D.Gray-Man - Season 2 (2007-08)

The second season of D.Gray-Man, also known as the 2nd stage, is based on the manga series. It continues directly after the first season and is comprised of 52 episodes. It takes place in an alternate 19th century, where an organization known as the Black Order employs Exorcists. These Exorcists wield weapons imbued with Innocence to battle against the Millennium Earl. The Millennium Earl takes advantage of the despair and loss felt by others by tempting them to call their lost loved ones back. As a result, this creates akuma, whose sole aim is to kill as many humans as possible. Over the course of the first season, a new group known as the Noah has appeared and aids the Millennium Earl.

The time for filler is finally over and the plot actually starts moving in a good direction with improved pacing. That isn’t to say that the pacing isn’t slow, but it’s not at a standstill like the first season was. The anime finally breaks the repetitive cycle of weird happenings being caused by Innocence which attracts akuma, ad infinitum. As Allen, Lenalee, Lavi, Krory and Bookman prepares to set sail, they are delayed by a huge swarm of akuma sent by the Millennium Earl. This leads to a pretty significant arc in which Allen is facing off against not only the Noah, but despair itself.

We can see the heavy toll that all this constant fighting takes on the characters. While not to the point of actually killing off those characters, we can see what drives them and what matters most to them. For example, Lenalee’s focus on friendships defines her as a character and it heavily shows throughout the season. It gives several characters a one on one focus. There are some great ones like Krory but not so much with the ones like Lenalee, since she loses her strong persona and becomes helpless for the bulk of the season.

This was already the case in the first season but it is even worse here. Characters will be swarmed with Level 2 akuma who cannot aim for their lives and are defeated in one hit. The power degradation of these enemies is disappointing and happens way too quickly. This only gets worse as the season progresses. Although when the story finally introduces more formidable enemies, the fight sequences are better. The hits (when they occur) feel like they have impact. The inconsistency in power levels continues through the arcs as the next one may have characters struggle a lot against only two or three akuma, it’s frustrating and annoying.

The Noahs are shown to be on a completely different power level. They are much more above and beyond even the most powerful akuma. While the Noah are evil, they are charming as villains in their own way. Each of them have a quirky personality that allows them to steal the spotlight in the scenes that they are in. There is plenty of crazy stuff that happens. Whether these are easier ways for a character to get out of a pinch or foreshadowing of something greater, only time to will. The anime thrives on foreshadowing and teasing though. The tone also shifts to become darker and more serious compared to the first season’s lighthearted nature.

The show also goes to lengths to avoid characters or akuma actually hitting each other. Scenes are strategically angled and transitioned so that it heavily implies the hit. It is more apparent now because this season has a lot more interesting fight scenes that you want to watch but cannot. The pacing yoyos and can be painfully slow at times. Allen is put onto the sidelines but you know that he is going to gain a new power. Yet a lot of episodes are spent waiting and waiting, as he struggles to attain that power. You’re left wanting for something to actually happen but when the comeback actually occurs, it is quite epic and appropriate. This part takes place around halfway into the season and from then on, it feels the amount of epic moments happen more frequently.

Nearly all episodes have a sort of recap at the beginning, which is ridiculous. These recaps (and some during the middle of an episode) take up several minutes each time. The worse ones are where it mixes repeats of previous episodes with new scenes. There are still the same issues here and there with deliberate slowed scenes to drag out the episodes but on the whole, it is much better than the first season.

The voice acting is great. The standouts include Allen, whose voice gets deeper as the anime progresses, and the Millennium Earl, who in one scene is positively dripping with emotion. Towards the end of the season, there if a bit of arc fatigue. Most of the season has the characters fighting against the Noah, in a never ending battle where more things just keep on coming. Once that arc finally finishes, it lulls you into a false sense of security where you are expecting a slow unwinding into the finale. However, several substantial events happen, throwing in a low of new concepts in the process to give us a hefty season finale.

Overall, the second season of D.Gray-Man improves a lot compared to the first season but it still leaves plenty to be desired. At its core, it has an interesting concept and the world itself is fascinating. It’s too bad that it is hampered with its fixation on dragging out scenes and episodes, and avoid direct hits during combat as much as possible.

