Choujin X Chapter Five Review: An Anticipated First Meeting.

Sui Ishida is still maintaining his quick pace with releasing new Choujin X chapters, and chapter five is another good one.
After last chapter’s cliffhanger, I thought the snake Choujin would try to eat Tokio, like Rize tried to eat Kaneki in Tokyo Ghoul, since both the snake Choujin and Rize cornered their prey in similar ways.
However, the opening panels of this chapter instead reveal that the woman, whose name is Nari, was hired by the masked man to hunt down Tokio and kidnap him if his abilities are dependable.
From here, the chapter cuts to the present, where Nari begins her testing of Tokio.
But first, she reveals an interesting tidbit about Choujins, that they can sense one another when their powers are used.
Nari used this to her advantage by allowing Tokio to sense her last chapter.
This technique is also probaly how Hoshi found Chandra attacking Ely in Chapter Two.
Once this information is revealed, Nari gets down to buisness and provides the rules of her test for Tokio.
He gets three attempts to prove his worth to her and if he fails then she kills him.
So begins yet another chase sequence, only this time Tokio is far less competent with his Choujin powers than Ely was in her chase scene, as he cannot find himself to muster any defence against Nari.
What results is a scene that is full of both great comedy and intriguing flashbacks.
First comes the comedy, with what is undoubtedly the funniest moment in the manga so far.
This moment comes when Tokio is fleeing from Nari and hears the birds surrounding him begin to make bets on who will win, him or Nari.
I laughed my head off at this gag.
Also, I do feel kind of sorry for the lone bird who bet on Tokio, the guy clearly was not going to win anything.
This is the same in the intriguing flashback as well, with a young Tokio shown to be losing a relay race for his team.
The reason this flashback is intriguing is because of Azuma.
Not only does this moment serve to again highlight his strengths compared to Tokio, as he wins the race single-handedly, despite Tokio holding him back, but it also potentially highlights his darker side once more.
As Tokio runs towards his friend, we get a close look at Azuma’s face and he does not look happy at all.
In fact, I would say his look towards Tokio is rather disdainful.
Yet, this look completley vanishes when he wins the race and goes to help Tokio.
Interrupting this flashback, which gives us further insight into Tokio and Azuma, Nari continues to torment Tokio, catching him twice and infecting him with toxic venom to motivate him in this chase.
Unfortunately for Tokio, this has no effect and he is captured for a third time and dubbed “ordinary” by Nari.
She goes to kill him, when suddenly an unexpected person literally falls out of the sky to help.
Ely bursts onto the scene, tumbling through her Choujin smoke before salvaging it with a suitable superhero landing.
She and Tokio look at each other and both with confusion ask,”a person?” bringing an end to the chapter.
This cliffhanger is interesting because not only does it finally result in our two main characters meeting but it also highlights how they are different from the other Choujin in the story.
The two of them have both been called Choujin constantly by others, Ely by Hoshi and Tokio by Nari, yet here they are the first ones to refer to the other as a person.
Along with this, Ely’s appearance does raise a few questions about what happened in between her being rescued by Hoshi and now.
I assume she was alerted to Tokio’s situation, either by his cries for help, her sensing Choujin powers or both, and rushed to help.
Now that she is finally here, I wonder how Nari will react to her?
Chandra said Ely was full of potential and Nari could see this and try to recruit her as well.
I also wonder where Hoshi is, since Ely was with him last we saw of her?
Not to mention the question of how much time has passed for Ely since Chapter Two.
If I am not mistaken, she is wearing the same clothes from that chapter and canonically speaking that was at least three days ago, unless the time difference between her story and Tokio’s is different, which could be elaborated on later.
Either way, I expect that what led Ely to Tokio will be explained in the beginning of the next chapter.
Overall, Chapter Five is another great chapter for Choujin X, as it provides another fun chase sequence, an interesting flashback, hilarious comedy, and the long awaited meeting between out two main characters.
I am intrigued to see how Tokio and Ely will interact with one another next chapter and in the future of the story.

Choujin X Chapters Two-Four Review: The World of Choujins.

I have been quite surprised at the rate of speed Sui Ishida has been releasing chapters for his latest manga, Choujin X.
When I heard that there would be no set timeline for release dates so he could focus on his health this time, unlike with Tokyo Ghoul where he was really overworked, I thought that we could expect a few months between each chapter.
So, it was a pleasant turn of events to see Ishida release Chapter Four not long after Chapter Three.
I do hope he is continuing to keep healthy, though.
In any case, I have been falling behind on reviewing these chapters since I reviewed Chapter One, so now I’m going to review Chapters Two, Three and Four in one big post.
I will also be sure to write more reviews as the story goes on.

