I absolutely adored Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part One. Adapted from Frank Herbert’s novel of the same name, which is widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, Part One did a fantastic job of setting up this world’s story, characters and themes. I had been anticipating the sequel ever since I saw the first one in theaters, even waiting through a few delays. Once I got the chance to see it, I figured there would be no way better than to watch a double feature, with both Parts One and Two played back-to-back. This resulted in undoubtedly one of the greatest cinematic experiences I have ever had, and it is through watching this double feature that I can confidently say that Part One flows perfectly into its sequel.
Both movies feel at their best when watched together.
Dune: Part 2 sees Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) take shelter with the Fremen of Arrakis after the Atreides family is massacred by their old enemy, the Harkonnens, under the orders of the Emperor (Christopher Walken). From there, the film follows Paul’s journey to get revenge upon the Harkonnens and help the Fremen, while also attempting to avoid the messiah role being crafted for him. After watching the first movie, some fans of the book were concerned that Villeneuve was not leaning into the theme of not trusting charismatic leaders, which was Herbert’s key message when writing Dune. This second film, however, should dispel any doubts about that. Timothée Chalamet does an excellent job of showing Paul’s gradual transition into becoming the Lisan al Gaib, culminating in a confrontation scene which left the audience I saw the film with in stunned silence.
Chalamet nails his performance as Paul Atreides at his most tyrannical.
Everyone else in this film does a fantastic job as well. Rebecca Ferguson is unexpectedly terrifying in her manipulation as Jessica. Austin Butler is also terrifying but for very different reasons as Feyd-Rautha. Then there is Javier Bardem who somehow works as both the comedic relief of the film and a chilling representation of radicalization. Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård Florence Pugh, and Dave Bautista all do great, as well. The most surprising character in the film, for me though, was Chani, played by Zendaya. She has so much more agency than her book counterpart, and the way her ideas differ from Stilgar’s helps make the Fremen feel much more realistic as a culture. This also makes her movie-only conflict with Paul interesting, and I look forward to seeing how this is followed up on in the inevitable adaptation of Dune: Messiah.
I much prefer movie Chani to book Chani.
So, the characters and the themes they portray are all excellent, but what about the visuals and soundtrack? Well, if you saw the first movie then you definitely had no doubt that they were going to be just as amazing. Watching this movie on Xtremescreen was a sight to behold, and I would not be surprised if Greg Fraser received at least an Oscar nomination for his cinematography. The same goes for Hans Zimmer, whose score is just as epic as it was in the first film. These visuals, supported by excellent CGI, along with the score, made for a jaw dropping experience.
Part Two is full of stunning shots like this.
As you have read, I have been heaping praise upon this movie from the moment the review started but do I have any criticisms? Well, yes but those issues really only come down to things from the book that were not included. For example, one of my favorite characters in the novel had their role greatly reduced and this was disappointing to see. However, at the same time, I do acknowledge that this character would have been difficult to adapt completely. Besides Part Two clearly sets up their importance in the future of the story. Not only this, but I cannot deny that if I had never read the book then this would not have been an issue for me.
Although I was sad to see a certain character’s role reduced, I liked how their importance was foreshadowed.
Other than a few, biased, book reader issues, Dune: Part Two is just as much a masterpiece for me, as the first. It and Part One are the greatest science fiction movies in years. If you still can, I would highly recommend watching them as double feature, like I did. Watching these movies on the big screen was a cinematic experience I will remember for years to come. Whenever I decide to rewatch these films, it will definitely be back-to-back. Let the sequels continue to flow.
When the Netflix live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender was first announced, I was cautiously optimistic about it. This optimism faltered a bit when the creators of the original show departed, but my hopes started climbing again when I saw the trailers, which were quite good. Well, the show is out and the consensus is in. Turns out, the fandom is as divided as the two tribes in “The Great Divide” episode.
I have seen plenty of people hating and liking the adaption.
As for me, I quite enjoyed Netflix’s adaptation of Avatar. Is it as good as the original? No, but it was never going to be. Going into the show, I wanted a retelling of the story with changes that stuck true to the soul of the original and, for the most part, I got that. Like the cartoon, the adaptation follows Aang (Gordon Comier) who, as the Avatar, is the only one who can master all four elements of Water, Earth, Fire and Air. However, after being frozen in ice for a hundred years, he awakens to find that, in his absence, the Fire Nation has been waging war on the world and killed all of the Air Nomads.
The depiction of the Air Nomad genocide was grim but thankfully pulled its punches where it needed to.
Teaming up with Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley) from the Water Tribe, Aang sets out of a journey to master all the elements to save the world, all the while being pursued by the disgraced Prince Zuko (Dallus Liu) and his tea loving uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee). For the most part, I would say that the actors chosen to play these iconic characters do a good job portraying them. My favorites of the bunch were definitely Ousley as Sokka, Liu as Zuko, Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh, Daniel Dae Kim as Ozai, and Ken Leung as Zhao. Ousley in particular is excellent as Sokka who, while some of character growth is unfortunately cut, still portrays the character with a lot of spirit and humor.
Ousley was, in my opinion, the perfect casting for Sokka.
The comedy of the adaptation is definitely in keeping with the original, with a lot of great laughs from both Sokka and the interactions between Zuko and Iroh. The maintaining of this humor was good to see since this adaptation is darker than the original cartoon, what with the showing of the genocide. The series also has plenty of good emotional moments, with the hardest hitting being an added scene at Lu Ten’s funeral. This scene had me tearing up, although I will admit that this was mostly due to the context I had as a fan of the original show.
The added scene between Zuko and Iroh will leave fans in tears.
So, the adaptation definitely maintains the soul of the original in regard to its tone with the good mixture of humorous, dark and emotional moments. Where it deviates from the original is what I was most interested to see going in. I wanted to see how the writers would introduce characters in different places and blend them into other storylines. I think the writers nailed this in some areas and failed in others. For example, I think episodes three and four did the mixing of different storylines and characters to create a new and cohesive storyline excellently. However, I think the writers also dropped the ball with it, as Episode Five feels quite disjointed and like things were only added for fan service reasons, rather than them being necessary.
Hei Bai’s storyline takes a considerable drop in quality.
I would not say that Episode Five is the weakest episode, though. No, I think the first episode is, what with its constant clunky exposition. This clunky exposition is an issue which sadly persists throughout the season, and I hope future seasons can improve upon it. Another thing I hope they improve upon is the CGI. Don’t get me wrong, the CGI is not bad. There are a lot of moments of fantastic computer-generated environments across the season. It’s just that sometimes, when the actors interact with these environments, I could clearly tell that they were looking at a green screen.
Some moments in the season definitely could have used more work in the CGI department.
And then there a few things that the adaptation did which I just think were straight up bad ideas. The first of these is the portrayal of Roku (C.S Lee). He is the first past Avatar we see in the original show, and he is by far the most important as he warns Aang about Sozin’s Comet. In the adaptation, however, he is overshadowed in importance by Kyoshi (Yvonne Chapman) and Kuruk (Meegwun Fairbrother), and he feels completely different from the Roku of the original. The second, and by far the worst thing the adaptation did was Aang not learning Water Bending. Seriously, this season is an adaptation of Book One. You know, the book named Water. Each season of the show focuses on Aang learning an element. Book One is water, Book Two is earth, and Book Three is fire. Aang not learning to Water Bend is honestly baffling to me.