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Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (3DS)

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask is the first Professor Layton game for the 3Ds, and the fifth game in the series. It is the second game in the second trilogy that explores Layton’s past.  Being built from the ground up for the 3DS, the game boasts numerous improvements and upgrades compared to previous games on the DS. The 3D effect is well done, both in the cutscenes and also in each of the areas. The backgrounds are a step up with way more details in them. The graphics are impressive in more than a few scenes and the game has now transitioned to 3D models for all the characters. The game is mainly played using the bottom touchscreen. This can take some getting used to as you’re effectively using the touchscreen as a track pad to move the cursor on the top screen to select objects / people of interest. The biggest draw of the game is of course the puzzles. The game boasts 150 puzzles within the main game. Some of those puzzles are optional, while others are required to progress. The way you find those puzzles may not be the most elegant delivery ever but it gets the job done.

There are a lot of different puzzle types; they range from logical puzzles to spot the difference to patterns. Most of them rely on deduction where it gives you multiple statements and you use those to eliminate possibilities until you get to the solution. You might have to find hidden features in the problems by approaching it from a different angle. If you go into some of them in a straightforward manner you’ll probably tear your hair out. Once you get the answer you’ll realize that it was all a cheap trick. A common theme seem to be instead of looking for what’s there, you look for what’s not. You’ll notice that the wording is carefully written in a specific way, like a mathematician’s answer. If you ever get stuck, each puzzle has four hints. The fourth hint practically spells out the answer. The hints don’t come for free though since you need to use a Hint Coin. You’ll find a limited amount of Hint Coins hidden in all the areas. Later on, you’ll encounter harder versions of the same type as earlier puzzles.

The story, which is told via animated cutscenes as well as dialogue boxes with 3D models (visual novel style), has Professor Layton, joined by Luke and Emmy, visiting the town of Monte d’Or. They had been requested to go there to investigate a mystery by his old friend Angela Ledore. Apparently, a masked man has been terrorizing the town, claiming to have the Mask of Chaos and performing “miracles”. These miracles are basically terrible events such as turning people into statues and serves more to scare people than anything. The story ties to Layton’s past, back when he was in college and shows how he got interested in puzzles. Naturally, his best friend at the time, Randall, was interested in that kind of stuff and in a big revelation, had managed to find the real Mask of Chaos. The events of the past affect Layton in the present.

Both the story and the game are very slow paced. While the puzzles are short and takes 30 seconds to a minute each (if you know what you’re doing), it can still be a drag in the beginning. There are some “action” sequences to make it more exciting, like a horse chase where you use the touchscreen to dodge obstacles. The story gets a lot better once you’re around three hours into the game, since the mysteries start to come to light and you wonder how they were done. Since the Layton series always tries to have some sort of “realistic” and “grounded” answer to seemingly supernatural and impossible events, this is what you would expect here as well. There is an interesting and unexpected change of gameplay in the second half of the game. That portion neatly tied the puzzle and exploration elements together. Although this section is hampered by the constant tutorial dialogue and stating the obvious. It then outstays its welcome with too many block pushing puzzles in a never ending dungeon.

The game then leads to an idealistic ending. The perpetuator is way too obvious, especially given how much focus of the story was given to that character. It takes around ten to fifteen hours to complete the game if you know where to go and can easily solve the puzzles. There are some additional collectibles, mini-games and puzzles to clean up afterwards but nothing too substantial. Overall, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask is the best game in the series thus far. It has far improved quality and a decent story, although the beginning had a very slow build up. The puzzles remain clever but seem to lack variety or a surprise element, given that so many of them rely on a similar trick.

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Toy Review: Transformers Cyberverse Starscream (Deluxe)

Review:  #668

Name:  Starscream

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Decepticon

Line:  Cyberverse

Year of Release:  2020

Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 5)

Mold Status:  new

JET MODE:

Starscream transforms into a Cybertronian jet in his typical color scheme.  It's not the most aerodynamic of jets and it is actually a little bit disappointing in where each pieces ends up being in this mode.

It's a bulky and gappy jet.  There's quite a bit of undercarriage kibble, as well as an odder protrusion at the top.  Nevertheless, it's still recognizable as a jet and passable.

Above is a comparison against TLK Bumblebee.  Even though this is a Deluxe size class, the Cyberverse versions were always a tad bit smaller than Deluxes within the Generations mainline (Siege, Earthrise etc).

