Love Live! School Idol Project - Season 1 (2013)

Love Live!  School Idol Project is a multimedia project comprised of two seasons of anime (plus a spin-off), CDs, manga and video games.  The first season has 13 episodes and features how the idol group gets together.  We're introduced to Kosaka Honoka, who is immediately shown to be an airhead.  She finds out (in a dramatic fashion) that her high school is closing down due to a downturn of student applications.  For reference, the third years has three classes, the second years has two classes and the first years have only one class, it just isn't economically viable to continue.

For family reasons, and also because Honoka doesn't want to study to take application tests for other schools, she doesn't want the school to close down.  Along with her two best friends, Umi and Kotori, they brainstorm on what they can do to help save the school.  Taking inspiration from a popular high school that her younger sister is looking to enroll in, Honoka decides to form a school idol group, get popular, and attract students that way.  She drags her friends into it and thus begins their career.

It's not fun and games when Umi explains to Honoka that being an idol requires a high level of fitness and effort.  The first few episodes follows the trio (once Honoka manages to convince ht other two to go along with her plan) as they train and prepare for their first live concert... in a month's time.  Despite knowing that the group will eventually succeed, the anime showcases some of the tough challenges that they have to struggle through at the very beginning.

Before too long, their group grows as they start recruiting other members.  We get a variety of additional characters but despite their different specialties such as singing and songwriting, they all end up becoming center stage.  The common theme being each of those new members was always in two minds about joining.  On the one hand, becoming an idol is their dream, on the other, they worry about other people's view on them.  One thing with Love Live is that all the characters and the anime in genera, is quite sunny and rosy.  It gets too cheerful to the point that it can be cheesy and cringe-worthy.  Honoka can be a bit too hyperactive and positive that it gets sickening.

The stakes get higher as the pressure increases for the school to confirm its decision to close down.  Not helping is the fact that the student council president is against using idols as a way to revitalize the school.  Supposedly, she has a good reason but it feels weak in the end and doesn't truly justify her stubborn actions.  Unfortunately, time skips are common and thus even though we are told that the team members have put in a lot of hard work, or that they have struggled significantly, as viewers, you never feel that.

As it takes a while before the team gets together, we lose a lot of the character interactions that would have allowed them to become endeared to the viewers.  The worst part is when from the end of one episode to the start of the next, the group had jumped in rankings/popularity, and we just don't see the hard work behind it so it feels superficial.  Due to the nature of the multimedia project, the anime pushes a lot of songs.  Approximately each episode will have a song interjected in the midst of it, sometimes it works and sometimes it feels awkwardly placed.  At least the songs are decent.

The group runs into a few typical problems from rare opportunities that might cause a member to back out to the stupidity of some characters (such as getting sick from overwork).  These dramas make up the bulk of the final episodes and at one point, you do genuinely wonder if the group will come out the other side intact.  The resolution isn't rock solid though and can feel lazy.  Overall, Love Live!  School Idol Project can feel very targeted towards its audience.  The journey from a normal high school student to a school idol seemingly happens in the blink of an eye, with all this talk about hard work and struggles but glazes over them.  The plot lacks substance although their song performances are enjoyable.

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Book Review: KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World 1 – Oh! My Useless Goddess!

Review:  #818
Title:  KonoSuba:  God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World 1 – Oh! My Useless Goddess!
Series:  KonoSuba:  God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World - 1st volume
Author:  Natsume Akatsuki
Comments:  KonoSuba is another take on the “trapped in another world” genre but a more comedic, and unexpected, take.  It follows Kazuma who dies an embarrassing death and he is offered by the (annoying) goddess Aqua to be sent to a fantasy world to defeat the Demon King.  As a perk, he gets to pick any one thing he can think of to take with him to the new world, whether this be super strength or a legendary sword.  However, Aqua annoys Kazuma so much that out of spite he picks Aqua and thus begins the adventure.  KonoSuba constantly defies your expectations.  You would expect Kazuma to have some sort of special ability but he has some of the worst stats available and starts out in the lowest class.  He is forced to live in a stable and to do physical labor in order to earn enough to eat.  While scouting for a party to actually start some adventuring, he is “blessed” with other wacky characters.  There’s Aqua who has low intelligence and is petty for a goddess, Megumin who can only do one spell a day and Darkness who is a masochist.  To its credit, the team dynamic works really well.  The only thing holding the first volume back is its lack of direction.  It is little more than a collection of slice-of-life elements in this new world with a (admittedly exciting and funny) finale against a boss.  Despite this, KonoSuba holds plenty of promise and is already filled with humor.
Rating:  6.5/10

Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Jazz (Deluxe)

Review:  #486
Name:  Jazz
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Autobot
Line:  Generations - Studio Series
Year of Release:  2018
Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 2)
Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Jazz is based off the first movie and thus transforms into an accurate Pontiac Solstice.  Perhaps the most impressive thing about it is that he is doused in silver paint from top to bottom!