The Avatar is supposed to learn to bend the elements, yet Aang takes no time to do so, even when there clearly is.
Aang is probably going to learn to Water Bend in between now and the next season, and I really hope the show does not do the same for earth and fire. Still, there are a couple of changes that I think are actually improvements the original show. Having Zuko’s crew be the division he saved, and having Han be an actually pretty nice guy were both great decisions. So, with plenty of positives and negatives in this first season, it is easy to see why the fandom is divided. For me, I would say that I am satisfied with this adaptation, so far. Yes, there are some questionable deviations but there are also plenty of good changes as well, and the soul of the original show is still there. I look forward to seeing the next season of this adaptation and hope they can improve upon it.
Growing up, the Total Drama series was a cartoon I greatly enjoyed. I had a lot of fun going into every episode guessing which contestant would be voted off. So, when I learned that the series had been revived with a reboot in 2023, I decided that it would be fun to rank the seasons, including the newest one. Unfortunately, distribution for the reboot has been quite poor. I found it immensely difficult to watch in New Zealand. Well, after a lot of searching, I finally watched the new season and will now rank it alongside the others. Before we begin, however, I have to state a few things. First, I will not be ranking any of the Total Dramarama seasons. That is a show I refuse to watch on basic principle. Second, this ranking will contain spoilers so make sure you have watched all of the seasons before you read it. With those things made clear, let’s begin the ranking.
8. Total Drama All Stars.
All Stars is, without a doubt, the worst season of Total Drama and this is a shame because of how much potential it had. I mean, a season where the old cast and the new cast compete for the million dollars while forging alliances and rivalries with one another? That sounds great. However, what sounds great in concept does not play out well in reality. For starters, the new cast had only been around for a single 13-episode season. Therefore, the viewers would obviously care more about the old cast, who we had got to know for three 26-episode seasons. Another issue is thatthe new and old characters rarely interact in meaningful ways. They mostly just stick to their own original groups, with the only significant interactions resulting from Sierra obsessing over Cameron, and Courtney getting together with Scott. The former is unbearable to watch, and the latter is ruined in the infamous “Sundae Muddy Sundae” episode, which is one of the worst episodes in all of Total Drama because of how it derails Courtney’s character just to get her eliminated. Unfortunately, character assassination is the norm for All Stars, as many characters are completely different from their former selves. Duncan cares way too much about what other people think of him, Gwen’s feelings about cheating with Duncan are constantly contradicting themselves, and Alejandro and Heather both make unusually stupid decisions which lead to their eliminations. These moronic choices are sadly widespread among the characters. It appears that a lot of them drank stupid juice before their time on All Stars, and most of this is because of the worst character in the entire season: Mal. Mal is the evil alternate personality of Mike and is one of the worst antagonists in the entire series. All he does is break stuff with seemingly no plan, and it feels like the only way the writers could think to make him seem evil was to just give him an edgy appearance and dialogue. Mal is such a terribly written villain that the writers literally had to make the other characters stupider just so he would not get caught. Alejandro reveals he has a video of Mal’s crimes to his face, and Zoe and Cameron somehow do not realize Mike has been taken over by an evil personality, despite them knowing him very well. Then there is the whole journey through Mike’s subconscious, which is just a massive eyeroll of a storyline because Total Drama is supposed to be a reality show. How are the cameras getting into Mike’s subconscious? Even worse is how this builds into the finale, “The Final Wreck-ening”, which is the most anti-climactic season finale of the series. Mal is literally defeated with the press of a button. This season (and the following one) also has Chris at his absolute worst, with him being shown to starve his interns. All Stars fails to live up to its potential, while having constant character assassinations, and whatever good storylines it does have are ruined in the “Sundae Muddy Sundae” episode. It is, without question, the worst Total Drama season.
7. Total Drama Pahkitew Island.
All Stars may be the worst Total Drama season, but Pahkitew Island is not far behind it. The main reason this season is so terrible is the cast. Pahkitew Island has the worst original cast of any of the seasons and this is in large part due to the stereotypes these characters are based off. Now, were the characters in the original Total Drama Island based off stereotypes? Yes, but the thing is that these characters were more than just their stereotypes. In Pahkitew Island, the stereotype is usually the contestant’s sole defining trait. Leonard thinks he is a wizard and that is it, Ella acts like a Disney princess and that is it, Sugar is a Honey Boo Boo parody and that is it. Also, notice how absurd those characteristics sound? Well, this is another problem with Pahkitew Island’s characters because it feels like the writers ran out of teen stereotypes so they just gave the contestants the most extreme traits that they could think of. All of this ultimately results in characters who are absurd while somehow also being boring. Even some of the characters who start off well, like Dave and Scarlett, are eventually turned into insufferable over-the-top villains. By the end, there were only four characters in the entire cast who I liked, these being Sky, Samey, Jasmine and Shawn, but Sky is just okay, and Samey was eliminated before she could realize her potential. Shawn and Jasmine, on the other hand, are the shining lights of Pahkitew Island. Shawn’s constant fear of the zombie apocalypse is always funny, and Jasmine is likeable from the get-go, as shown by her taking Samey under her wing. Her and Shawn also somehow work together as a couple and their growth across the season is satisfying to watch. Jasmine learns to accept Shawn’s weirdness, and Shawn learns to put his fear of zombies aside for Jasmine. Had it not been for these two characters then Pahkitew Island very well could have been the worst season in my eyes, for there are many other bad qualities about it. Chris continues to be a psychopath, both starving the contestants and giving them food poisoning. He even goes so far as to not care if they die when Scarlett takes the island hostage. Speaking of the island, just like in All Stars, the season fails at most of its concepts which actually had potential. In Episode Ten, “Scarlett Fever”, it is revealed that the entire island is mechanical. If this had been known from the beginning, it could have given Pahkitew Island a unique flair. Instead, the mechanical nature of the island is revealed far too late for it to have any meaningful impact, leaving us with fairly standard challenges competed by a mostly terrible cast. In the end, all I can say about Pahkitew Island is thank God for Shawn and Jasime because this season would have been a whole lot worse without them.
