Hugo (2011)

Hugo is a fantasy film set in 1930s Paris.  Despite its high praise, it can be a bit of a chore to sit through, as it is a slow paced film and the story, while having a fairytale-like nature to it, isn't anything too special.  It follows a young boy named Hugo who is illegally living inside the clock tower of Paris' central train station.  He is a talented young boy since he is well versed in the mechanics of clocks and helps keep the clock running (keeping up the facade that his uncle is still alive and caring for him so he doesn't get sent to an orphanage).  The station inspector is probably one of the best characters in the film, as he is just the right amount of quirky and comedic.  The core of the story has Hugo trying to fix an automaton and in the process, discover the history behind it and how much it means to someone.  The visuals and atmosphere are unique but that isn't enough to save it from being too much of an "artsy" film and cuts the enjoyment back a bit, making its 2+ hour length way too noticeable.

Cowboy Bebop (1997-98)

Cowboy Bebop is hailed as one of the greatest anime of all time.  It is an original anime based on any source material, and is comprised of 26 episodes. Despite the word “cowboy” in the title, this isn’t a classic western taking place in the past.  Instead, it is a space western with the anime set in the future where space travel is a common thing.  Humans have colonizes most of the planets and moons such as Ganymede, Mars and Venus.  Despite humans reaching all the way throughout the Solar System, there is no evidence of aliens yet.  While this is with hindsight and 20+ years of technological advances, it is interesting to see what the writers of the anime thought was going to be the future of technology.

The story follows a bounty hunter by the name of Spike, and his partner Jet.  The beginning of the anime and this continues for pretty much the whole duration, is very episodic.  In each episode, the pair will be trying to track down a target.  We’re shown how Spike is barely getting by and the next bounty will be the one that will help him stay above the water.  Unfortunately, the general trend is that by the end of the episode, no matter what happens, they will lose the bounty in one way or another.  Therefore it can become a bit too predictable and hard to invest into what’s currently happening.

Each episode has its own self contained story and rarely has anything that carries over to the next episode.  As a result, all these characters are introduced and never seen again, making it quite hard to be invested in their plight when you know that they are either going to die, get caught or go away.  The biggest exception are character developments to the main cast, sometimes it’s done in a subtle clever way, others it’s right in your face.  Some of their stories elicit a sense of nostalgia.

We’re slowly introduced to the mechanics of how the space bounty hunting network operates.  It’s mainly via a channel that communicates new bounties and updates.  Spike can hold his own in a fight.  In most cases, while he may not be as strong in terms of brute strength, he is quick and clever.  He’s to take down others that are twice his size.  Jet on the other hand looks like he has the brute strength, but he also is the one with all the connections as he knows many people in various ports.

The team slowly expands to beyond the pair and ends up being a ragtag team of bounty hunters.  Faye Valentine not only has a memorable name but you’ll likely remember her introduction too.  She is different to all the other characters, not only in appearance but in her personality.  There’s just something about her that makes her standout along with the rest of the cast. The other team member, Ed, is an odd one.  She is an expert hacker but also very whimsical and hard to know how she would react.  She’s pretty likeable though, especially with her odd gestures and you just never know what she is thinking.  She tends to be on the naïve side and is one of the airheaded type.

The backstories of the cast are slowly told over the course of the anime.  It touches upon things that weren’t explained when they were initially introduced.  Faye’s history is one of the more interesting ones as she is not really normal like the others.  She is in a unique situation that had resulted in her to be like this. The second half of the season has less episodes that are purely about hunting down a target, which gives it more variety.  One of the first episodes to break the chain was to go for a theme related to the space setting.  It was done really well and reminds you of films such as Alien, where you’re stuck on a ship in space and trapped with something out to get you.  It doesn’t quite get to the point of horror but there were several tense and uncomfortable moments.

The show has excellent animation, aesthetics and its own stylish charm.  The soundtrack is distinctive, and is one of its most unique and standout elements.  The spaceship dogfights are a lot of fun to watch. The only real character that isn’t part of the cast and isn’t a one-episode wonder is Vicious.  He is someone important from Spike’s past and also ties in with the finale of the anime.  With its episodic nature, it was hard to see how the anime will manage to close itself, but having Vicious be a part of that was a good closing point.

Overall, Cowboy Bebop was a good anime for its time, with great animation and a unique classy vibe.  However, the storytelling is weaker in that it is very episodic.  The ragtag team of bounty hunters is its biggest charm, especially since the characters are so varied and each having their own quirk.