This is a great vehicle mode although care needs to be taken during transformation otherwise he'll scrap the table when trying to roll him.

His robot weapon can store in this mode by attaching to the rear spoiler.  It looks ridiculous but it is better than leaving it loose.

Unfortunately, the silver paint comes at a cost and that is his size.  Jazz is extremely tiny, above is a comparison against a Titans Return Deluxe and also his wavemate Lockdown.  It's pathetic really and disappointing to say the least.

While the amount of detailing and paint is amazing, the size lets this mode down.

TRANSFORMATION:

Jazz's transformation is worthy of a Deluxe, even if he size isn't.  It takes a lot of cues from the Human Alliance version of the character but makes it simpler and has better proportions.  Getting him back into vehicle mode can be a pain thanks to the way the legs fold up and are supposed to peg onto the roof.  This is because it's fiddly.

ROBOT MODE:

Jazz's robot mode is one of the best we've had for the character, unfortunately, the silver paint doesn't extend to his robot mode since a lot of the pieces are left unpainted grey.

He carries a fair bit of the vehicle's shell on his back.  A necessary sacrifice considering his character model and the size-class, there's only so much the designer could do within the budget.

The headsculpt is pretty good.  His visor is not retractable.

Once again, the size lets you down.  Here's a comparison with Quake and Lockdown as per before, he is literally two-thirds the size of them.  For added insult, a comparison against Legends Beachcomber show that while Jazz is bigger, it's not that much and in actuality, Jazz is around the same size as a Scout toy from years ago, :(.

As part of the Studio Series line, he comes with a cardboard backdrop.

The backdrop is based upon the first movie's climactic scene in Mission City.

Jazz's poseability is excellent since he has joints above the normal standard of a Deluxe.  This means he can pull off the pose he had in the promotional shots of the first movie.

In addition to all the joints for his shoulders, elbows, hips and knees, he has ankle articulation as well as double joints in some areas.

His weapon is his Crescent Cannon.

There are two ways for Jazz to wield his weapon.  The first is folding his hand back and then attaching the weapon directly at the exposed wrist.

The other way is Jazz holding it.  You might notice that his right hand is clawed while his left is shaped to have a 5mm hold, this corresponds to the 5mm post on the weapon.

There are no other gimmicks to speak off.  His waist is fixed due to transformation.

Jazz has a good robot mode with plenty of details.

OVERALL:

Jazz has engineering worthy of a Deluxe, it's just a damn shame he is so tiny in size.  It gets to the point where you feel like you got ripped off since he is minuscule in your hand.  Otherwise, the silver paint looks nice in vehicle mode, and his robot mode packs plenty of details.

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Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force (PS4)

Fairy Fencer F:  Advent Dark Force is an expanded port of the PS3 JRPG for the PS4.  It boasts additional story content, extra playable characters, some quality of life changes in game mechanics and more dungeons.  The game uses a modified battle system from the Hyperdimension Neptunia series, which is somewhat disappointing.  It is turned based and during each turn, your character can move around the battlefield to position themselves.  They can attack, use magic, or use an item.  Attacks can be chained into multiple combos and if you attack an enemy from behind, you do additional damage.  You're able to skip battle animations at the press of a button which is great because it can be boring fighting the weak enemies.

The twist here is that the characters can Fairize.  This is just another fancy way of saying that the characters can transform with additional armor and boosted stats.  This added firepower are lifesavers in certain moments, especially when optional bosses from the sidequests are a tad more powerful than what your characters can handle at the time (and several times stronger than story bosses at that point).  There is an addictive mechanic in which you can use points earned from battles to power up specific stats or learn new abilities and magic for each character.  This gives the player a degree of freedom in how to develop the characters.

Unfortunately, Fairy Fencer F feels like it was made on a very tight budget.  The story is told via visual novel type cutscenes, which usually isn't too bad but the execution feels dull.  You can't help but feel that in-game rendered cutscenes would suit the more action-oriented atmosphere of the story.  The graphics are poor, barely being better than games from the Wii.  When you start out, you are constantly interrupted by tutorials.  The way tutorials are presented is inelegant as they are screens of text that just pop up.

