a few red herrings and false accusations from various characters.  A variety of minigames are present, the main one being that you use "Truth Bullets", various facts that you've gathered from your investigation, to either agree or counter statements from the characters.  It can be a bit tough at first and you will definitely need to open up the in-game database to refresh your memory of what each clue meant.  It doesn't help that you have a time limit in each section and a health bar to boot.


The debates are made harder now with the introduction of multiple characters talking at once and you have to try and sift through three trees of dialogue.  It gets confusing the first time around.  There is definitely a lot more to the Class Trial compared to the first game, to the point where it now feels overly gimmicky.  It is overwhelming during the first trial where there are numerous tutorials and feels too convoluted, detracting from the ingeniousness of the some of the murders.


Class Trials end with a comic section in which you have to piece together the missing panels.  When completed, it tells the whole story in how the murder was completed.  The story is always the draw of the Danganronpa games and V3 steps it up even more.  Coming from the past three games, players would be wary of what the game would throw at them and will be ready for it.  However, V3 plays into that aspect and still manages to throw a huge twist in the first Class Trial alone.  It makes sense and feels more ingenious considering that it is always the likable ones that die first.  Conversely, it's a shame that some of the more annoying characters didn't get offed first.


No matter how much V3 tries to keep it interesting and different from previous games, it never seems to suck you in like the first two games did.  The murders can be clever, but it doesn't seem to click once you learn how it works.  As the characters are so meh overall, it isn't as shocking to find out who the murderer is.  It gets a little bit better by Chapter 4, where there was a genuine sad moment as the harsh truth comes out.


There are vague directions in how to progress the story such as finding the mysterious objects lying around to open up areas.  You'll end up scouring around the school trying to find them, which seems like a huge pointless waste of time and grinds the pacing to a halt.  It is quite annoying actually in an already overlong and bloated game.  Even with all the twists it throws into the plot, the biggest one is left for the ending.  It will be something you do not expect at all and the writer went completely rogue in terms of the direction.  It's hard to know what to feel after the revelation since while it is a shocker; it also feels lame and lazy.


The game never reaches the height of the first two games in terms of emotional depth or the significance of hope and despair.  It ends with a hard version of one of the minigames which is a massive pain to play through and the whole thing just feels hollow at the end.  It felt like this game undid so many of the significant plot points of the whole franchise, the anime and spin-offs included.  Thus once the epilogue is over, more than 30 hours in, Danganronpa V3 simple falls flat and cheap with none of the same depth of character investment you should have had.  While the core concept wasn't bad, the execution was not done well.


The quality of some of the cutscenes and artworks are poor since there is an obvious fuzziness to the outlines.  It feels as if it was heavily compressed and lost too much quality in the process.  It is distracting, especially compared to the crisp gameplay.  The familiar music of Danganronpa returns and it gives a slight nostalgic feeling.  The same aesthetic as previous games are used and it looks great here.


There is a lot of postgame content.  Love Across the Universe is just a mode for you to get the rest of the character backstories (each character has five scenes).  While efficient in that you can smash out scene after scene, it is also tedious and boring as there is nothing else to do apart from being forced to go to the in-game Casino every so often.


The Ultimate Talent Development Plan is a board game where you play through the three years of attending Hope's Peak.  You get to choose any character from all three mainline Danganronpa games.  Each year is comprised of 12 months, each month you roll a dice and depending on which square you land will determine what happens.  You might get stat increases, friendship events or items.  The aim is to level up your characters such that when final exams come, which take on the form of a battle, you can win.  It is very luck based but the other major draw of this mode is that you get to see events between characters of different Danganronpa games (which would never have been possible within canon).  It's not just a shoehorned side mode as there are a lot of original scenes here and each playthrough only takes around 20 to 40 minutes.


Despair Dungeon:  Monokuma's Test is a dungeon crawling RPG that ties into The Ultimate Talent Development Plan.  Through the Development Plan mode, you level up your characters and gain skills in order to be used in Despair Dungeon.  In Despair Dungeon, you form a party of four and traverse through 100 levels, fighting bosses every ten floors and random encounters every few steps using a basic turn-based battle system.  It's quite bland and boring, and the kicker is that defeating enemies here only gives money (for obtaining new characters) and items (for crafting).  You get no experience points in Despair Dungeon, thus you can only ever level up from the Development Plan mode.


Overall, Danganronpa V3:  Killing Harmony tries to outdo its predecessors in every way.  Unfortunately, in its efforts to try and do just that, it goes too far and ends up crossing the line.  The story never quite sucks you in and its revelations while great in concept, just feels lacking in execution.  The ending is especially divisive and while there's a lot of postgame content, they're quite boring and grindy.