From the fifth wave onwards, there are no Build-A-Figure pieces anymore, however, Starscream comes with a bunch of clear effects parts as a replacement.

He comes with two blast effects and a missile firing effect.  All through can peg on in jet mode

This is an okay jet mode.  The effects parts and the nature of a being a jet helps in the play value department

TRANSFORMATION:

The legs unfold from the bottom and the back half, surprisingly enough.  The cockpit then folds down to form the torso, while the arms are underneath the wings.  The whole wing and arm assembly are on a piece that folds and connect to Starscream's back, which is fairly surprising and impressive.

ROBOT MODE:

Starscream's robot mode is pretty good and immediately recognizable as the character.  However, his legs seems to be proportionally long though.

He doesn't have too much kibble.  He has the wings at the back and they peg together to hold the whole arm assembly in place.

The head sculpt is okay, since it is heavily stylized in line with the show.

In terms of size, he's approximately the same height as a normal Deluxe, although he does feel less substantial given the even higher prevalence of hollow parts.

Since the focus of recent Deluxes is articulation, Starscream does not lose in this area.  He has joints with his head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and ankles.

One of the best aspects of the robot mode is how well the cockpit integrates into his torso, it looks very natural.

He can utilize the various effects parts.  The missiles can peg onto his chest, to reflect the chest missiles he had in the show.

The two blast effects can peg onto each of his null-rays, which are his main weapons in robot mode.

This is a great robot mode and is the best rendition we have of this incarnation.

OVERALL:

The Cyberverse Deluxes are fun and Starscream is no exception.  In fact, he improves upon the formula by giving up several effects parts.  While the jet mode is somewhat weak, he makes up for it in robot mode which looks and plays great.

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Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

Hobbs & Shaw is a spin-off of the Fast & Furious franchise but focusing only on the team up between the law enforcement side Hobbs, and the mercenary side Shaw.  They were standout characters in the main series but we are simple overexposed to them presences for this 2+ hour movie.  There is a somewhat weak reason for them to team up together, and they spend most of the time trading insults.  While it's funny at first, it gets really tiring.  What's more, the film has a weird reliance on constantly spouting references to popular TV shows, movies and characters.  Coupled with the light humor that feels really odd during certain scenes, and the pacing is inconsistent.  Fast & Furious has slowly evolved into bigger and bolder crazy stunts and scenes, and Hobbs & Shaw ups that ante.  There are crazy action sequences in which no one will be able to survive but the biggest and best one is left for the climax.  It's fun and ludicrous but also highly entertaining.  Unfortunately, the rest of the movie doesn't quite live up to that high point.  The story has turned full sci-fi with unbelievable technology.  It also seems to have a massive climax only for it to turn out it was the middle of the film.  It then swaps to a different setting and sets up a family angle.  The movie spends too much time having the characters be so badass and macho that is can feel sickening.  Overall, while Hobbs & Shaw is enjoyable all in all, it doubles down on the typical style of Fast & Furious to the point of being overkill and saturated.

Toy Review: Transformers BotBots Frequent Flyers (8-pack #2)

Review:  #667

Name:  Frequent Flyers

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance: N/A

Line:  BotBots

Year of Release:  2020

Size Class: BotBots (Series 5)

Mold Status:  N/A

PACKAGING:

The theme of the Frequent Flyers is as you can expect, travel related items like backpacks, luggage cases and sunglasses.  Since the packs mix up BotBots from other theme groups, a few of them don't match the pack's name.

The back of the packaging has a nice piece of artwork of the various BotBots.

BOTBOTS:

There are four packs that contains a different mix of BotBots each.  This review focuses on pack #2 which contains:

- Barf Bag

- Brash Butterhead

- Flood Jug

- Reptilin' Sleepstylin'

- Sandy Shades

- Slurp-a-Derp

- Special Optics

- Tidy Trunksky

The pack has a strong set of molds, even if only one or two fits the themes.

OVERALL:

Frequent Flyers is a nice pack giving you a good mix of alternate modes.  In particular, Sandy Shades and Slurp-a-Derp are pretty clever and inventive.

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D.Gray-Man - Season 1 (2006-07)

D.Gray-Man is an anime based on the manga series. The first season, also known as the 1st Stage, is comprised of 51 episodes. The anime is set in alternate 19th century, with a heavy English / Victorian influence on the infrastructure. A huge chunk of the anime actually takes place across Europe. We’re introduced to Allen Walker, who has a curious ability.

