We have a rough fight with two Snatchers and some Scions.
Read moreLet’s Play Gears 5: Part 38 – Tight Quarters
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Anime Review
After this past year’s horrific fire at Kyoto Animation, I found myself looking at all the animated series that Kyoto Animation had done in the past, and found that I had seen so very few of them, and that they were also all on my to-watch list well before the fire. The body of work of the studio was at a level that I’d compare to GAINAX at their prime. So, having read the first volume of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid a couple jobs ago, while I was working in Downtown Portland, I decided to bump that show up on the list. Also, as a part of the weekly anime viewing nights I’d started with my parents after I got my Dad into anime, I decided to add that show to the rotation, sight unseen. The results were favorable, with an asterisk.
Read moreRivers of London – Action at a Distance: Graphic Novel Review
In the Rivers of London series, there’s always been something of a gap between what Thomas Nightengale, The Folly’s “Gov”, was up to between the end of the Second World War and the start of the series. There’s an implication that he’s been involved in varying degrees with the Met, but not heavily – if he had, then the Met wouldn’t have had to come up with the procedures they did when Peter Grant started working out of The Met. The most recent (as of this writing) collected graphic novel in the series, Action at a Distance, helps to answer some of those questions, though not without a few problems of his own.
Read moreLet’s Play Gears 5: Part 37 – A Friend Indeed
Before putting the rocket together, we finish the Scavenger Support side quests.
Read moreLet’s Play Gears 5: Part 36 – Top Gear Challenge
We race the rocket train back to the bridge controls.
Read moreKumoricon 2019 Con Report
I give my thoughts on Kumoricon 2019, and the movie I saw during the convention.
Read moreLet’s Play Gears 5: Part 35 – One Turntable and a Rocket Train
We reach the Turntable and take the control room.
Read moreLet’s Play Gears 5: Part 34 – On the Road Again
We leave the base and head back to the skiff.
Read morePenguin Highway: Anime Review
At Kumoricon 2019, I had the good fortune of getting into a screening of the anime film Penguin Highway. It is an anime film of a variety that doesn’t come out in the US very much – an anime film that is a straight-up family adventure film, and a film that also plays into some of the Kids on Bikes concepts that came up in a few works I’ve reviewed recently (The Gate and Tales from the Loop).
Read moreBattle Angel Alita – Last Order (1st Half): Manga Review
Battle Angel Alita ended – sort of – on an interesting note. Due to health issues, the mangaka, Yukito Kishiro, somewhat rushed the manga’s conclusion, quickly moving the story into the floating city of Zalem, before blitzing through the city coping with the revelation that everyone in the city has computer brains – and Alita ultimately ending up in control of the city. The sequel, Last Order, starts there, before going into an oddly different direction.
Read moreLet’s Play Gears 5: Part 33 – Payload
We get the Satellites into the rocket capsule and send it to the Assembly Room.
Read moreLet’s Play Gears 5: Part 32 – Guard the Door
We fend off more swarm as we make our way to the satellites.
Read moreNintendo Power Retrospectives: Part 95
This issue has the results of the 7th annual Nintendo Power Awards.
Read moreLet’s Play Gears 5: Part 31 – Sneaky
We try to make our way quietly through the building – and aren’t very successful.
Read moreLet’s Play Gears 5: Part 30 – Rescue
We save a scavenger convoy and make our way to the launch site.
Read moreGenshiken Second Season – Vol. 1-8: Manga Review
When a creator revisits an old creation, it can be interesting from a reader’s perspective, as we see how changes with time influence that work, whether it’s the Eva Rebuild movies, or Chris Clairmont returning to the X-Men, Timothy Zahn returning to Star Wars, or what have you. With the revival of Genshiken – Genshiken Second Season – the manga elects not to pick up right where the old manga did, and instead skips forward, to a new generation of otaku and a look at how fandom has changed with time, with some interesting results.
Read moreWhat the Hell Are You Doing Here, Teacher?: Anime Review
When it comes to concepts related to fanservice in anime, there are some that are very hard to do well. One of them, probably the biggest one of them, is what I call “Sexual Slapstick.” It’s someone walking into a room and seeing someone undressing, or tripping and falling and copping a feel (or seeing something they shouldn’t. They’re all based around acts that are gross, which means it can be hard to make funny. Season one of We Never Learn did it and What the Hell Are You Doing Here, Teacher? also manages to actually pull it off.
Read moreUltraman Season 1: Anime Review
This past year or so we had a fair number of anime series paying tribute to classic Tokusatsu series from Tsuburya Productions. The most high profile of these was S.S.S.S. Gridman, with Netflix’s Ultraman Season 1 (adapting the manga) coming out earlier, and flying under the radar. There are a few reasons for that – Gridman had Trigger’s rep going for it, instead of being a totally CG anime series, and was released in English in a more conventional manner instead of the Netflix binge model. As far as how much each of those contributed – well, I can’t get into specifics without delving into Steiner Math (which I flunked in college). That said, the show is still fun, and worth your time.
Read moreHayate the Combat Butler Vol. 30-34: Manga Review
So, at last I’ve now gotten caught up on Hayate the Combat Butler – at least the official English release of the manga, so I might as well get through these last 5 volumes at one big whack!
Read moreUpdated Con Survival Tips
In the wake of recent changes in Portland, and having gone to a couple more conventions, I figure I’m about due for a new Con Survival Video.
Read moreThe Electric State: Book Review
The Electric State is very much a different book from Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood. Those books had a retrospective narrative – the point of view for those books was from the viewpoint of someone looking back on events with a sense of nostalgia. The Electric State, on the other hand, has a more conventional narrative, while still having significant themes of memory, but definitely without the warmth of nostalgia.
Read moreTales from the Loop & Things from the Flood: Book Review
A while back, on the internet, I stumbled across the work of artist Simon Stålenhag, in what was part of the Tales From The Loop project – though I did not know what it was at that time. So, when the art was collected into a series of books with a narrative behind them – along with a tabletop RPG, I figure it was time to properly check it out.
Read moreThe Beyond: Film Review
The last Lucio Fulci film I watched was The Black Cat, and while it was a pretty decent horror film, I will say it didn’t quite get into Fulci’s reputation as an extreme gorehound. The Beyond, part of his “Gates of Hell trilogy” and one of the films to make the Video Nasties, on the other hand, definitely fits that criteria.
Read moreCount Yorga, Vampire: Film Review
Horror films about vampires in the present day are kind of interesting to me. We live in a time where the concepts of how vampires “work” are common knowledge enough that on the one hand, you don’t need to explain the concepts to an audience. That said, we also are in a world of skepticism, so characters generally shouldn’t buy into the idea of vampires being real at first glance either. Count Yorga, Vampire is probably one of the earlier films I’ve seen that takes on this concept, even pre-dating Hammer’s attempts at the concept.
Read more