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Blue Reflection (PS4)

Blue Reflection is a JRPG developed by the same developer behind the Atelier series.  It was released for the PS4, Vita and PC but only the PS4 and PC were released in English.  This is actually a good thing given that the Vita version suffered badly from performance issues.  That said, there are still random slowdowns during cutscenes in the PS4 version for whatever reason.

The first thing that strikes you when playing the game is how the character models look great.  The design is focused on making the strictly female cast cute and beautiful, which the cel-shaded style works perfectly.  Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for everything else.  Objects in the game lacks complex textures so they look very smooth and blocky as if something is off.  The game tries to hide this behind the art style but the sparse details in certain areas is noticeable.  At least the menus look good?  Although there is a slight wait due to the animations every time you open it up and go through the submenus.

The story follows Hinako Shirai, who was a talented ballet dancer forced to stop due to a knee injury.  She is still bitter and frustrated about it but there is nothing she can do since it is a permanent injury.  She attends Hoshinomiya Girls High School and there, she meets the sisters Yuzuki and Lime.  They reveal that she has the potential to become a Reflector.  A Reflector is something who can enter The Common, a type of area created by the joint sub-consciousness of the masses.

The role of a Reflector is to help others who are currently having emotional or mental issues, known as going rampant.  This is symbolized by the environments being roamed by enemies that the trio has to defeat.  There is also the ever looming threat of the Sephirot appearing in the real world, which are giant enemies that serve as the bosses of the game.  Hinako was told that if she manages to protect the world and defeat the Sephirot, she will be granted one wish, which naturally means she’ll be able to perform ballet again, given that was her whole life.  As a Reflector, they have the ability to transform and use magic (i.e. a magical girl).

What it effectively means is that the story ends up revolving around Hinako helping out all the other female students who have issues.  Hinako, Yuzuki and Lime will jump into The Common, then find and purifying the girl’s fragment.  Then the girl will join the team as a supporter and the cycle repeats multiple times. The game uses a turn based battle system, and it’s a simple one at that.  Items cannot be used in battle, rather they are only used outside of battle to give you buffs before you enter one.  Your party will only ever consist of the three main characters that can attack or use special moves that consume MP.  The turn order is based on your character’s speed and there is a bar at the top of the screen to show how soon a character’s turn is coming up.  The game is very easy in that you enter every battle with HP and MP restored to full, so there’s no need to ever be conservative with your special skills during normal battles.

Spicing things up is the ability to pair special abilities to your moves.  This means that every time you use that particular move, you can tack on things like buffing, or restoring HP, or status effects.  Defeating enemies will only give you items for crafting as there are no experience points in the game.  Boss battles will also allow your supporters to tag along, providing additional firepower.  Unfortunately, once you figure out the most useful attacks (i.e. the area-of-effect ones), each battle becomes the same, including the boss battles.

The combat is only around half the game, with the other half revolving around affections.  Hinako can become friends with a lot of characters.  In between attending classes will be free time where she can hang out with them.  This is less exciting than it sounds since it’s a very shallow system with no stakes.  Every time you hang out with someone, it is guaranteed their affections will go up, and there’s a short scene divulging a little bit more about them.  Given that there are so many characters, it soon loses its charms.

The affection system also ties into the leveling system.  The characters only gain levels by increasing affection levels with others, progressing through the story, and completing certain sidequests.  You can however, choose to spend those levels to improve certain stats.  For example, if you want to make up for a character’s innate low attack stat, you can spend those levels to focus on that stat to lower the difference compared to other characters.  You can only focus to a certain degree though since the extra gain isn’t that pronounced.

The bulk of the game comes from the sidequests.  These are simple missions that mainly involve speaking to a character to increase their affection levels or fight enemies in a dungeon.  If you do all the sidequests as they come along, then you will become overlevelled very soon, making even hard difficulty a cakewalk.  Given that every single sidequest has the same structure, it can become dull very quickly.

It’s really weird with this game in that it had a lot of good ideas but the way it executes a lot of them leaves a lot to be desired.  Dungeons are poorly designed and repetitive.  Enemy designs are reused from the third dungeon or so.  Combat animations cannot be skipped and you are expected to do a lot of combat, so be prepared to become very familiar with those animations.  There are a lot of typos, and even a case where one of the main character’s name was left as the Romanization of their Japanese name.