Similar to Hyperdimension Neptunia, there is a lack of exploration.  You use a point and click system to select the next destination on the world map.  The towns are represented by menus.  Deungeons are uninspired, look bland and are extremely small.  Enemies roam on the battlefield and respawn as soon as they are offscreen, which is a huge pain when you just want to get to the destination after visiting the same dungeon for the 10th time.  You now have the ability to dash but there is a slight cooldown, meaning that once enemies spot you, there is a 90% chance of them catching up and forcing you into battle.

The story follows Fang, who manages to pull out the sword (a type of possessed weapon called Furies) from the ground.  The sword is possessed by the Fairy Eryn.  Together, they are joined by Tiara, another Fencer, on their quest to free the goddess.  To do this, they must gather other Furies.  It sounds more exciting that it is and the story is definitely one of the weakest areas of the game.  Merging the Fairies into gameplay, you can use them to alter the characteristics of a dungeon.  You may boost the experience points gain at the cost of lower defense, or up the drop rate if you need certain materials to complete sidequests.

Sidequests are pretty stock standard.  You're tasked with either killing a number of enemies or gather a number of drops.  They're more of a chore than anything.  The game is generally pretty easy on normal difficulty.  However, it has a tendency to remove your party members before dungeons or before bosses.  Considering that you can have up to six party members during battles, this does screw up your strategy.  Plus, fighting solo or in pairs means your damage and healing output are severely crippled, dragging the battles out and forcing you to play more conservatively, which feels like the game is padding an already padded game.  Towards the end of the game, the bosses will have difficulty spikes, which can be quite annoying especially when you were already steamrolling enemies in the same dungeon beforehand.

Speaking of padding, using a weak story excuse, the game forces you to repeat dungeons you have already cleared.  The dungeons were already uninspired and bland; this makes the game a lot more repetitive and boring.  You'll end up just trying to run past all the enemies (hoping that they don't notice you before if they do, they run faster than you and you're forced into a battle) or drop the difficulty down because there's no point anymore.

With the two new endings, it effectively means that after you speed through the first half to get to the point where you can trigger the different endings (takes only 30-40 minutes skipping all cutscenes so it isn't that painful), the second half's story is completely new.  The amount of new story content is quite impressive, and thrown into the mix are some new dungeons too, including a big expansive one that makes you wish that the rest of the game's dungeons were like it.  Unfortunately, you are still forced to trek through the old dungeons multiple times which dampens the enthusiasm somewhat.

The scenes in each of the three endings are vastly different, right down to the characters' personalities.  It may confuse you for a second when characters don't act the way you'd expect, until you remember that it was in another route and not in the current one you are in.  One of the two new endings throws in some new mythology and ends with a sequel hook... only that there is no sequel.

Overall, Fairy Fencer F:  Advent Dark Force has its good parts and its fair share of bad.  The story, while quite bland, has the characters eventually grow on you.  The battle system is simple but there's just something about overpowering your enemy by constantly bashing them that makes it addictive.  If you are a fan of JRPGs and enjoyed the Hyperdimension Neptunia series, then this game is worth a play.

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Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Avengers:  Infinity War is the biggest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet.  With a huge cast covering nearly every single superhero from the universe (with only one or two missing) including wrapping the Guardians of the Galaxy into it.  You would worry about how they will be able to give enough screentime to everyone while not making it too disjointed.  Infinity War does this spectacularly and you never feel like a character got shafted in terms of screentime.  However, what you do miss is the big battles with all of the characters teaming up, instead, we get various separate smaller teams so it doesn't have quite the same impact as when they formed in the first Avengers or in Age of Ultron.  The plot focuses upon Thanos, who finally shows up for real after the tease from a few movies ago.  He is searching for the six Infinity Stones, upon which he can then destroy half of the universe to strike a balance.  Our heroes get caught up in this and Thanos is the most powerful opponent yet, able to take on several heroes at once and still come out on top.

Infinity War does a really good job at justifying how the characters who haven't met such as the Guardians of the Galaxy come into play.  There are plenty of surprising twists and fantastic battle screens throughout the whole film.  Watching the previous such as Thor:  Ragnarok and Black Panther will allow you to get the significance of some of the actions that occur and various references.  It truly shows how jam packed the film is when it starts with a tense scene and then never once include scenes and scenes of filler or talk like most movies do.  Infinity War carries its momentum from start to finish and with it all of Marvel's humor which are some of the best yet.  Infinity War ends on a massive cliffhanger / sequel hook with heaps of unanswered questions and leaving you to wonder how it will impact the subsequent MCU films before Part 2 of Infinity War comes out.

