The Lion King (2019)

The Lion King is a remake of the Disney animated film of the same name.  It takes on the live-action remake moniker even though since all of the characters are animals, pretty much everything is animated.  This is both a plus and a minus.  At times, the characters look lifelike and amazing, in others, it looks as if there is something off, this goes for the backgrounds as well.  The film pretty much retells the original story, complete with songs.  At first, you might think that singing realistic animals may be a bit odd but it surprising works pretty well.  There are several minor changes made to the story but it generally feels the same, and this also means that it has a fairly slow paced middle portion.  The design direction made for giving the animal characters emotion and express allows you to sympathize and care for their plight.  However, like with all of Disney's remakes, you can't help but keep continually comparing it to the original, and it does pale in comparison.  The Lion King may be enjoyable for newcomers, but its slow pace and comparatively low excitement or ingenuity in its story dampens it somewhat.

Fate/Zero - Season 2 (2012)

The second season of Fate/Zero is twelve episodes long. It is based on the prequel to the visual novel Fate/stay night, where it tells the events of the previous Holy Grail War. Since the previous season ended right in the middle of a huge battle between Caster and his huge monster versus all the other Servants, this is naturally where the season picks up from the very first episode. Caster is a formidable opponent and his summoned monster proves more than a match for the combined attacks of Saber, Rider and Lancer. However, this is the one event that gathers all the Servants together as even Berserker and Archer make an appearance. Despite the grand scale of it all, the problems involving Caster and his Master are somewhat resolved without too much fanfare.

On the other hand, Archer’s Master, Tokiomi (also known as Rin’s father), finally makes more than a token appearance. In the first season, he was regulated to just musing and monologuing in his room whereas now, he stands in the open targeting some of the other Masters. Kirei is rapidly inching towards the point where he betrays Tokiomi, as we now constantly see him performing actions that are contrary to their plan together. He eventually crosses over the line and does several despicable acts, which you wish that he will get karma for, but of which we know that he won’t.

Like the first season, the tone can be dark and the visuals can be gory. Emiya Kiritsugu is shown to be a ruthless participant. He does not hesitate in using any sort of methods, including blackmail and going back on his word, in order to kill the other Masters and Servants. It goes so far as to paint him in an anti-hero light. However, there are some instances where the way a Master is dispatched to be thoroughly underwhelming considering the focus that had been placed on them.

Continuing on the trend from the previous season, there are flashback episodes that come without any warning, which can be a bit jarring. The main one being how Kiritsugu became the coldhearted person that he is. Although there was only one episode before he spirals down his path, and another one to elaborate on what happens afterwards. While the events he had to go through are traumatic, it felt like such a sudden and dramatic change overnight. Some characters like Waver and Rider are well developed, where it is easy to see and understand their relationship. It gives them meaning and weight. While other characters like Kiriya and Beserker as well as Tokiomi and Rider are weak, with barely any screentime to flesh them out.

While consistent, Gilgamesh is still annoying with his smugness and arrogance. Considering that his abilities are overpowered, it’s frustrating to see that he fights from a distance, throwing numerous weapons against his opponents, and as a last resort, uses his more powerful weapon which pretty much annihilates everything. It’s not that ufn to watch since it’s so predictable and uninteresting. On the whole, fight scenes aren’t terribly great here. There is a heavy reliance on 3D animation during a lot of the scenes, from Caster’s monster to all the vehicles. It’s quite distracting and clashes massively with everything else due to the awkward way that they move about and how it stands out in terms of aesthetics.

Being a prequel, you’ll know the ending and it won’t be a happy one. Despite that, it has a strong lead up to the ending and explains why it ended the way that it did. Kiritsugu redeems himself somewhat, thanks to our deeper understanding. It is painful to see Saber feel betrayed like she did without truly knowing the full picture and the true nature of the grail. There is a fairly intense scene that perfectly captures the frustration and hopelessness of the two characters perfectly.