The first episode pretty much just explains the concept of the anime. There are demons roaming around, also known as akuma. They are formed when someone who has experienced with great loss and is currently despairing when they are approached by the Millennium Earl. He offers to bring back their loved one and if they accept, their loved one’s soul is bought back… only to be placed into a machine that then kills the one who called to them and use their body as a disguise.

The akuma’s goal is to kill as many people as they can, in order to evolve and gain additional powers. Their designs are unique and suitably evil and creepy. The only thing that can harm an akuma is Innocence, which is described as pieces of artifacts that was scattered all over the world due to Noah’s flood. The anime has heavy religious influences where it twists the events, from Noah to god to apostles.

Allen finds himself joining the Black Order, a secret organization that seeks out Innocence and uses it to destroy the akuma. Innocence is fashioned into weapons, and only certain people can wield Innocence. As a result, these are known as Accommodators, and are more widely known as Exorcists. Allen himself has a few additional abilities as not only is his Innocence weapon embedded within his left arm, but his left eye is able to see through the disguise of an akuma and into the soul that powers them. Allen’s arm can transform and is quite versatile.

The first season is a very slow pace as Allen takes on the duty as an Exorcist. He gets used to life in the Black Order, including its collection of odd characters. However, he also creates several long-lasting friendships including Lenalee, Lavi and Kanda. Many episodes are dedicated to having Allen being sent around the world in order to investigate unusual occurrences. These weird happenings may indicate that Innocence is the cause. What usually happens is that Allen will face off against akuma, which means that we get to see a lot of varied abilities, both from the akuma and from the Exorcists who partner up with Allen.

Despite having a solid start, the pacing completely stalls around two-fifths of the way in where it ends up being filled with tons of filler. We get too many repetitive moments of the characters fighting akuma and obtaining Innocence, despite other characters telling us at the same time how rare Innocence is. All this ends up making several episodes feel inconsequential. There is filler that clashes with the tone of the anime as well. Considering how the beginning of the season started off being as quite dark and depressing, there are some episodes where it is too positive and makes the akuma’s nature contradictory to everything that we were told of. There are a lot of scenes where it feels as if it is trying to drag it out for much longer than necessary in order to stretch out another episode.

However, rather than a simple good versus evil story, it tries to spice it up by providing backstories to the situation behind a lot of the akumas’ appearances. It even tries to get you to sympathize with their plight, even if they are destined to be destroyed by the main characters. The anime can touch on heavier themes, such as how Allen has it easy being able to see the akuma hiding in plain other. Although he then experiences how others feel, having to live in constant alert for fear of everyone around them being akuma in disguise, giving it a whole other feeling. Pretty much all the main characters have tragic backstories, although the amount of world building and lore is fairly deep and interesting.

The Millennium Earl is the main antagonist and the one pulling all the strings in the background. While he has a simplistic chubby design and is always smiling, he is the villain for a reason. He’s the one taking advantage of those grieving in order to create more akuma to do his bidding and quite simply, he is pure evil incarnate. On close up shots, where more details comes out, he can look very menacing. The Clan of Noah will soon become an important part of the story. They are allied with the Millennium Earl and their plans seem to be the destruction of humankind. The Noah’s usually have some of the best design and powers, and adds even more allure to their mystique.

The anime has a mix of humor and seriousness. When it gets serious, it goes deep with its foreshadowing and crazy developments. However, there are a lot of times where it goes hard on the humor. Thankfully, the humor is pretty good although there are some cheesiness and melodramatic drama such as calling out attacks, or cliched comebacks. Granted, the world is big but considering how many akuma are appearing in every episode, how they appear in broad daylight and are not scared to show themselves, it is surprising that they have managed to avoid mass recognition.

The season ends with the group making their first headway into something that they had started midway through the season. It was a slog to even get to this point with the same types of events repeatedly happening. It’s really annoying when the characters spend the whole season using their Innocence weapon in one specific way, and then magically at the end, it has a “Level 2 Release” to power it up as if they always had the ability. No explanation is given and that makes their first usage really weak, leaving you wondering why they didn’t just use it earlier.

