The Legendary Monsterverse has, unlike the last Western attempt at doing a Godzilla film with the 1996 film, has lead from the get-go with the monster fights. Even Kong: Skull Island had the climax of the film be a fight between Kong and the largest of the Skull Crawlers. So, when the film series made it clear that yes, Kong and Godzilla were taking place in the same universe (both with the involvement of Monarch and Skull Island‘s stinger), it was clear that somewhere down the road – Godzilla and Kong were going to have to rumble. And when the time comes for that brawl, you might as well make the main event the title – Godzilla vs Kong.
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The African Queen: Film Review
The African Queen is what I would describe as a “Man vs. Nature” film in the guise of a “Man vs. Man” film, particularly done as a very claustrophobic character piece. It’s also, unintentionally, the latest in a theme of reviewing World War I movies.
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SK8: The Infinity: Anime Review
Much as how Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl was created by legendary manga writer and artist Naoki Urasawa in advance of the Barcelona Olympics having the first women’s Olympic Judo competition, the 2020 (now 2021) Tokyo Summer Olympics has had several sports anime released for the various new sports for those games. I’ve already discussed the bouldering anime, and we also got a surfing anime which I wasn’t really able to get into – at least not enough that I felt comfortable reviewing it. However, arguably the best of these is has been SK8: The Infinity, which wrapped just last season.
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Log Horizon: The Destruction of the Round Table: Anime Review
It’s been a long time since the last Log Horizon series came out. That series ended with several mysteries still in play, and several new plot hooks set up, like Krusty having been teleported to the Chinese server, and the introduction of Geniuses – more powerful monsters with their own weird, metagame logic sent by whoever on the moon server had brought them to this world in the first place. This season doesn’t resolve those issues particularly, but it does push some plot developments forward in that regard, particularly related to the characters’ plot development.
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Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: Battle of Kimluck: Anime Review
Orphen’s second season is, arguably, a lot more focused than its first. That, unfortunately, doesn’t stop the show from tripping over its own feet when it comes to the world-building of the setting. In particular, it’s where the mythology of the setting is concerned, especially related to the organization known as the “Kimluck Church.”
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1917: Movie Review
1917 is a movie that is two things at once. It’s a movie that is a bleak and striking depiction of the horrors of ground warfare in the First World War, and presents those horrors in a way that respects what the people who fought in that war went through, and without glamorizing those horrors. It’s also an intricately done magic trick, presenting the illusion of this story being told in one (mostly) unbroken take. This review will contain some spoilers.
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Gunhed: Movie Video Review
This week I’m taking a look at a cyberpunk tokusatsu film from the ’90s.
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Otherside Picnic: Anime Review
Otherside Picnic isn’t exactly a horror anime, nor is it strictly a portal fantasy. It’s got clear horror elements, and certainly has characters going to another world, but also very frequently returning to our world. It’s a series that is, on the one hand, incredibly chill, and on the other hand is absolutely not.
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Vlad Love: Anime Review
It’s been a long time since Mamoru Oshii did any anime, with the short film Je T’aime from 2010. It’s been even longer since he did comedy, with the last clear-cut comedy he did having been several episodes of Patlabor: The Mobile Police New Files in 1990. Over a decade since the last time he did anime, and over 30 years since he’s done comedy anime. There are fans who have only know his creative output as not only a director of serious anime, but a director of deadly serious anime. So, it was a surprise this past year to see Oshii returning not only to anime, but to comedy anime, and as a series instead of a short or a film, with Vlad Love.
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Yashahime (Season 1): Anime Review
Inuyasha was a show based on Rumiko Takahashi’s works that I fell off of back in the day before it completed. A combination of heavy filler on a more conventional shonen action series, combined with the show’s very long length made it tricky for me to keep up with the show. When I learned that there was a sequel series due to come out, that was an anime original show, and was following the daughters of the first series protagonists, I was intrigued, and decided to try to keep up with the show this time. That show was Yashahime.
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A Touch of Zen: Movie (Video) Review
I’m continuing my look at the films of King Hu with his other film that the Criterion Collection has brought to the states – A Touch of Zen.
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Gunhed: Movie Review
Gunhed is a film that I remember seeing often on TV schedules for the SCI-Fi channel back in the day, but never got around to watching in its entirety. I was impressed by the film’s effects work, but I was never really able to watch enough of the film to really get the plot. At long last, though, I’ve finally gotten around to watching the movie in is entirety.