The game is very slow paced, with both the story and gameplay soon getting repetitive.  The overall cuteness can only go so far to keep your attention.  Although the game presents a lot of fan service, it practically shoves it down your throat every single second.  There are constant bathing, showering, changing and swimming scenes.  There are a lot of excuses for Hinako to stretch, and for every single one of these scenes, the camera angle will be there to take advantage of it.

Despite an overall bland story, the ending has a decent payoff, for the sole reason that you end up bonding with several of the characters.  Even though the bond events varied in quality, there’s no doubt that you will become familiar with everyone.  The ending then builds upon these themes so that it resonates with you and gives meaning to what you have been doing.  It actually poses an interesting scenario.  The ending elevates the game and makes it worth playing through the earlier slower bits.  Plus, the game had some pretty cool boss designs, especially the final boss.

Overall, Blue Reflection had a good concept but is a bit rough around the edges, including a sloppy localization effort at times.  It takes 20 to 30 hours to complete, depending on how much time you spend on the sidequests.  The game has beautiful character designs and artstyle, but hindered by bland environments, a flat story and an average gameplay loop.  You can see the potential and it is still worth playing if you are into these types of games, since it is rare to have a decent magical girls game.  It’s more for the fact that they have a good core idea, and that hopefully there will be a sequel to build up and polish the game to become a good one.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations War for Cybertron Kingdom Dinobot (Voyager)

Review:  #672

Name:  Dinobot

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Maximal

Line:  Generations - War for Cybertron:  Kingdom

Year of Release:  2021

Size Class:  Voyager (Wave 2)

Mold Status:  new

BEAST MODE:

Dinobot transforms into a velociraptor and compared to the original toys, this is much closer looking to an organic being.

The beast mode looks pretty good, albeit stiff.  You can see the exposed robot legs from behind.

The mouth can open and close, and opening it reviews an impressive row of sharp white teeth.

Dinobot is a Voyager sized figure, above is a comparison against a Voyager vehicle and robot.  Dinobot has the benefit of feeling bigger in alternate mode due to being a beast.

Dinobot balances quite well on his two legs.  The figure is impressive thanks to its sculpting, and the paint.

Articulation in beast mode is weaker though, while he's not a status, he won't be doing many poses either.

He has joints for his arms, and the legs can look awkward when you lift them to the sides.  The tail is one piece and immobile.

This is a fantastic beast mode, the only flaw is the limited articulation but even then, it doesn't detract how impressive it is.

TRANSFORMATION:

Dinobot has managed to even outclass the Masterpiece version in terms of transformation with its ingenuity.  The beast mode head actually forms the chest, and to make it more show accurate, there are two panels from the beast's thighs that tab onto either side to bulk up the torso.  This is absolutely amazing.  Otherwise, the tail detaches to form the weapons, the beast legs form the robot arms, and the robot legs unfold from the torso.

ROBOT MODE:

Despite how good the beast mode was, the robot mode is no slouch.  This is a great looking Dinobot, although the arms feel proportionally too long and big.

The only kibble that he has is part of the tail on his back.  This is quite impressive at how well everything else is tucked away, including the beast mode's arms inside the torso (albeit not as neatly as the Masterpiece version).

The head sculpt is great as well, with the perfect shade of blue for his face.  The only thing lacking is a bigger snarl that reveals his teeth.

In terms of size, Dinobot is approximately the height of an average Voyager.  He does feel solid in your hands though.

In terms of articulation, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, his claws, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

Dinobot doesn't have too many places where he is hollow, which contributes to how awesome he is to fiddle around with.

The tail splits over to form his weapon, and also reveal the sword attached inside.

The tail weapon pegs into his hands.  Unlike the original, this one doesn't have a spinning gimmick attached to it.

Otherwise, you can pull the sword out to have Dinobot hold it separately.  Dinobot lacks 5mm holes in his fist, so it relies on a dedicated peg instead.

You can also keep the weapon attached on his back.

The sword is painted in purple to try and mimic the metallic look of the show.

His shins are unpainted bronze plastic, which is the only place where it felts like it needed some paint to break up the blandness.

Everything locks and holds together really well.

This is a near perfect robot mode, only missing some paint.

OVERALL:

Dinobot is yet another winner in the Kingdom line, providing high quality updates to Beast Wars characters.  While his beast mode is fairly static, it still looks incredible.  His robot mode is equally good if not better, linked by a clever transformation.