6. Total Drama Action.
I just want to make clear that there is a massive leap in quality between Pahkitew Island and Total Drama Action. While Pahkitew Island is a bad season, I would say that Action is a pretty good one. That being said, I was surprised to find this season ranking so low because it used to be my favorite as a kid. This was mostly because of the challenges since, as someone who loves movies, the film-based challenges really appealed to me back then. They definitely still appeal to me now, with challenges like the superhero contest, the murder mystery, the rock star biopic, and the animal-buddy competition being some of my favorites in all of Total Drama. Another thing Action does a great job of is giving characters who did not have enough screen time in the first season more time to shine. Characters like Lindsay, Harold, Courtney, Justin and Beth get way more to do in Action. This is especially the case for Beth, who makes it all the way to the finale with Duncan. However, this is where some of my issues come in because, although I like Beth, she is just not strong enough of a character to be a finalist, and her character dynamic with Duncan is poor, making for a bit of a disappointing finale. It honestly felt like the writers were setting up Lindsay or Harold to be finalists more than Beth. The finale would have been way better if it had been those two characters going against each other, or one of them against Duncan. Unfortunately, this is not the only issue because Action does treat quite a few of its characters poorly. Lindsay accidentally voting herself off was embarrassing and Owen’s return near the end of the season was pointless. Worst of all is the treatment of Trent. Apparently, Cartoon Network wanted Gwen and Duncan to get together but, in order to do that, the writers had to break up Gwen and Trent. They decided to do this by making Trent go nuts, forcing Gwen to break up with him. This came at the cost of Trent’s entire character, as he started throwing challenges for her. He was also bizarrely given a sudden obsession with the number nine, which the writers acted like he always had, when he clearly never did until this season. There are other bits of character derailment in this season, but Trent definitely gets it the worst. All of that being said, there is still a lot to like about Total Drama Action. As I said, many of the challenges are favorites of mine, a lot of the characters were given chances to shine that they were not before and, although the finale is a bit of a let-down, it does have a pretty good arc for Chris and Chef’s friendship. Action may not be as good as I remembered it being, but it does have a lot to like.
5. Total Drama Revenge of the Island.
After World Tour, the writers decided to take a risk by returning to Camp Wawanakwa with a brand-new cast. This was the series’ first attempt at a new cast after the original and, honestly, I think they did a pretty good job. Almost all of the characters have distinct personalities, whether I liked them or not. I say “almost” because Staci cannot even be called a character, as she is just the trait of insufferably repeating lies about her family. Although, to be fair, Staci was created to be this way since she is the first to be eliminated. Aside from her, every contestant has plenty of defining characteristics. This does become an issue with how short the season is, however. At the beginning of the season, I was the most interested in Dawn and B. This was because they had interesting personalities, but they were both eliminated before they could be explored further. If Revenge of the Island had been the length of prior seasons, instead of just 13 episodes, we could have got more time to know the characters. Thankfully, the ones who make it further into the season, like Brick, Zoe, Cameron, Lightning, Scott and Jo, all prove to be interesting. Along with this, the setting of Camp Wawanakwa is well defined, with it feeling both nostalgic, due to it being the setting from Season One, and new, due to the toxic waste affecting the island. This leads to quite a few interesting challenges where the mutated animals prove to be a threat. At the same time, this does impact Chris’ character negatively, since he intentionally used the island as toxic waste dump. He had been growing progressively crueler in Action and World Tour, but Revenge was the first season to take it too far with his character, and All Stars and Pahkitew Island unfortunately made him worse. So, there is a lot to like and dislike about Revenge of the Island. It has an interesting cast and an interesting setting, but the short length of the season means we don’t get to know many of the characters as much as I would have liked, and this was the first season to really character assassinate Chris. So, why is it above Action then? Well, because of the finale, “Brain vs. Brawn: The Ultimate Showdown.” The rivalry between Cameron and Lightning was built up pretty well before the finale, and the episode’s focus on the theme of brain vs. brawn made for a compelling final fight. It makes for a great underdog story when Cameron actually wins, if that is the ending you see based on whatever country you are watching it. Also, the season ends with Chris getting blown up and then arrested for his crimes so that is satisfying. In the end, the finale of Revenge of the Island was much more gratifying than Action’s and that was enough to push it up to number four on this list, despite the season’s issues.
4. Total Drama Island Reboot.
I know the reboot is technically two seasons, but I decided to rank them together since I watched them back-to-back. After so many years absent, Total Drama made its return to the island with another set of brand-new contestants to compete for the million dollars. Thankfully, this new cast is great, and we get to know each and every one of them. Some are done better than others but, overall, they all make an impression. Julia, Bowie, and M.K make for compelling antagonists, especially Julia who is delightfully cunning in her manipulation. As for the more positive characters, Raj and Wayne’s friendship is endlessly endearing, Damien has an excellent arc in the first half of the reboot, and Zee’s laidback personality gets a lot of laughs. The funniest character of the season for me though, has to be Scary Girl. Every morbid thing that comes out of her mouth made me laugh, and I hope she gets more to do in a hypothetical third season (along with Damien). So, the new characters are pretty great, but what about the old ones of Chris and Chef? Well, Chris is voiced by Terry McGurrin instead of Christian Potenza, but his new voice actor does a great job of playing the character. Chris is still psychopathically cruel in the reboot but, what makes this more acceptable is Chef, who seems quite different from prior seasons. In the reboot, he is often concerned about the condition of the campers, making him a great contrast to Chris, with the two playing off each other well. Speaking of playing, the challenges in the reboot are all mostly fun, with them creating a lot of interesting character interactions. As for the two finales we get in the reboot, both are solid. Priya makes for a good winner, although I honestly would have preferred Bowie. As for Wayne, he is also a good winner, but I do wish he got more screen time before his victory. One downside to these victors is that, unfortunately, there is no alternate ending where we get to see someone else win. I would have liked to see what would happen if Bowie, Julia or Caleb won. Sadly, this is not my only issue. For starters, in the second half of the reboot, there is a romantic storyline between Priya and Caleb, which takes up too much time and simply goes on for far too long. I liked it in the beginning but it more than overstayed its welcome. If it had ended just two or three episodes prior, then I think this storyline would have been received a lot better. I honestly don’t think there’s a way Episode Five could have been well received, though. Fart humor has always been a part of Total Drama, for better and mostly for worse, but this is by far the worst use of it. “Jurassic Fart” is so painfully unfunny to watch that it ranks right up there with “Sundae Muddy Sundae” as one of Total Drama’s worst episodes. It is these things that hold the reboot back from taking a higher spot in the ranking. However, as stated, there is still a lot to love about it, like the new characters and a much more bearable Chris thanks to his and Chef’s new dynamic. I hope we get a Season Three of the reboot because I would like to see more of these characters.
3. Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race.
Growing up, my family and I used to love watching The Amazing Race. It was one of my favorite reality shows as a kid, so I was pretty much guaranteed to like The Ridonculous Race. Unless of course it was botched to the same degree as All Stars and Pahkitew were. Thankfully, this Total Drama spin-off show is great, as a cast of 18 teams travel around the world and compete in challenges for one million dollars, all guided by Don, the new host. This cast is almost entirely new, with only a few characters from prior seasons returning. But, wow, do the writers do these old characters justice. Geoff is as fun as he was in Island, and his friend Brody increases this fun to make them an especially enjoyable team to watch. Then, there is Noah, whose character continues to improve from World Tour. His friendship with Owen is charming and his growing romantic relationship with Emma is endearing. And then there’s Leonard who… okay, why the hell is this insufferable character back? Just so they could have someone to boot off first? Okay. Yeah, not gonna lie, a lot of the early boots are pretty meh characters, and some of the other teams definitely overstay their welcome, most notably the Daters, Ryan and Stephanie. However, for every meh team there is a great one. The Sisters grow more likeable with each episode, the Father and Son are great, the Rockers are a lot of fun, and the Goths are endlessly hilarious. Then there are the Ice Dancers, Jacques and Josee, who are among the best villains in the series, right alongside Heather, Alejandro and Julia. Their rivalry with the Police Cadets is also fun to see play out. As for the Police Cadets themselves, MacArthur’s general craziness gets a lot of laughs, and Sanders plays off this well as the straight man to her partner’s insanity. As for the finale, it is a pretty good one. The Ice Dancer’s elimination is extremely cathartic, given all of the cheating they have done, and the ending where the Police Cadets win is satisfying. My criticism come with the other team of finalists, the Surfer Dudes. While Geoff and Brody are deserving of winning, I cannot help but feel like Emma and Kitty would have been better finalists. That is not a huge criticism, though, more of a nit-pick based on preference. The finale of the Ridonculous Race is a more than satisfactory conclusion to a great parody of The Amazing Race.