Overall, D.Gray-Man has a good concept; the first season is just completely butchered and inundated with the sheer amount of filler material. It is no exaggeration to consider that the overwhelming majority, as in 80%, of the episodes are filler and has no meaningful impact to the progression of the protagonists’ goals. For this reason, it is hard to recommend the first season, and the anime in general, which is a shame considering the second season is much better.

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Root Letter: Last Answer (PS4)

Root Letter: Last Answer is a live-action remake of the original game. It has the exact same story with some additional content and you can play it with the original’s anime styled graphics if you wish. There is always something odd with live action stills instead of anime inspired aesthetics in a visual novel. This is the biggest change to this game and it’s not exactly a good selling point. It’s made worse because the actors and actresses dress up similarly to the original designs, right down to the distinctive and quirky features. This can lead to some exaggerated features that no one in real life would have. They also tend to exaggerate their expressions which feel completely off. On the other hand, the live action scenery is pretty good and mimics the original very close. Some of the live action shots have noticeable photoshopping done so it can look weird.

The story has the main character, Max, going through his things before finding a bunch of old letters. They were from back when he was in high school fifteen years ago and had a pen pal. The pen pal was a girl named Aya Fumino but after a period of time where they had exchanged letters, she had suddenly stopped replying. Max, captured by nostalgia, goes to the town of Matsue in order to try and find out what happened to her. Naturally, this is not an easy task and there are a lot of coincidences in his search that gives him hints on what had happened. Ignoring the fact that he manages to find the vaguely referenced friends of Aya, they are hesitant to talk about her and refuse to acknowledge her existence at all.

Each of Aya’s classmates has issues. As the protagonist, by showing them the letters that Aya had written, Max helps resolves those issues and lets them get over it. As the game contains the same story as the original, the live action doesn’t change any of that. If you can forgive the filler, then the story has a fairly strong beginning. The endings are another story as a few of them are disappointing and lazy. There are multiple endings and they all share the same first eight chapters. A few of the endings are pretty crazy and out there as well. The neat thing is that you are able to completely skip the chapters in your subsequent playthroughs to go straight to the different endings with minimal fuss.

This is a visual novel so most of the gameplay is reading text. Using a menu based system, you move from area to area and despite its efforts, the game is linear. There are heaps of occasions where you cannot do anything else until you have done the one thing the game wanted you to do. There are also investigation sections where you end up interrogating another character. If you fail these, you’ll automatically get another chance. Thus, there is no way to fail the game and get a bad ending. There is even a hint option that literally tells you what to do in order to proceed.

The chapters are short. If you read fast then it’ll take twenty to thirty minutes a chapter. Each chapter is predictable as it’ll deal with a particular classmate of Aya’s. Furthermore, the game likes to send you repeatedly all over the class for no good reason. This can get annoying as it feels like a massive fetch quest at times. When you go to a location only to get a few lines of text before moving on, it’s a waste of time. However, with each chapter, a bit more of the mystery is solved and you can feel yourself getting closer to the answer.

At a brisk reading pace, it will take around four to five hours to complete your first playthrough. Then another half hour or so for each of the alternate endings. Each of the endings are completely unrelated and different from each other. They each take a different direction. Some of them don’t justify the huge amount of secrecy that the characters employ. It is impressive how the writers managed to give different reasons and perspectives around the same type of events for each of the endings.

The other noticeable plus of the game is the background music. The normal theme is catchy while the fast paced one that plays during investigation sections makes the scene more exciting than it actually is. Although as typical of PQube published games, there are some typos here and there.

The Last Answer subtitle refers to the additional content, which takes on the form of short epilogues that expands on four of the endings. Some of them provide further clarification of what happened in that ending, while others retcon ridiculous things. A particular one feels like fan fiction in which the writers completely gave up. These Answer Arcs can actually ruin the endings since it either goes for something completely left field and terrible, or removes a lot of the suspense and mystery of the ending. The additional content only takes around half an hour to get through them all.

Overall, Root Letter: Last Answer is the definitive version of the game. Whether you like the live-action stills or not depends on your preference. Since you can select either the live-action or the original artstyle, it’s not a huge problem and both tells the same story. The game has a solid start but the endings let down a lot of the suspense and tension that it builds up. Some of the endings also clash with the theme but all in all, this is a worthwhile visual novel.

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