We have our fourth rematch – against Another Joe.
Read moreLet’s Play Viewtiful Joe: Part 18 – The Magnificent 5 IV
Laid Back Camp: Vol. 1 – Manga Review
I enjoyed Laid Back Camp a lot. Between its informative depictions of going camping in Japan, it’s interesting travelogue sequences, and it’s generally chill tone, it ended up being one of my favorite anime, and one where I was kind of sad to see it end, and glad to see the show get a second season. After hearing that the manga had been getting an English release, I decided to check out the first volume of the manga.
Read moreDomino: Hotshots – Comic Review
Gail Simone is one of the writers in comics where, after reading several of her runs on other books, I’m strongly considering telling my local comic shop to put all her future stuff on my pull list, and Domino: Hotshots is a great example of why.
Read moreLet’s Play Viewtiful Joe: Part 17 – The Magnificent 5 III
This time we have our rematch against Bruce.
Read moreLet’s Play Viewtiful Joe: Part 16 – The Magnificent 5 II
I take another shot at the boss rush, with a rematch against Charles & Hulk.
Read moreLegends of the Force Part 35: The Thrawn Trilogy Comic Adaptations
This month I’m taking a look at the Dark Horse Comics adaptations of the original Thrawn trilogy.
Read moreLet’s Play Viewtiful Joe: Part 15 – The Magnificent 5 I
I make my first attempt at the boss rush.
Read moreLet’s Play Viewtiful Joe: Part 14 – Midnight Thunder Boy III
We stop a speeding train and beat the boss.
Read moreHayate The Combat Butler – Vol. 29: Manga Review
When last we left the worlds most unlucky butler, he had unintentionally deceived idol singer Ruka into thinking that he was a girl, due to having been roped into crossplay. Meanwhile, Nagi has decided to get back into manga – but she needs her muse…
Read moreMr. & Mrs. X: Comic Review
There is running theory in stories with romances that the chase is better than the catch – that once characters in a romance get together, there is no motivation to continue the story. These are people who never watched Hart to Hart nor are familiar with Nick & Nora Charles. In the X-Books, probably the biggest of these romances, almost as much if not more so than Scott Summers and Jean Grey, was Gambit and Rogue. However, during the planned wedding of Kitty Pryde and Piotr Rasputin, things ended up not happening, leading to Rogue and Gambit basically deciding to take advantage of the opportunity and the two X-Men who could never tie the other down decided to get hitched.
Read moreLet’s Play Viewtiful Joe: Part 13 – Midnight Thunder Boy II
The edited version of this episode would not render properly, so I’m uploading the raw version of my save scumming through some nonsense.
Read moreLet’s Play Viewtiful Joe: Part 12 – Midnight Thunder Boy I
This episode we take on tanks and fighter jets.
Read moreDragons of the Dwarven Depths – Book Video Review
I kick off my August GenCon licensed tabletop fiction reviews with a Dragonlance novel that fills a gap in the original Dragonlance Chronicles.
Read moreLet’s Play Viewtiful Joe: Part 11 – The Viewtiful Escape III
In the engine room, we encounter a dark version of Joe and have to take them down.
Read moreLet’s Play Viewtiful Joe: Part 10 – The Viewtiful Escape II
We stop the flow of missiles and flip the ship again.
Read moreQuag Keep: Book Review
If I was going to describe the modern “Isekai” genre in brief, I’d describe it as “Game-based another world fantasy.” It’s not just fantasy where a protagonist is whisked to another fantastic world from ours like with the John Carter of Mars novels, or on the anime front with El-Hazard and Magic Knight Rayearth. This is fantasy where the characters are explicitly in a world that draws inspiration to games from gaming – sometimes by drawing the characters or their psyches into an actual game (ala Sword Art Online or Log Horizon), or a world which uses the language of RPGs like with Konosuba or Grimgar: Ash and Illusions. I would argue that if not the first of these, then one of the first of this particular genre – and was done in the ’70s by a woman.
Read moreRobiHachi: Anime Review
RobiHachi is a very different show than most of the anime series I’ve seen – particularly those about travel. Most anime series that are about travel and tourism that I’ve seen tend to be chill slice of life comedies, like Laid Back Camp. RobiHachi, on the other hand, is a very silly, wacky, over-the-top comedy – though one with some thematic elements in common with those other series.
Read moreLet’s Play Viewtiful Joe: Part 9 – The Viewtiful Escape I
This time we flip the script and flip the ship.
Read moreLet’s Play Viewtiful Joe: Part 8 – 2 Million Leagues Under The Sea III
We finish off Gran Bruce.
Read moreNintendo Power Retrospectives: Part 92
I’m putting the next episode of the show on hold for a month, in the wake of the tragedy at Kyoto Animation and due to the presence of “The Ignition Factor” among the covered games. Instead, I’ll be discussing the second companion book to one of Nintendo’s miniature consoles – Playing With Super Power.
Read moreLet’s Play Viewtiful Joe: Part 7 – 2 Million Leagues Under The Sea II
We get our first attempt at beating Gran Bruce.
Read moreLet’s Play Viewtiful Joe: Part 6 – 2 Million Leagues Under The Sea I
This time I have to disarm a really annoying bomb.
Read moreGundam 0083: Stardust Memory – Anime Review
I first watched Mobile Suit Gundam: Stardust Memory when I was in High School, a little after 9/11. The story worked for me at that time, when all the Gundam I’d seen had been the Gundam compilation films and Char’s Counterattack. Since then I’ve seen considerably more Gundam (including Zeta Gundam) since then.
Read moreWe Never Learn: Anime Review
A lot of fanservice anime tends to be gross. Maybe it’s because the fanservice comes through sexual slapstick of the “Whoops I fell and groped you or looked up your skirt” variety. Or it comes through battle damage of the “Female character gets their top shredded in combat and now their boobs are hanging out” variety. Or it’s of the “Male lead openly sexually harasses female characters variety.” Perhaps that’s why the fanservice that comes up in We Never Learn feels like a breath of fresh air.
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