2. Total Drama Island.
The original season of the show, I had just as much fun rewatching Total Drama Island as I did seeing it for the first time when I was a kid all those years ago. The original cast is by far the most iconic, with Chris McLean and Chef Hatchet welcoming 22 contestants to Camp Wawanakwa for the first time. Each of these campers are based off teen stereotypes but, like I said when I was talking about Pahkitew Island, there is more to them than that. Duncan, despite being a bad boy, has a softer side to him. Owen may be a fart joke machine, but he also has a heart of gold. Gwen is the goth girl with a fierce streak, who is also a loyal friend when the other characters push past her walls. Unless of course that character is Heather, who breaks down those walls with a sledgehammer of meanness. Heather’s title as the Queen of Mean is perfect for her this season, as she plays the role of the antagonist we all love to hate, and then cheer at her inevitable downfall. Almost all of the characters are fantastic, except for a few of them, like Katie and Sadie who take the title of the most annoying Total Drama characters for me. But, aside from them, and a few others, the cast of the original Total Drama Island is great. Izzy, Lindsay, DJ, Geoff, Bridget, Leshawna, Harold, Courtney, all of these characters and more are memorable. Even Chris and Chef are at their best in this first season, with them actually seeming to care about the camper’s safety (even if it was just to avoid a lawsuit). These memorable characters all make the first season more interesting when they are pushed to their limits in the challenges, resulting in various great episodes like, “Dodgebrawl”, “Paintball Deer Hunter”, “Hook, Line & Screamer”, and the finale “The Very Last Episode, Really!” Speaking of that finale, it was great to see Owen and Gwen go head-to-head, even if I prefer Gwen as the winner to Owen. The extra episode “Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island” may be the best episode of the bunch, with it perfectly setting up the events of Action. Overall, this first season is great, with my only criticism being a couple of inconsistencies and a few ridiculously unfair eliminations, most notably Leshawna’s. Otherwise, this is one of the best seasons. Total Drama Island was the beginning of this series, and it started it off with a bang.
1. Total Drama World Tour.
When I decided to make a list ranking the Total Drama seasons, I knew which season was going to take the top spot. Sure enough, when I finished my rewatch, Total Drama World Tour was my favorite. This is hardly an unpopular opinion, as many other fans of the series also have World Tour as their number one. It is a position the season has more than earned. The first season to take its contestants around the world, World Tour stands out from the rest of the series with a unique feature. This feature is Chris requiring the contestants to sing to progress, resulting in numerous fantastic songs, such as “Come Fly with Us”, “Gwen’s Face”, “Condor”, “This is How We Will End It,” and many, many more. Along with these great songs, the characters singing them are also highlights. World Tour continues what Action started by giving previously minor charactersmore time to develop, namely Noah, Tyler, and especially Cody. Speaking of Cody, he comes with an attachment this season, since Chris adds two new contestants, Sierra and Alejandro. At first, Sierra was annoying and creepy, but she grew on me by the end. As for Alejandro, he is, without question, the most intelligent antagonist in the entire series. His rivalry and simultaneous romantic chemistry with Heather is also fantastic. Speaking of the Queen of Mean herself, the writers of World Tour did the impossible by making me cheer for her against Alejandro. Turning Heather from the manipulative antagonist of the first season into the anti-hero of the third was a great idea which more than paid off. This resulted in the season finale, “Hawaiian Punch”, being the most satisfying finale of the entire series for me. Watching Heather kick Alejandro where it hurts, slide him off the mountain, and then drop her sacrifice into the volcano to win the million was immensely gratifying. And, again, Heather was a character I and many others despised in Island. Her transformation into this anti-hero figure in World Tour made Heather my favorite character in all of Total Drama. All of these great qualities combine to make World Tour the best season in my eyes. However, despite this, I would still not say it is a perfect season because there are a few issues I have. For starters, the character of Blainley really served no purpose in this season, given that she’s brought into the competition late and eliminated just a few episodes after. You could remove her from the plot and nothing significant would change. At least it’s fun to laugh at her expense during the “Her Real Name Isn’t Blainley” song. The second issue I have with World Tour is its portrayal of cheating. Bridget is forgiven by Geoff for trying to cheat on him with Alejandro way too quickly. Then there is the infamous Gwen, Duncan and Courtney love triangle. I have already gone over how this plotline led to the derailment of Trent’s character in Total Drama Action but, in this season, it weakens Gwen’s character as well by painting her as a hypocrite. Gwen was distraught when she thought Trent cheated on her in Island, yet she kisses Duncan when she’s friends with Courtney. Honestly, I thought the show was doing a good job building a friendship between Gwen and Courtney, until they brought Duncan back and the love triangle with it. If anything, though, the fact that I name these issues and still proclaim World Tour as my favorite season of Total Drama should show how fantastic the rest of this season is. It is so good that I am able to ignore its issues and enjoy myself. Out of all the seasons, Total Drama World Tour is the undisputed best for me. But I hope to see more seasons in the future. Fingers crossed that the reboot will be continued, with better distribution this time.
Chapter 162 of Chainsaw Man ended the prison escape arc with Asa and her gang successfully rescuing Denji from Public Safety.
Going into Chapter 163 of Chainsaw Man, “Dream Balls”, I was curious to see how Asa and Yoru would react to the realization of Denji being Chainsaw Man.
The results were, as expected of Fujimoto, hilarious.
“Dream Balls” begins with Haruka flipping news channels, only to find that seemingly no one is talking about their prison break.
He finally manages to find a channel where an emotional woman appears to be talking about the chaos caused by the recent Chainsaw Man transformations.
She states she has had suicidal thoughts, that her mother cannot trust anyone anymore, and that she has one thing to say to whoever’s behind all this… “Koma Komagawa! Never stop being our idol!”
Cue my laughter as I realized, just as Haruka did, that this woman was not traumatized about the Chainsaw Men transformations, but by an idol supposedly having an affair.
Humor aside, I actually felt a large amount of sympathy towards Haruka during this moment.
He looked so distraught and remorseful for what he helped cause, before the reveal of what the woman was actually traumatized by.
Haruka is a character who I honestly found to be kind of meh for a while.
However, he has been growing on me quite a bit in the more recent chapters, what with his hilarious exchange with Fami in the prison escape arc and now this.
As for Haruka’s friend Nobana, his “thank goodness” response to the news that the idol’s affair may have fabricated reminded me a lot of his sister’s final scene in Part One.
