After defeating the Hunters, we continue to push forward.

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film

Film Review: To Live & Die In LA

A while back I watched and enjoyed William Friedkin’s The French Connection, and had seen, of his subsequent films, To Live & Die in LA come up a lot as other films I should watch, first just as Friedkin film in general, then in terms of crime films of the ’80s, and in terms of great films with Willam Defoe, then in terms of great movies with pop bands doing the score. So, eventually I decided that it was time to take this film off my watchlist, and onto my watched list.

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film

Film Review: Beep – A Documentary History of Game Sound

What is particularly significant about Beep: A Documentary History of Game Sound can be found at the end of its title – Sound. Beep is a documentary not on just game music, though that certainly would merit a documentary on its own – but on sound in games as a whole, from the rudimentary tones of Pong to modern game sound effects, along with music and voice acting.

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Manga

Manga Review: We Started A Threesome Vol. 1

Recently I dabbled a little in reviewing some more adult materials with a review of the first Emmanuelle novel. Well, recently I learned that the new adult manga from Katsu Aki, the creator of Futari Ecchi (along with the manga version of Vision of Escaflowne & Psychic Academy) involved discussing polyamory, and had been licensed, I decided to pick up the first volume of that manga – We Started a Threesome.

There will be some spoilers.

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Anime

Anime Review: Metallic Rouge

Metallic Rouge is Studio Bones celebrating its 10th anniversary by going back to its routes with an original anime series, with an action show about a pair of ambiguously lesbian characters going on a journey – in this case a science fiction trip through various planets in the solar system, in the process uncovering several mysteries about the world. The problem is that the series, at 12 episodes, doesn’t quite have the time to really do justice to all the themes that they want to cover.

Spoilers below the cut.

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Anime

Anime Review: Solo Leveling

Solo Leveling was one of the web novel titles that I remember seeing promoted heavily by Yen Press. It was one of the first of these Web Novel turned Light Novel titles that got an audiobook release in the US, and generally it had a fair amount of buzz behind it. So, when an anime adaptation came up on the Seasonal charts, I decided it was time to find out what all the buzz was about.

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Anime

Anime Review: Brave Bang Bravern!

I don’t know what I expected coming into this show. On one hand, I got drawn in by the Real Robots Meets Super Robot take on the show, combined with the involvement Masami Obari. Obari as a director is someone who I almost became more familiar with through his involvement on the Fatal Fury anime series, animating the Brave franchise, along with creating the Angel Blade franchise – putting him at the confluence of strongly choreographed action, spectacularly done super robots, and a lot of… actively heterosexual fanservice. So, I was a little surprised to see just how incredibly queer – and particularly gay, Bravern is.

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Anime

Anime Review: Frieren – Beyond Journey’s End

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End was the anime series in the Winter season that was most able to make me ugly cry. It starts off with some heavy reflections on grief and mourning and every few episodes it manages to slip in another shot in the feels. That said, this isn’t a depressing show – instead, it’s a bittersweet reflection on the fact that we and the people we know will eventually grow old and die, so we should value our time with them while we can. It then proceeds to do all of this interspersed with some tremendous fight scenes.

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