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Wednesday, November 21, 2018

My Hero Academia - Season 2 (2017)


My Hero Academia is based upon the manga, with the second season increasing the episode count to 25 instead, which is awesome news.  The anime is set in a world where 80% of the population have various superpowers called Quirks.  These Quirks can be absolutely anything, ranging from conventional powers such as turning to steel to more unorthodox ones like firing tape from your body.  In this universe, the Symbol of Peace, and the undisputed most powerful superhero is All Might.  However, as Deku soon found out, All Might is hiding a pretty big secret about himself.  Deku is the protagonist of the series and he was unique in that he was one of the rare cases born without a Quirk, thrusting him into a world of severe bullying.


Despite his struggles, Deku never gave up on attending the prestigious hero school U.A. High School.  Deku himself has the qualities of a hero, being selfless and not hesitating to jump in to help, even though he probably couldn't make any difference.  However, he is rewarded when All Might chooses Deku to inherit his power.  The catch?  Deku's physical body isn't strong enough to control and contain the power.  Whenever Deku uses the power, he loses control and it breaks his limbs.


The great thing about My Hero Academia is that every episode feels satisfying.  There are plenty of things to keep moving the plot along and thus it never gets boring.  The second season starts off with a typical high school sports festival, and you feel that this could potentially end up as a filler type of arc, acting as a breather after the epic ending of the first season.  You would be wrong as it is equally as intense, if not more so.  This high school festival is like a personal challenge to Deku.  He must make himself stand out and show himself to the world that he will eventually be a worthy successor to All Might.  The festival takes on the form of a student versus student competition with multiple stages.


Even the first few episodes are full of adrenaline pumping events that make you cheer for Deku, despite having the odds against him.  Having to hold back the urge to use his One for All Quirk, Deku has to think and finds ingenious solutions to his problems, and aim to be number one.  Even when Deku succeeds though, the anime defies your expectations by turning that onto its head and make it seem more like a disadvantage as you realize the implications of what they had just announced.  It gets pretty intense as while you do expect Deku to be able to rise up through the rounds, the situation he is put in doesn't reflect well.  The advantages swings multiple times in each episode and it gets really tense and the uncertainty can kill you.


The competition rapidly heats up as not only students from Deku's class, but students the other first year class, sees Deku as a threat.  While Deku was a crybaby in the first season, he improves significantly here.  Yes, he still cries but he has a good reason to and it isn't because he is a wimp.  The fights involving the main characters, i.e. Deku , Bakugo and Todoroki, get to have an episode each.  However, the other supporting characters get their screentime as well, and allow their backstories to be told.  Furthermore, we see their abilities used in more creative ways.  It hammers the fact that while the characters may seem strong, no one is invincible and even the strongest have their weaknesses which can be exploited.  Noteworthy is the fact that Bakugo continues to test your patience with his irrational dislike of Deku.  While he sees some character development towards the end, it can be a bit much.


The backstories of all the characters are pretty good and while it can be melodramatic, since everyone has a sad fact here or there, giving them their motivation, it works wonderfully here.  It paints each of them in a good light and not wanting to see them lose, even though we all know that Deku is probably the one who will win.  That doesn't stop the fights from being unpredictable though.  No matter what, this tournament arc is very satisfying and with a few major surprises on whoever wins, you accept it because it makes sense and not just some cheap way to make it dramatic.


After the Sports Festival arc, the next arc is the students actually going on internships with real heroes and getting on the job experience.  This arc takes a short while to build up, especially after the previous arc which upped the stakes immediately.  Deku learns to control his Quirk much better here, learning the key trick to it.  There is a little bit of filler towards the end of the season, a bit more blatant where the episode preview state to look forward to an anime exclusive not from the manga...  This slows the pacing quite a bit compared to the previous episodes but as far as original filler content goes in this season, it ultimately gives us a better look at all the characters.


The last arc has the final exams for the term and of course, being a hero school, it is not something as mundane as only written exams.  Once again, this arc allows the other classmates to shine, as well as the various hero teachers.  We see them use their Quirks in combat, and in surprisingly inventive ways.  Deku passing is not a given and this keeps the atmosphere, and anticipation, quite tense and high.  One thing that you notice in this season is the fact that the fight scenes are not only more numerous, but each one is fantastic to watch.  The characters are not randomly punching their way, and nor does the planning feel lazy.  Each character's moves feel carefully planned and showcase them in a positive light.


Overall, the second season of My Hero Academia is extremely good and thanks to not being held back via introducing the characters and building the world, it is better than the already amazing first season.  While the ending wasn't as strong as the first season, everything else from the character development to the action sequences and the number of new (and easily likable) characters introduced, this is a definite must-watch.

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