In that scene, Kobeni was thankful that she no longer had to endure her abusive family, while here her brother is thankful that a smear campaign turned out to be a lie.
Although, Fujimoto seems to be keeping it ambiguous whether Nobana is really happy about that or happy about their escape not being on the news.
The reason for that, though, is probably because Public Safety is being quiet about it in the hopes that they can recapture Denji before word gets out.
Whether they can or not depends on the quality of the gang’s hideout, which appears to be the apartment block the Falling Devil attacked a few arcs ago.
Fami brought them here, and we see her gorging herself on food with her bare hands.
I still find the fact that the Famine Devil is a glutton to be morbidly funny.
Before the group can decide what to do, Denji wakes up, and his first question is what happened to Asa’s arm.
The following exchange is suitably awkward, as Asa simply replies “I dunno” when Denji asks why Yoshida cut off her arm.
The awkwardness of this conversation causes even Denji to wonder if he is dreaming.
A simple pinch would have been enough to prove to Denji that he is awake, but Katana Man takes this a boot further, stomping on Denji’s balls as revenge for the competition back in Part One.
This made me laugh but what comes next had me howling.
Both Haruka and Asa yell at Katana Man for hurting Denji, only for Yoru to take control of Asa’s body and stomp Denji’s balls again.
As I howled with laughter, the chapter ended with Nobana stating he does not feel safe with these people but Haruka replying that they have nowhere else to go.
So, now Denji will learn that yet another girl he has dated wants to kill him.
The guy just cannot catch a break.
I am curious to see what explanation Asa wants to give Denji, though.
She states that she plans to fight him after explaining things, so it will be interesting to see how that will go.
There is also the matter of Akoku.
He’s the only character from the group missing in this chapter and, since he is speculated to be the Fire Devil, that is a bit suspicious.
Or, who knows, he might just turn up next chapter?
“Dream Balls” is another hilarious Chainsaw Man chapter, and it has me excited to see how Denji will react to learning that Asa is possessed by the War Devil.
Chapter 162 of Chainsaw Man, “Fearsome” depicts the brief fight between Quanxi and the Chainsaw Man rescue squad.
Looking back at my review of the previous chapter, it’s funny to see that I thought Asa and Katana Man had any chance in hell of beating Quanxi.
She quite easily solos all of the group’s heavy hitters, decapitating Katana Man, and easily incapacitating Yoru and the Nail Fiend.
The person who actually stops Quanxi in her tracks is, unexpectedly, Nobana.
As Quanxi prepares to cut him down, Nobana grabs the nearest thing for protection… that being Denji’s head.
Ah, using Denji as a human shield.
It is truly a time-honored tradition in the Higashiyama family.
Kobeni did it in Part One, and now her brother continues the tradition.
When Quanxi sees Nobana holding Denji’s head, she stays her blade, stating that, “An old friend warned me to never make an enemy out of this one.”
This “old friend” is almost undoubtedly Kishibe, all but confirming that he is no longer with Public Safety, since he wanted Denji to continue the fight at the end of Part One.
Although, there is also the possibility that the one Quanxi did not want to make an enemy of was Nobana.
No, I am not joking.
I mean, we know Kobeni was extremely skilled and had an unknown Devil contact.
Maybe these things run in the Higashiyama family and Kishibe wanted to warn Quanxi about it?
I’m probably wrong about that.
One prediction I was right about, though, was that Public Safety were using Quanxi’s Fiends against her.
Upon seeing Quanxi’s reluctance, the Public Safety Officer threatens to have their bodies thrown into a ditch.
When this does not work, the Public Safety Officer starts what seems is going to be a misogynistic rant, only for him to ironically be interrupted by his own transformed wife.
The transformed woman kills him, to which Quanxi simply says, “that works,” before telling Yoru to kill her so the group can escape without repercussions for her.
Yoru agrees once she learns Quanxi will regenerate but she first asks if Chainsaw Man is stronger than her.
Quanxi answers that he is weaker but much more fearsome.
Yoru then kills her off screen, as the chapter comes to an end.
“Fearsome” is a solid Chainsaw Man chapter.
It has another good fight and solid humor, like the doctors all agreeing that they did not see a thing.
I am interested to see if the rescue squad will have escaped the facility next chapter, or if the escape is still ongoing.
If they have escaped, then maybe we will get the confrontation between Denji and Asa we have been waiting for; their identities finally revealed to each other.
I hate it when trailers spoil a film’s big twist. There have been times when I have sworn off seeing a movie in theaters because the spoilers ruined the surprise for me. Abigail was one such film. After watching the first trailer, I had no interest in it. Not because I thought what I saw was bad, but because it felt like I had seen most of the movie just from the trailer. What ultimately changed my mind about seeing Abigail in theaters was that a lot of reviewers I trusted said it was fun. That, and it had been months since I watched the trailer and I had forgotten everything it revealed, except for the big twist. Having now seen the film, I am so glad that I changed my mind. Abigail is a twisted, gory and, above all else, fun movie.
Abigail is a blast to watch, even if it would have been a better experience if I had never seen a trailer.
Directed by Radio Silence, the film follows six criminals played by Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kevin Durand, Kathryn Newton, Will Catlett, and Angus Cloud. Cloud tragically passed away in 2023, so this will be his final film role. These criminals are hired to kidnap a little girl, the titular Abigail, played by Alisha Weir, and hold her in a labyrinth-like mansion for 24 hours until her rich father pays the ransom. However, this seemingly perfect crime quickly goes off the rails as disturbing events unfold, and the criminals quickly begin to suspect this kidnapping may have actually been a trap. Now, I will be talking about the big surprise the trailer spoiled. If you have somehow not seen the trailers yet, then I would highly suggest stopping right here and returning once you have seen the movie. Trust me, Abigail’s twist is better left unspoiled. If you have continued reading, I will assume you already know the twist or have seen the film. So, Abigail’s a vampire.
Surprise!
What made the trailer revealing this so frustrating is that the movie clearly intends this to be a surprise. The first half-hour to forty-five minutes of the movie is spent building up the mystery of what’s going on until Abigail’s vampiric nature is revealed. If the trailer had kept this a secret, it would have made this part of the movie much more satisfying. This is not to say I did not enjoy this first section, though, because the writers do an excellent job of introducing us to the criminals and making them entertaining. These are people who kidnapped what they thought to be a normal little girl, so I was definitely wanting Abigail to kill them at the beginning. That being said, there are sympathetic members among their number, such as Melissa Barerra’s Joey, seemingly the only one of the criminals with a moral compass, who proves herself to be a vital strategist once Abigail’s true nature is revealed.
Barerra does an excellent job as Joey. It’s good to see her in more films since her unfortunate firing from the Scream franchise.
Then there is Dan Stevens’ Frank, who is delightfully unlikeable throughout, with Stevens delivering a very different performance from the one he gave in Godzilla x Kong. The final criminal I want to mention is Kevin Durand’s Peter, who got the most laughs in the film as the dumb muscle of the group. But I saved the best performance for last, and that title undoubtedly goes to Alisha Weir as Abigail. She had to pull off playing both a frightened girl in the first half, and a sadistic vampire playing with her food in the second, and she nails both roles. Hell, there were times when both those styles of acting merged and I could not tell if Abigail was being genuine in her interactions with the other characters or not, which made her even creepier.