While the bulk of the story ends on the second to last episode, the final episode gives us an epilogue for all the surviving characters. It also portrays events that has significance and would eventually tie back to Fate/stay night. It’s at the end that you will realize that the anime did succeed in humanizing and giving us a proper look at Emiya Kiritsugu since he was fairly mysterious in Fate/stay night.

Overall, Fate/Zero is a solid prequel to Fate/stay night. There are several highs to the story but ultimately it can feel a tad bit too similar to Fate/stay night. There aren’t too many characters that you can say are proper heroes since the general tone of the anime is on the darker and more twisted side. There are no redemptions but at the very least, you understand the motivations of several of the grail participants. It does a good job at showing off the events of the Holy Grail War in the lead up to Fate/stay night.

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Dr Kawashima’s Devilish Brain Training: Can you stay focused? (3DS)

Dr Kawashima’s Devilish Brain Training: Can you stay focused? is also known as Brain Age: Concentration Training outside of Europe. While the game was released in America in 2012, it took until 2017 before it was released in Europe. This is a puzzle game that leans more towards being a piece of edutainment software. It is the 3DS entry of the popular Brain Age series of games that debuted on the DS. Upon starting the game, a crude 3D head representing Dr Kawashima (based on the real life scientist) explains that in today’s world, with smartphones and other devices being so handy, we are constantly receiving information that has reduced our capability to focus and concentrate. Thus, the game aims to improve that aspect. This is basically a selection of mini-games of varying levels with a focus on memorization and simple calculations. The key activities include combining simple arithmetic with memorization, memorization of cards and finding obscured objects that had been moved around. Considering that Dr Kawashima is your personal trainer, so to speak, and is only represented by the crude 3D model along with a pair of floating hands, he’s pretty charismatic. The graphics are simple and the 3D effect is quite subdued.

The goal of the game is to play through a few five minute sessions every day, and hopefully as a result of that, you feel yourself improve. The first mini-game it presents is part of the Devilish Training series, which feels like its flagship mode. It starts you off at the easiest level and depending on your results, it’ll increase, decrease or have the difficulty stay the same. These activities are short and so you’ll be completing a few of them within the five minute session. The way it increases and decreases the difficult is a bit sensitive. You might strike lucky in one and move onto the next level before you’re ready, or you just have a bad attempt and you end up going back a level. A lot of the core activities rely on memorization and missing one means that you’ll have no hope of getting back on track. It is better to retry than to carry on which makes it feel like that it depends on luck to get handed a set that’s fine.

There are numerous attempts to keep you addicted and coming back every day. There are achievements and tracks your stats of your daily efforts in graphical format. New content is only unlocked as you return on subsequent days and it takes a total of 40 real-time days before all the content is available. In the first few days, you’ll quickly run out of content because the game blocks you from repeating challenges after that day’s attempt, which is somewhat annoying if you wanted to practice more. It takes around a week or so before a sizable amount of content is unlocked and a month before everything is unlocked. There are optional mini-games that you can play as much as you want including a Tetris-like clone but with additional set of rules. The best modes and the ones that are the most fun are the ones that is not part of the “Devilish” series. Since these are more like mini-games, such as “battles” where your attacks are doing quick sums, or “Block Head” where you try and capture the most points on squares compared to the AI. They also feel less tedious as you’re not forced to repetitively do them for at least five minutes at a time.

All the mini-games uses the touchscreen heavily. Most of the time you’ll write down your answers, or manipulate the onscreen objects using the stylus. The number and letter recognition works for the most part but there will be instances where it reads it incorrectly and it marks your answer as incorrect which can feel unfair. Unfortunately, the game loses its novelty fairly quickly. It becomes tedious and boring since at the end of the day, it’s just basic arithmetic and memory exercises which are not substantial enough to be called proper mini-games. Several of the activities have varying difficulties. For “Block Head”, the hard stages takes the fun out of the easier stages. This is because your opponents get unfair advantages (moving twice in a row or having two separate icons compared to your one). Beating the stage just ends up being a process of elimination to see where your opponent is programmed to go, rather than it being a true puzzle or test of skill. It makes it frustrating and annoying to the point where you’re just going to give up since the opponent so blatantly cheats, and there is only the one way to beat the stage, i.e. the one route that the developer wanted you to.