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Dragon Inn (1967): Movie Video Review
This week I’m getting back into reviewing some Wuxia with one of King Hu’s first film after his move to Taiwan – Dragon Inn.
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Johnny Mnemonic: Film Review
Johnny Mnemonic is a very flawed film. It’s not a garbage film that other aspiring cyberpunk movies from this time can be, but it is a movie that significantly stumbles in its execution. That said, there are chunks of this movie that help make it still a pretty enjoyable film.
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BNA: Brave New Animal – Anime Review
Studio Trigger’s more recent fare is interesting from a critical standpoint because it’s very clear that they are a studio that does not shy away from being political and generally attempting to be progressive. They’re also a studio who, rather than directly addressing Japanese politics, tends to address their narratives through the lens of American politics, often through the X-Men books, which means that due to their distance from American politics, they can stumble into some rakes that are otherwise avoidable, and BNA: Brave New Animal is a great example of this.
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Lady Snowblood: Movie Review
Apparently Kazuo Koike’s manga is one of those edge cases where a creator’s manga adapts to the screen better in live-action than in animation. Koike’s anime track record includes the infamous Mad Bull 34 and Crying Freeman, while his live action adaptations include such classics as Lone Wolf & Cub, and the film I’m reviewing today – Lady Snowblood.
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Uzaki-Chan Just Wants To Hang Out: Anime Review
This week I’m covering an anime from last year that I omitted from my 2020 Anime Recommendations list – not because I didn’t like it, but because I wanted to spend a little more time on it – Uzaki-Chan Just Wants To Hang Out.
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A Night at the Opera: Film Review
The Marx Brothers are kind of hard to review. You’re either down for their antics or you’re not. If you’re down for their antics, the question becomes whether the connecting plot of A Night at the Opera is enough to string the bits together. I think it is, but it really depends on your taste in comedy.
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5 Anime Recommendations from 2020
2020 has, thankfully, passed, so I have a list of some (but by no means not all) of my favorite anime from that year, in an unranked list.
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Akudama Drive: Anime Review
We occasionally get new Cyberpunk anime every now and then, though usually, the protagonists of those series have some degree of… license by the establishment. The Major in Ghost in the Shell is a government agent. So are the protagonists of Cyber City Oedo 808. The Knight Sabers from Bubblegum Crisis are superhero mercenaries who contract with the government. Rare are the cyberpunk anime that have protagonists who work for hire, not only outside the law but in violation of the law. Akudama Drive is one of the series that fits that theme, and utterly nails the concept.
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Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear: Anime Review
I’ve generally avoided a lot of the more OP Isekai Anime series – no wish fulfillment shows with characters that have a superpowered cheat ability getting ported into a fantasy world modeled on a MMORPG in my watched list. Oh, there are Isekai shows on there, and even ones with people who have abilities that are somewhat overpowered (Log Horizon comes to mind). However, all of those are ones that are cases where an existing power from the game’s world is applied differently. Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear is the first show with this concept that I’ve ended up watching, and it’s probably the best place to jump in on this idea.
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Iwa-kakeru: Sport Climbing Girls: Anime Review
Iwa-kakeru kind of got a bad break. This year was the year where we were supposed to get the Tokyo Summer Olympics and with it, as one of the new events, Bouldering – or Sport Climbing. So, Iwa-kakeru would have been placed to perfectly strike when the iron was hot, adapting a manga about this brand new Olympic sport, to rise off of the heat of that Olympic fever. And then COVID-19 happened and the Summer Olympics were pushed back at least one year. So, the question becomes whether Iwa-kakeru can hold up without that boost of Olympic excitement.
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Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You: Anime Review
I’ve reviewed most of the anime adaptations of Hayate: The Combat Butler, and reviewed much of the manga that’s been officially released in English to date (in spite of the official US release being several years behind the Japanese release – which has since ended). When I learned that author Kenjiro Hata’s latest manga, Tonikawa, was getting an anime adaptation, that show quickly ended up on the list of shows on my watchlist for that season, and I was not disappointed.
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A Touch of Zen: Film Review
A Touch of Zen is the third King Hu film I’ve watched so far, and the second of his films after he left Hong Kong and Shaw Brothers for Taiwan. The first, Dragon Inn, kept some of the framework of the Wuxia Western while using Taiwan’s more diverse scenery for great visual effect. A Touch of Zen, on the other hand, leans more heavily into the Wuxia side.
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