Alisha Weir’s performance as Abigail is so good that it makes me look forward to seeing what she will do in the future.
Speaking of creep-factor there is a lot of it in this movie, with plenty of disturbing scenes. There is also a lot of great humor as well, like one particular gag about the characters gathering things they think will kill a vampire. And then there is the ending, which I found surprisingly touching for a movie about a murderous vampire child luring her victims in by having them literally kidnap her. Probably the only thing I did not like about this movie, apart from the trailer spoiling the twist, is that Dan Stevens’ character makes an odd decision to do something in the third act of the movie. It’s not that I found this choice to be unbelievable for the character, it just felt like there needed to be a few extra steps for him to reach such a conclusion.
Frank’s choice could have been done a little better.
Otherwise, this movie was a blast. It’s scary, it’s hilarious and, above all else, it’s a bloody good time. Abigail is probably my second favorite film of 2024 behind Dune: Part Two. I can easily imagine myself rewatching it in the future. If you have not watched Abigail yet, be sure to check out. And if, like me, you got spoiled by the trailers and are now reluctant to see it, I would still urge you to give the film the chance. I did, had a lot of fun, and now have zero regrets about it.
With the political climate in America being so tumultuous, Alex Garland’s Civil War was destined to be a controversial film. Like many other people, I was curious to see what side, if any, the film would take in its depiction of a new American civil war. Quite wisely, in my opinion, Garland chooses not to take a side, but instead focuses on the horrors of such a war if one were to occur.
Certain states allying may not quite make sense politically, but this film is not focused on the politics.
The film follows four journalists played by Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeney, and Stephen McKinley Henderson, who are travelling to Washington DC in the hope of interviewing the US President (Nick Offerman) before he is killed by the rebel Western Forces. What follows is essentially a road trip movie, with each stopping point delivering a different kind of horrifying war crime committed by both sides and general lunatics. One such lunatic is Jesse Plemons’ character, a sadistic yet nonchalant militant who holds our main characters at gunpoint in one of the movie’s most tense scenes.
Plemons has a knack for playing creepy psychos. First there was Todd in Breaking Bad, now this guy.
All of these actors do great jobs in their respective roles, really selling the trauma developed from the events they encounter. This is the main focus of the film instead of the political climate. While reasons for the conflict are alluded to, mostly coming down to the fascist POTUS, Garland spends most of the film pointing out to the audience just how horrible a civil war would be. This is best encapsulated with a line from Dunst’s character, “Every time I survived a war zone, I thought I was sending a warning home: ‘Don’t do this.’ Yet here we are.’
It felt like Garland was speaking directly to the audience during this scene.
Such warnings are going unheeded right now by some, as I have seen some crazy people calling for a civil war long before this movie came out. The choice to focus on the horrors of war, rather than the politics, helps sell this message extremely well, especially with how some of the journalist characters become desensitized to the deaths of their fellow countrymen and even friends. Along with the characters and themes working well together, what also helps Civil War land is the great cinematography and sound design. The sound of bullets and gunfire feel terrifyingly impactful, and there were many shots which would be beautiful if they were not so disturbing.
The shots, in terms of both the camera and the guns, are visually and audibly haunting.
I do have a few criticisms with the film, though. For one thing, sometimes the choice in music felt a little wrong for the scene. And then there is the ending, which was a little too predictable and also a little overly dramatic at one point. Other than that, one particular point, however, the ending to Civil War lands mostly perfect, with its final image being very striking.
The ending to the film really sells the message Garland is going for.
Civil War is a terrifying look at the chaos which would unfold in America if things truly came to that. Time will tell if this film will be looked back upon as a chilling what could have been, or an even more chilling representation of what was to come. We had all better hope it’s the former.
The first I heard of Monkey Man was when I saw its first trailer, which immediately intrigued me. It appeared to be going for a John Wick movie set in India storyline but, when I finally saw the movie a few days ago, it defined itself as something more than that. Directed by Dev Patel in his directorial debut, and produced by Jordan Peele, this movie was clearly a passion project for Patel, who stars in the unnamed role of a man out for revenge against the corrupt Indian officials and religious leaders who killed his mother.
“Blessings from my mother,” Patel’s character says as he prepares to take his vengeance.
Patel is excellent in the lead role, portraying the trauma and rage of his character flawlessly. This extends to the action scenes, all of which are great. There are a few bits of too much shaky-cam here and there but, otherwise, they are all thrilling, brutal, and occasionally with a bit of humor thrown in. These action scenes are less abundant than the trailers would have you believe, although this is not a bad thing.
All of the fights are excellently choreographed.
When the film is not focusing on the action, it is instead building the themes through the trauma of its lead character, and also going into different parts of Indian culture. For example, the hijra community gets an unexpected focus in this movie, which was the first time I had heard about the culture in India. Along with this, Patel provides biting criticism of the Indian government and religious leaders with his depiction of the antagonists, Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher) and Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande).
Monkey Man provides a lot of commentary on the state of India.
With the main characterization, action and themes all coming together, probably my only significant issue with Monkey Man is some of the characters. A couple of them do kind of feel forgotten about towards the end of the film. Along with this, a minor issue I have is the main character’s transformation in the Monkey Man in the final act. There is this big symbolic change with the mask he wears, only for him to immediately abandon wearing it afterwards, making the change feel kind of pointless.
It felt like this moment was supposed to be impactful, but the removal of the mask not a moment later killed the momentum.
Those issues aside, Monkey Man is a strong directorial debut for Dev Patel. It delivers great action, a relatable main character, and sheds a light on many issues and groups in India which I was unaware of. I am interested to see if Patel will continue his directorial career alongside his acting in the future.
I quite enjoyed Godzilla vs Kong. Although it did have its problems, the film made me feel like a kid again watching the original King Kong vs Godzilla for the first time. Going into the sequel, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, I was hoping the film could recapture that feeling for me. Directed once more by Adam Wingard, the film follows Kong in Hollow Earth, where he discovers he is not the last of his species, exposing the world to another threat which he cannot face alone.
Kong and Godzilla must team up to defeat the latest monster.
The New Empire is primarily a King Kong film, with Godzilla’s role feeling a little tacked on at times. He is absent for most of the movie until the final fight where he is needed to team up with Kong. Thankfully, Kong more than makes up for Godzilla’s lack of screentime, with The New Empire feeling like it focuses more on the monsters than any previous film in the Monsterverse, which is what I wanted.
I’m glad to see the monsters taking a much more central role than the humans this time around.
Another thing I wanted was more screentime for Jia (Kaylee Hottle). In my review for Godzilla vs Kong, I stated that I wished she had more screentime because she was pretty much the only interesting human character in the entire thing. Well, I got my wish in The New Empire, with the human storyline focusing on her. This resulted in the humans being much more bearable than in previous Monsterverse films, with the cast of Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and Dan Stevens standing out more.
Jia’s storyline is the most interesting human one in the Monsterverse, although that is not saying much.