Overall, Dr Kawashima’s Devilish Brain Training: Can you stay focused? is fun for what it is. It’s a piece of edutainment software that can be fun to track how you’re going, or improving, as the days go along. Sure, it does lose its novelty fairly quickly but the first week or two, with the frequent unlocking of new events, and interesting tidbits presented by Dr Kawashimi, makes it enjoyable and worthwhile to at least given it a try.

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Toy Review: figma #220 Matoi Ryuko (Kill la Kill)

Review:  #690

Name:  Matoi Ryuko

Brand:  figma (Kill la Kill)

Year of Release:  2014 (#220)

Variations:  none

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:

Matoi Ryuko comes in a nice box that figma is known to come in, with the clear window showing off the figure and her accessories.

The back, as well as the sides, displays several stock photos that pose the figure in iconic and recognizable poses from the anime.

As expected, it comes with various accessories, including two versions of her scissors blade (one normal and one opened), four pairs of hands and two alternate faces.

One of her alternate face is an angry expression while her other is a hurt one.  Swapping the faces are easy enough as you just need to take the front hair piece off.

As per usual, you also get the cardboard stand that is made out of the inner cardboard sleeve, a plastic bag to hold all the accessories if you're not going to re-box it, and a plastic stand.

FIGURE:

The figure looks great, being based off the anime, it captures all the details.

There is a slot on her back for the stand to plug in, it's situated in her black clothes so as not to draw attention, which is a nice touch.

As good as the figure is, the one area where it seems off, and this is always the part that's hardest to pull off when going from 2D to 3D, is the head.  The face is fine, but the hair is nowhere near as fluid as it should be, rather it is a big black plastic lump.

As mentioned earlier, she has two additional faces.  Her head is also on a flexible joint, so can look pretty much anywhere and everywhere.

As a figma, there is a focus on poseability, and she has heaps of joints to help her achieve iconic poses from the anime.

The plastic stand just attaches to her back, and while she can easily stand on her own two legs, the stand allows her to do attack poses.

You'll need to swap out her hands to the ones that allows her to hold her scissor blade.

Thankfully, unlike some older figma, you do not need to dread the prying of her fingers to fit the blade in, it's much easier and less nerve-wrecking to do now.

Her skirt is short enough to not get in the way, so it doesn't require any joints.  The two eyes (that's kind of like her ribbon / collar) of the outfit are on joints that allows it to move out of the way if required.

Thanks to the dynamic feel of the design, the figure truly shines when posing her as she's about to strike.

Her other scissor blade is a different form, with it opened and so is longer (used in the anime as her ultimate attack).

It's a separate single molded piece, which is ideal given that these weapons are actually fairly thin and can feel fragile.

The rest of the figure is made of a softer plastic that's nice to the touch, however, it does still feel durable.

This is a fantastic figure that captures the character nicely, and designed such that poses are so easy to pull off.

OVERALL:

figma Matoi Ryuko is a good figure that's worth the money.  It's pretty much the best option when it comes to an articulate version of the character.  While she doesn't come with too many accessories, the main one, being her iconic scissor blade, is the one that counts and it does a perfect job here.  The only negative is the hair and how it looks too plasticky compared to how it should but that is a really tricky part to pull off.

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Below are more photos not used in the review above.

Aladdin (2019)

Aladdin is a live-action remake based upon the Disney animated film.  In general, this is an enjoyable remake and it keeps enough of the original to keep it familiar.  However, there are liberties taken with the source material.  An effort had been made to make Jasmine less like a helpful princess in need of rescue, and more of her own strong character, including a new song which notably doesn't gel well with the rest of the songs that were based on the originals.  There are other smaller changes, and whether they're good or not is subjective.  What did clash was the attempts to incorporate modern elements into genie's antics, including break-dancing and other dance moves which just feels weird with the older Arabian setting.  The role of genie will have a high bar to achieve but Will Smith does a commendable job and he is likable.  He keeps enough of the old genie's craziness but like most of the film, keeps it a bit more realistic.  Naturally, the film has a heavy reliance on CGI and most notably during the scenes where genie does his magic, they are the ones where it stretches it too far.  It's fine for an animated film but it's way too unrealistic and exaggerated for live-action.  At its core, the story is the same which is how the Princess Jasmine falls in love with the common thief Aladdin (who has a heart of gold).  This is one of Disney's better live-action remakes and it is fun to watch from start to finish.