Book Review: Sword Art Online 12: Alicization Rising

Review:  #817
Title:  Sword Art Online 12:  Alicization Rising
Series:  Sword Art Online - 12th volume
Author:  Reki Kawahara
Comments:  The fourth volume in the Alicization arc sees Kirito and Eugeo speaking to the Cardinal and learns a great deal of things in this world.  It reveals the rise of power of the big bad and even more exposition on how this world works in terms of system commands.  It starts to stretch how far the reader is willing to believe when it introduces yet another special command that Kirito and Eugeo can do for their weapons.  This is considering that everything is still within a computer simulation.  Otherwise, the volume follows the pair as they climb up the Church’s tower, all 100 floors.  Thankfully, progress is a lot faster than the Progressive side novels and they make decent progress although it felt like it might be undone by the ending (which is yet another cliffhanger).  The clashes against the Integrity Knights were interesting, particularly since they are not one on one duels anymore.  Rather, the Integrity Knights are coming against Kirito and Eugeo in numbers, with the main draw being what sort of plan that Kirito can think up of to win.  Nevertheless, Alicization Rising feels like a midquel where it doesn’t quite have its own identity and serves as filler until the big climax in later volumes.
Rating:  6.5/10

Log Horizon - Season 2 (2014-2015)

The second season of Log Horizon is again at 25 episodes long.  It is based upon the light novel series and follows Shiro as he carves his way in the new world that he has found himself in.  During the first season, in the online MMORPG Elder Tales, thousands of players were transported to this virtual world with no way to get back.  While elements of the game mechanics were retained, everything has a real explanation on why it is the way it is from resurrection when a player dies to no combat zones.  The series follows Shiro, a player of the Enchanter class.  He was initially reclusive but over the course of the first season, opens up and forms his own guild, Log Horizon.  His aim is to find a way back home as well as to understand this new world that they now call their home.  Joining him are a cast of characters, chief among them being Naotsugu, the tank, and Akatsuki, an assassin.

Most of the episodes take on a similar format with Shiro, explaining some mechanic that will be central to that episode's events.  Perhaps most noticeable is the improvement of action sequences (and seemingly the animation quality).  Contrary to the first season which was mostly characters walking and talking, the second season starts off with a bang with numerous fights against monsters and other players.  This gives the feeling that the pacing has been upped and also demonstrates some of Shiro's infamy as strategist as he participates in a raid against bosses.

On the other hand, it covers some of the doubts other characters have.  Akatsuki is concerned with her lack of usefulness in Shiro's recent schemes and this rears its ugly head soon into the season.  We see how she deals with this and recognizes her own flaws, allowing her to get stronger.  This character development pulls the player closer to her, allowing her to get stronger.  This character development pulls the player closer to her.  She was already fairly likable but after this character arc, she is more endearing.  Tied into this is an intense subplot where an Adventurer is stalking Akihabara and able to murder other players without attracting the penalty of fighting in a safe zone.

The season is mainly separated into two major arcs with a few minor standalone episodes in between.  The first half is great, with Shiro and Akatsuki growing as characters, and finally coming out of their isolated shells.  Other side characters, who were only brushed upon in the first season, take on a much larger role.  These characters are fleshed out and some are even redeemed.  There is a moment when the raid parties were about to face the final raid boss, and gives a powerful and emotional speech.  The bond the characters have at that point is near tangible.

The second arc is much slower paced in comparison.  The direction feels a lot more unfocused as you are unsure of where the plot is currently heading towards.  It takes almost to the end of the season until something noteworthy comes up and it wasn't even a direct result of what happened before it.  That being said, it tries to deal with the continuing issues of people being transported into this new world and not being able to adapt to it.  It's interesting because there is no easy solution.

The battle scenes give an epic feel to the story as a whole.  It finally feels like what you would expect when you form a huge raid party to fight against insurmountable odds facing against huge enemies.  It showcases the large amount of planning and teamwork required, as well as quick thinking in order to not lose when the tide of the battle turns and a surprise awaits you.  The second season has a better handle between serious scenes and giving us laughs.  The humor works a lot better here and is at the right moments.  Gone are the awkward scenes where the gags are somewhat forced and against the tone of what was currently happening.  Here, you're actually looking forward to what they are going to pull off next, with lighthearted breather episodes in between the heavy hitters, working wonders.