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The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)

The sequel to the first The Secret Life of Pets is set some time after, where the owners of Max and Duke now has a son.  The toddler, whom Max is endeared towards, gets into all sorts of trouble by himself.  Max is now very protective and sees that world as a dangerous place, but this also turns him into being overly stressed and cowardly.  So during a family holiday, Max finds himself at a farm who has a farm dog named Rooster.  Rooster is a lot more aggressive and proud, and he is disgusted with Max's behavior.  Of course, the two will get over their differences and bond together, as well as allowing Max to trust the world and regain his confidence.  The other plot thread follows Snowball who ends up saving a tiger from a circus.  Unfortunately, you can't really domesticate a tiger and this causes all sorts of issues.  Finally, there is Gidget who gets into trouble over losing a toy that Max entrusted her to protect.  It is odd at first when there are three distinct and completely unrelated stories going on, although by the end of the film, the various paths do cross each other, albeit awkwardly.  The animation is really good, with plenty of details, although the plot leaves a lot to be desired.  There are definitely humorous parts, as well as cute sections, but it feels as if the film lacks a heart.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Season 5 (2017-18)

The fifth season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine is 22 episodes long. This was the last season before it was cancelled by Fox but was eventually renewed by a different network. The show follows a close knit team of detectives within the fiction District Nine Nine of the NYPD. The central character is Jake Peralta, who while he is a competent police officer, has knack for jokes, pranks and a general attitude that doesn’t take things too seriously. The show focuses on the team’s shenanigans in both their personal and professional lives.

The season begins with Jake and Rosa both in jail after being framed and convicted of bank robbery crimes for diamonds in last season’s finale. The show tries hard but frankly, the jail setting isn’t the best and it feels off. Maybe it is the overexposure to the same type of humor or just that Jake doesn’t have much to work with but it can get quite bland. It is a serious event though as the rest of the Nine Nine continues to try and find a way to take down Hawkins to prove Jake and Rosa’s innocence.

Hawkins is a tough nut to crack as she is very careful and seemed to have covered her tracks extremely well. The Nine Nine is disadvantaged since Hawkins knows that they are looking out for her every move and she proves to be able to easily lead them astray. The way the whole situation is resolved felt a tad bit contrived but then right at the end, there is a revelation which has seriously consequences. This revelation also shows off the strength of Captain Holt’s character.

The season covers many different scenarios in each episode in a bid to keep it entertaining. There’s a road trip with the whole team to the annual Halloween episode which manages to keep surprising you. There are highly exaggerated events, even more so than normal including a randomly exploding vehicle for seemingly no reason. It was so unexpected that you’d probably do a double take and ponder whether the writers really did do that. Several of the episodes touch upon some very sensitive issues. Sometimes these issues feel like they came right out of nowhere with no warning but it handles those themes well.

There was an excellent episode that was effectively spent with Jake and Holt trying to interrogation a murder suspect. This episode merged cleverness and humor perfectly, considering the serious tone to it. The show hadn’t had something like this since it usually just glosses over the details and have the team say they solved it. There was thoughtfulness to the dialogue and tactics used and was something that would have been great to see more of. The biggest draw has always been the characters and the way that they interact. There are plenty of clashes of personalities in a work setting but they will work it out. It constantly reinforces that the team is a family.

Gina was supposedly pregnant in the last season but using that as an excuse for her absence is weird. Not having her interacting with the rest of the characters makes it seem like the team is missing someone important. While her character can be extremely annoying, it’s not the same with her. Boyle continues to be weird but strangely endearing. He has good intentions but seriously cannot read the mood and spouts the oddest of things. Yet when he is left out, whether it is through his own fault or not, you can’t help but feel pity for the guy. Jake can be rash and regularly disobeys his superiors but there is always a lesson to be learnt afterwards. His relationship with Amy is progresses naturally and is a big focus of the season. The usual supporting characters return like Judy and Kevin but sometimes, they’re not interesting enough to keep having episodes centering on them.

The ending was sweet and was perfect in wrapping up some of the characters’ journeys. It’s satisfying to the point where you’re sad if there wasn’t another season but also that it’ll be okay if it ended at this point. It had heartwarming speeches that bring out the emotions. While the humor and one-liners aren’t as strong as the last season there are still some gems. On the other hand, it feels that there are more sexual references or maybe they’re just more obvious this time around.

Overall, despite the lower amount of variety in the episodes, the fifth season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine is still extremely solid. By this point, you are familiar with the characters and the cast has a lot of chemistry. None of the characters are siloed so while Jake does get most of the screentime, all the other characters get their fair share as well. There were many heartwarming moments during the season but the ending takes the cake in terms of the impact. While it is not a goodbye, it was satisfying.

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