Fate/Zero - Season 1 (2011)

Fate/Zero is based on the light novels that is a prequel to the visual novel Fate/stay night. The first season is thirteen episodes long. It is set ten years before Fate/stay night and focuses on the previous Holy Grail War. The Holy Grail War is an event where the Holy Grail chooses seven Masters, and through them, summons seven Servants. They then fight it out to be the last pair remaining to claim the Holy Grail itself, which is an artifact said to be able to grant the user any wish.

Given that the anime assumes the viewer to already be familiar with the events of Fate/stay night, we get several fun cameos of younger versions of the characters. However, this prequel mainly focuses on a few specific characters, with the highest profile one being Emiya Kiritsugu, the adopted father of Shirou. Also, given that Shirou was not your typical Master, we get to see how a “normal” Holy Grail War goes.

The anime begins with immediately laying down the groundwork of several of the Masters that will be participating, including two who we should be very familiar with: Kiritsugu and Kotomine Kirei. However, the other Masters are also intertwined with familiar families such as the Matou and Tohsaka bloodlines. The first episode, which is double the length of a normal episode, is actually fairly slow but sets up the tone and personalities of several characters.

Given that this is a prequel, seeing some of the younger versions of several characters, while knowing their fate and what they will have to live through after the events of this War, can be depressing. On the other hand, you know that Kirei is a scheming snake and will watch his actions very carefully. He doesn’t disappoint through given that he executes a ruse almost right away. However, knowing that a particular character survives, even though they are so despicable or having an unfair advantage, but will not be punished for it in this anime, can be frustrating.

We can see several high profile heroic figures from the past (and crossing over into legends) being summoned as Servants. Given their high status, naturally, they are difficult to control and have huge egos, as several Masters find out the hard way. This is actually a surprising contrast to the previous anime since there was a bit more harmony between Master and Servant. There can be a period of adjustment as you get used to the different identities being summoned within the familiar classes. This version of Lancer is completely different to the one in the next war, and likewise for the Caster and Rider. Naturally, Saber and Gilgamesh are the only characters that appear in both this War and the next one and it’s interesting to watch how they react coming into this blind.

Some of the best parts are when the Servants show honor and pride, instead of always resorting to senseless fighting. Having them discuss and talk about their past lives and the reason for their participation in the War, leads you to understand their actions a lot more and makes it easier to forgive some of the things that they do. This is a good thing since the anime can be dark and violent. It is not afraid to show some twisted gory scene, although the camera will look away, only implying what happened instead of outright showing it onscreen. There will be a lot of blood and some uncomfortable ways of killing.

However, for all its positives, the season has uneven pacing. There will be sections where it is fight after fight after fighting but then will be followed by long scenes with nothing by talking with barely any movement. It can lead to some high highs and low lows as a result. The season ends where the allegiances between the various Servants are muddy, given that they team up sometimes and then revert to being enemies for the Grail at others. The final episode ends just before a big event, leading to a cliffhanger. Yet this cliffhanger was something that you’d have expected at this point so it doesn’t leave as much of an impact as it probably tried to.

Overall, the first season of Fate/Zero is a promising start to the prequel of Fate/stay night. While it was slow on the uptake, it manages to build up a cast of interesting characters wth Masters and Servants that contrast nicely to the ones in the next Holy Grail War. The animation and storytelling is definitely a step up from the original, although there are still a lot of potential for improvements. It is definitely worth a watch, especially if you liked the lore and context of the world of Fate/stay night.

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