The monster and human storylines both converge by the third act in a massive CGI battle between monsters which, while visually fun, had me a little uneasy. This final fight was supposed to be a big, crowd-pleasing moment, yet I found myself kind of wincing because of the sheer amount of human casualties which are never acknowledged. It felt kind of weird that the movie was trying to entertain me with the spectacle of a big monster battle, when said battle was clearly resulting in hundreds of thousands of fatalities at the very least. The fact that the movie does not acknowledge such losses felt a little off to me.
The final battle had a bit of a strange tone because of this.
Another issue was that, well, this film came after Godzilla: Minus One. Granted this issue is through no fault of the movie, but it did feel like a step down going from one of the greatest Godzilla movies ever made to a big dumb action movie. Still, this only dulled my experience with the film slightly. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a solid entry in the Monsterverse. The Kong storyline is great, the humans are much more bearable, and, though the final fight does feel a bit off-putting by the unacknowledged casualties, it is still fun. I look forward to seeing what the Monsterverse does next.
With Tatsuki Fujimoto being such a fantastic mangaka, it is no surprise that many people he has worked with have also done great things. Tatsuya Endo’s Spy X Family and Yuji Kaku’s Hell’s Paradise are both excellent, for example. So, when I heard that another assistant of Fujimoto’s, Tohru Kuramori was releasing the first chapter of his new manga, I knew I had to check it out. The work is called Centuria and is off to a promising start with Chapter One, “100 Slaves.” The chapter begins by introducing our main character, Julian, who is a slave. We first see him rebelling against his abusive master, while narrating about the plight of slaves like himself, who have never owned anything. The chapter then flashes forward to a ship in the middle of the ocean, which is transporting 100 slaves. Some of the crew are worried about passing through a supposedly cursed area, yet their complaints to the captain are interrupted by the discovery of Julian, who stowed away. The captain wants to kill him, but the 100 hundred slaves aboard are having none of it, with many offering to split their food. It is through this that it becomes apparent many of the slaves are sick or elderly. The first to speak up for Julian is a pregnant woman named Mira, who explains to him that since slaves cannot own anything, many of them value compassion. Julian returns this compassion by polishing a knife Mira’s deceased husband gave her. While he does this, Julian explains his backstory, stating that his own mother sold him as a child to a blacksmith who abused him. Julian learned the craft from him but then escaped when it looked like his master was about to kill him, which we saw at the beginning of the chapter. As the journey progresses, Julian and Mira grow closer. Julian has never known the love of a mother, since she sold him, and Mira lost her son when she was enslaved. And so, a mother and son type bond begins to emerge between the two in a short amount of time, which is a credit to Kuramori because of how natural it feels. It even gets to the point that Mira suggests that they live together if they are ever liberated. At this point, I said out loud, “Yep, Mira’s totally dead.” All of the bonding scenes between her and Julian were practically screaming that she was a goner. It was just a matter of how. Sure enough, after the ship gets sucked into the area they were trying to avoid, the captain decides it is time to kill all of the slaves. The reason most of them are sick and elderly is because the captain wanted to buy them at a low price and then stage an accident.
He would then get a big insurance payout on their lives. This brutal sacrifice takes an unexpected turn, however, when Julian and Mira are offered a sacrifice of their own. With all of the slaves dying to save them, this summons a supernatural entity, which says a sacrifice of love must now be given to earn her blessing of great power. Julian offers to sacrifice himself for Mira to save her unborn child but, seeing her dead son in him, Mira refuses to lose another son. Using the knife Julian polished for her, Mira performs a C-Section on herself, gruesomely saving the life of her daughter, whom she names Diana. Trusting Julian with Diana’s life, Mira throws them one last, tragic look before jumping into the ocean. Satisfied with the sacrifice, the entity now asks a heartbroken Julian what he wishes for. Remembering what the ship captain said about their lives being worthless, Julian states he wishes for proof that Mira’s life wasn’t a waste. The entity grants this wish, as dark cracks begin to emerge from Julian’s eyes, and he gains the strength of all one hundred sacrificed slaves. Kuramori shows this strength in a frightening double page spread of the aftermath, where we see Julian has absolutely slaughtered all of the slave masters on the ship, with some of them even having their jaws ripped off. However, just as Julian turns back to Diana, he is stabbed from behind by the ship captain. But rather than dying, Julian heals, with the entity revealing that he has also gained the one hundred lives the slaves lost. So, he now has 99 lives left. Julian then kills the captain, before escaping the ship with Diana, while the entity destroys it, before telling Julian that because of his sacrifice, “The sea will no longer bear its fangs at you.” The entity departs, leaving Julian alone to look down at his new sister, crying and laughing as he does so. The first chapter of Centuria then finishes with Julian narrating that he has never had anything valuable in his life, until now. This was a perfect book end to the first chapter, which opened with Julian reflecting on their being nothing valuable in his life. Overall, this was a promising opening for Centuria. It gave off a Vinland Saga vibe, but one with fantasy elements. I assume that the story will follow Julian using his powers to take a stand against slavery, all the while looking out for Diana. Apart from that, I have no idea where the story will go. We know virtually nothing about the world, except for that it is set in a world with slavery and that supernatural beings exist. Kuramori really could take the narrative anywhere at this point and, after this first chapter, I am intrigued to see where it goes.
I quite enjoyed the 2021 Ghostbusters reboot, Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It brought a smile to my face, as it lovingly paid tribute to what came before, while paving a road for a new set of characters. After watching the sequel, however, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, I can say that it was lacking a lot of that charm. Directed by Gil Kenan, and written by him and Jason Reitman, Frozen Empire picks up three years after Afterlife. The Spengler family has now taken on the role of the Ghostbusters in New York, with the original team helping them out. After being sold a mysterious orb, the team slowly begins to realize it holds a powerful spirit, capable of freezing the world.
The ice age comes to New York in Frozen Empire.
And so, the Ghostbusters, new and old, have to unite to take on this latest threat. This, naturally, means there are a lot of characters to follow in this movie, which is Frozen Empire’s biggest problem. Some of these characters do have good storylines, don’t get me wrong. Just like in Afterlife, Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) has the best story, with her befriending a ghost girl, and Paul Rudd is still a lot of fun as Gary. Kumail Nanjiani also has a fun presence, and his character received most of the few laughs from the audience I saw the film with. But there are just simply too many characters to follow in this movie, resulting in many of them having next to no story and thus feeling entirely unnecessary. Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), and Podcast (Logan Kim) all just feel like they are there because they were in Afterlife.
If half the cast from the previous movie had not returned, then I feel like Frozen Empire’s plot could have been more succinct.
As for the original Ghostbusters, while their return at the end of Afterlife was a well-done moment of fan service, some of them just feel like they are here to whip up nostalgia, most notably Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman. Having all of these characters to follow, many of them with pointless storylines or no storylines at all, makes the film quite jumbled. This is not to say my opinion of Frozen Empire is entirely negative, though. The villain feels unique, even if it does suffer a bit from the trope of standing around too much, giving the heroes time to fight back.
The antagonist at least feels somewhat intimidating.