The introduction of new monsters that the characters have never seen before from when they played the game gives the atmosphere that this world is evolving and becoming the unknown.  It makes it feel less like a game and that it has changed significantly, with higher stakes and antagonists that are serious.  As the season heads towards what you anticipate to be an uninspired ending, it has a last hurrah in the final episode that pulls out some intriguing tidbits and a grand battle.

Overall, the second season of Log Horizon has an exciting and action packed first half where you feel like it is a game again.  The pacing then slows down and the subplots start to become muddled and never feel like it found its resolution by the end.  However, it still leaves you craving for more with its likable characters, humor and the direction it was heading towards.

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Book Review: Accel World 12: The Red Crest

Review:  #816
Title:  Accel World 12:  The Red Crest
Series:  Accel World - 12th volume
Author:  Reki Kawahara
Comments:  The Red Crest continues on with the duel between Silver Crow and Wolfram Cerberus, which was one of the highlights of the previous volume.  It ends fairly quickly into the novel and then launches into the next mini arc, in which Silver Crow continues his efforts to obtain the Theoretical Mirror ability in order to be able to launch an attack on a boss.  When you summarize it like that, you come to realize just how much of a tangent the author had gone onto when writing this series.  As a result, The Red Crest never felt like it was advancing the plot at all.  The self contained plot within this volume is weak at best and lacks focus.  New characters are introduced including an avatar with the body of chocolate and the ISS Kits continuing to be a menace.  Kuroyukihime lets loose some more bits from her history, including some pretty significant revelations about the other Pure Color Kings but that does not save the volume.  The ending is predictable and cut short with a “To be continued” promise along with the contrived appearance of a returning character.  There is a short story at the end of the volume that expands on Sky Raker’s backstory.  It is as much for fan service as for character development, and can feel tedious thanks to the author’s tendency to provide massive summaries of past events and paragraphs of exposition.
Rating:  6/10

Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Lockdown (Deluxe)

Review:  #485
Name:  Lockdown
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Decepticon
Line:  Generations - Studio Series
Year of Release:  2018
Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 2)
Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Lockdown, based upon his Age of Extinction appearance, transforms into a black Lamborghini Aventador and this is a very nice vehicle mode.

The sculpted detailing is very nice, as well as the sheen of the plastic.  Perhaps best of all is that all his windows are present, unlike the AoE Deluxe with "wounded down" side windows.

In terms of size, Lockdown is pretty good although do note that he is fairly "gappy" underneath.  Above is a comparison against Generations Titans Return Quake.

His robot weapons can attach on both sides for storage.

A fantastic vehicle mode that looks awesome (being a Lamborghini helps).

TRANSFORMATION:

The transformation scheme is pretty simple but works well.  The arms are formed from the sides of the car while the legs are from the back (which gives him more bulk now).  The only negative is that he is very much a shellformer, just that the vehicle panels store away pretty well.  This isn't a problem with the figure but more so a problem with the original character's design for having no vehicle kibble in the first place.

ROBOT MODE:

This is the best incarnation of Lockdown we've had, but that isn't hard considering the previous toys were subpar.  The proportions are spot on and the intricate sculpting is incredible.

He carries most of the panels forming the vehicle on his back.  It's a bit unfortunate since it does look messy there but despite appearances, it doesn't get in the way of anything.

The headsculpt is also spot on.  We only get the version with his face, the faceplate version comes later in a retool/repaint.

Again, Lockdown is quite good size-wise, he is actually taller than a few recent Deluxes.

As part of the Studio Series line, he comes with a cardboard backdrop showing off the inside of his spaceship from the movie.

The cardboard stands works well but takes up a lot of space.

Articulation is standard but there are some awkward joint placements which hinders some of his movements.

His feet and knees in particular do not have as big a range as you would hope.  The shoulders being so bulky also make it weird to move.

Lockdown comes with two handheld weapons, a hook and a sword.

The sword can be held in his hand but he doesn't manage to grip the handle the whole way.

The hook is also held in his hand and it is an odd looking weapon just because it is being held and not having his hand transformed into one.

The other way to attach his sword is to peg it on the outside of his forearm which works surprisingly well (this is the same spot as in vehicle mode).

Despite the odd weapons, this is a fantastic robot mode, which is spot-on to his appearance in the film.

OVERALL:

This is the figure that Lockdown deserves as it has perfected the proportions of robot mode and is a good Transformer figure to boot.  The transformation is simple if shellformery, he has two weapons and is a decent size.  Lockdown is recommended if you like the character.

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