There were some good storylines, like with the already mentioned Phoebe, Gary and Nadeem. There were also a couple good laughs here and there, even if a lot of the jokes did miss the mark. Overall, I would say Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a fine movie. It is one you can watch to pass the time for a bit. Certainly not as good as Afterlife but thankfully nowhere near as bad as Ghostbusters 2016.
For the past few weeks, I have been wondering if Tatsuki Fujimoto has been enjoying writing Asa’s chapters more than Denji’s in Part Two.
After all, there was a two week break between pretty much every chapter in Denji’s arc, whereas now that the story is focusing on Asa again, we are back to a week between chapters.
This was the case for Chapters 160 and 161, “That for Which the Heart Beats” and “Chainsaw Man Puzzle.”
These two chapters are great, progressing the plot with both hilarious and unexpected developments.
Chapter 161 begins with Asa and her gang about to face off against Katana Man and Nail.
Going into the chapter, I was curious to see how such a fight would pan out, only for that fight to not happen at all.
This was far from disappointing though because of how funny what we got instead was.
Katana Man starts the confrontation off by basically fangirling over Asa, before denying that he was to Nail.
After an argument, the two go to attack Asa when the Public Safety Officer orders them to, only for Asa to stop them by shouting that she’s here to fight Chainsaw Man.
I like how smart Asa was here, picking up on the fact that Katana Man had beef with Chainsaw Man during his argument with Nail and now using that to her advantage.
The Public Safety officer attempts to blackmail Katana and Nail back to his side but the effort fails, with Katana Man shouting that killing Chainsaw Man is the reason his heart still beats.
Fujimoto then gives us an unexpectedly mournful moment, when the Public Safety Officer tells his transformed wife that she was right when she said he should never have joined Public Safety.
Before Katana Man can kill the man, however, he flees, going to get someone who can actually kill him and Asa.
Following this exchange, Haruka is understandably freaking out that Asa and Katana Man want to kill Chainsaw Man, his hero, calling it stupid.
The chapter then ends on another humorous note, with Asa stealing Katana Man’s line that, “the reason my heart’s beating is to fight Chainsaw Man”, which Katana Man calls her out on.
“That for Which the Heart Beats” was a fun read.
The expected direction of the story took an unexpected direction instead, with Asa convincing Katana Man to join their side in finding Chainsaw Man to fight him.
The following chapter, “Chainsaw Man Puzzle” is even better.
The chapter begins with the doctors who were dismembering Denji finishing up their job, only to be interrupted by Asa, Katana Man and the others bursting into the room.
They demand to know where Chainsaw Man is, only to learn the doctors have completely dismembered him and put his parts in boxes.
The head surgeon is comedically unbothered by the threat to his life, demanding that everyone apologize for interrupting his work.
Of course, Nobana is the only one to apologize, which got another laugh out of me.
The group begin to reassemble Denji, resulting in a lot of humorous moments, like when Akoku finds his wiener and Katana Man wants to shove it up his behind.
The guy is definitely not over Denji and Aki’s competition from Part One.
Another funny moment is when Haruka also fangirls over holding Chainsaw Man’s guts.
However, his fangirling quickly ends when Nobana finds Chainsaw Man’s head and Haruka gets a look at it.
And so, the moment that we have been waiting for ever since Asa first met Denji in Chapter 104 arrives.
Haruka opens the box and shows Asa Denji’s head, revealing to her that he is Chainsaw Man.
The shock is so great it launches Yoru right out of control of their body, and Asa’s stunned face left me grinning at the reveal.
Asa has very little time to dwell on it, though, because the Public Safety officer returns with Quanxi, who he orders to kill everyone.
In my review of Chapter 159, I speculated that Asa would have a lot of trouble fighting Quanxi, but this theory was based on the idea that Katana Man would be fighting on the side of Public Safety.
With Katana Man now on Asa’s side, it levels the playing field quite a bit.
Or, at least, it could.
We have never seen Katana Man fight Quanxi, so maybe she will wipe the floor with them.
Or maybe Fujimoto will pull another Katana Man and have Quanxi also betray Public Safety.
We don’t know why she’s siding with them, after all.
Maybe her motives are similar to Katana Man.
It’s revealed in Chapter 160 that Public Safety offered to help him get his syndicate back.
Maybe they offered to help Quanxi find her Fiend girlfriends again, much like how Denji hopes to find Power.
As for Denji himself, the fallout of his identity being revealed to Asa and Yoru is sure to be interesting, and probably hilarious.
I imagine that once the chaos has calmed down, Yoru will be rubbing it in Asa’s face that Denji was telling the truth about being Chainsaw Man in Chapter 104.
Not only that, but I am intrigued to see how Denji will react to the fact that Asa has been possessed by the War Devil the entire time, meaning that yet another woman he dated tried to kill him.
I doubt he will take it well, although he will probably be focused on trying to find out what happened to Nayuta.
Overall, Chapters 160 and 161 were a lot of fun.
They had great humor and progressed the plot in interesting ways, most importantly with Asa finally learning Denji’s identity.
I am very excited to see where Fujimoto goes with all this.
The anime community has been blessed with some fantastic anime as of late, two of which being particular standouts. The first of which is Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, the greatest anime adaption of all time, in my opinion. The second of these is The Apothecary Diaries, an amazing anime in its own right. Based off the light novel by Natsu Hyūga, the story is set in a country resembling Imperial China. Our main character is Maomao (Aoi Yuki), an apothecary who is kidnapped to sell as a servant for the Imperial Palace. Recognizing an illness that is affecting the concubines and children of the Emperor, Maomao anonymously writes a letter to stop the unintentional poisonings.
Maomao is relatable for the beginning. She does not want to get involved in court politics but steps in when her morals and interests compel her.
This catches the attention of the important eunuch Jinshi (Takahiro Sakurai), who sets about using Maomao to solve other mysterious poisonings and illnesses within the palace. And so, the story follows the friendships and rivalries Maomao forms as she investigates case after case, while she and Jinshi grow closer. Maomao, herself, is an excellent character, as her obsession with poisons often drives her to humorous, cat-like behavior. However, this behavior can often flip to being more like a tiger, as Maomao’s anger is pretty fearsome to behold. Just ask Jinshi.
I would not have blamed Jinshi for having a heart attack when Maomao glared at him like this.
Speaking of the supposed eunuch, he is also a great character with a lot of mystery to him. He has great chemistry with Maomao as well, often finding himself exasperated by her antics. The cases these two end up investigating creates what feels like a Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson dynamic, only with a more humorous spin on the relationship. Like Sherlock Holmes though, the story often gets dark, with many working behind the shadows in the Imperial Palace. This leads to explorations of many shady characters, like Lakan (Takuya Kirimoto), the spy master with an interest in Maomao.
Lakan is suspicious and intimidating right from the start.
The ending revelations about these mysterious characters and the events around them are always satisfying, with some of these mysteries even being currently unsolved, leading into Season Two, which has thankfully been confirmed. I look forward to seeing the resolution to these mysteries, just as much as I look forward to seeing Maomao and Jinshi’s relationship progress, alongside the inevitable comedy that will result from this. The Apothecary Diaries is an excellent anime, which will often have you laughing at its characters’ antics, while also being intrigued by the many questions the show raises.
THE REVIEW MONSTER 