Chapter Two:

The second chapter of Choujin X picks up with our secondary protaganist, the little girl from the plane crash that happened in the first chapter.
Her name is revealed to be Ely Otsuta, and it is explained how she helped her adopted grandfather with farming tomatoes, showing that she is a child prodigy in that regard.
However, this backstory is interrupted by a tomato Ely picks up screaming as it bursts into flames, as she wakes up in a construction site with a concerned construction worker standing over her.
A dazed Ely asks for directions, only for the helpful construction worker to be burned to death right before her eyes by Chandra Hume, the Choujin who attacked the plane.
Que the big chase scene of the chapter as Ely makes a break for it after Chandra offers to escort her.
It is during this chase where we once again see how Ishida is going in a more comedic direction with this manga, as we get plenty of gags from Ely riding a skooter, to her miraculously finding a tractor and then using this to escape from Chandra and a group of gang members wearing sheep masks for some reason.
These comedic gags are quickly cut short when Ely and the gang members begin falling to their deaths and Ely uses her newly aquired Choujin powers to save them all.
She obtained these smoke powers through being infected by Chandra’s, or so he says, claiming this was just a “first attempt.”
It will be interesting to see why Chandra is so interested in creating other Choujins.
Not to mention that the way Ely became a Choujin seems to be a completley different from how Tokio did since he did so by injecting himself with the strange serumn.
Coming back to Chandra, he offers to teach Ely everything he knows about her power but she obviously does not accept this offer, thinking back on the kind elderly woman who Chandra murdered in the first chapter.
However, she does seem to hit a nerve with Chandra when she calls his power “worse than a turd.”
Chandra is clearly a very insecure person because this insult causes him to nearly go all Firelord Ozai on her face.
He would have succeeded too, had it not been for Hoshi Sandek, “Yamato Prefecture’s Choujin Protector,” or as I like to call him, Captain Chin.
Seriously, his chin is so freaking gigantic it takes up more than half his head.
Ely is clearly enamored by him, based off the heart eyes Ishida draws her having.
Not to mention that this guy resembles her imagined husband she talked about in the first chapter pretty closely, so of course she would have an instant crush on him.
Hoshi’s arrival on the scene also proves one of my previous theories to be false.
I predicted that because of what Azuma said in Chapter One there were no good Choujin, but there clearly are based off Hoshi.
We will probably get more information on the Choujin system when his character returns, along with Ely.
It would also be good to know what exactly his power is.
We seem to see him use it but I cannot quite tell what it is yet.
Following Hoshi and Ely’s first meeting, we get a pretty cool cut to Tokio’s story, as Hoshi asks Ely, “What’s your name, little Choujin,” only for us to then see Tokio’s sister calling her brother’s name.
Tokio has reached home after his transformation into the Beastial Choujin but his vulture-like appearance has not dissipated yet.
As he rests in the shower, Tokio wonders if he has become a Choujin, which should be pretty obvious to the guy, given what his face looks like.
This brings an end to what is a pretty good chapter.
The chase between Ely and Chandra is entertaining and quite funny at times, especially one joke where Chandra’s car is hit by a truck that says “we love saftey.”
Along with this, Hoshi’s appearance raises some questions about the Choujin system that I am interested to see answer.
One criticism I do have is that the action is a little bit hard to follow during the chase scene.
The artwork is still great, though, so it mostly makes up for that.
So, overall, Chapter Two does a good job of continuing Ely’s story and I am intrigued to see how it will progress further.

Chapter Three:

Out of these three chapters, Chapter Three is definitley my favourite because of how it handles the aftermath of Tokio becoming a Choujin and its impact on his and Azuma’s friendship.
The chapter begins with a flashback to Tokio helping Azuma after he collapsed due to the injection.
However, Azuma wakes up after Tokio falls over and looks horrifed at his friend’s appearance.
Tokio is just glad that Azuma is okay and says he will take him to the hostpital.
Azuma is quick thinking, though, and tells Tokio that if people find out he is a Choujin then he will never have a normal life, so he should just go home while he goes to the hostpital.
Tokio takes this advice, yet I am not so sure that Azuma’s actions were quite so innocent here, especially given how he acts later on in the chapter.
Also, keep in mind that the two still did not know if Azuma had Choujin powers here, so Azuma going to the hostpital could have exposed him to being a Choujin if he was one, yet he suggested Tokio go home.
From here, the chapter cuts to the present again where Tokio’s vulture face mask has still not come off.
Tokio fakes being sick so he will not have to go to school and be revealed as a Choujin to everyone and we get some really good artwork of what his face looks like now as he tries to eat breakfast.
This makes it really funny when, in subsequent panels, Tokio’s Choujin face honestly looks pretty derpy.
I am sure this is intentional by Ishida and it has great comedic affect.
Again, Ishida cuts the comedy short, this time by Tokio breaking down into tears because he is scared he will look like this forever.
This leads to him going to see Azuma for reassurance after he doesn’t pick up his calls, acting like he is going out shopping to his father and sister, while hiding his face.
He calls Azuma outside his house and this time his friend picks up but is very standoffish.
Azuma claims to have gone to the hostpital and got a bloodtest, only for nothing out of the ordinary to be found.
Azuma then makes the connection to Tokio looking like a vulture because it is the form he desires.
This leads to Tokio asking Azuma what he should do, only for Azuma to yell at him to think for himself for once.
Tokio hangs up and leaves, even more depressed, before Azuma can apologize.
Azuma says to himself that it isn’t Tokio’s fault, but his actions make me wonder if he is jealous that Tokio got these Choujin powers instead of him.
It seems many other readers are starting to suspect Azuma and Tokio may turn out to be rivals in the future of Choujin X and I am beginning to think so too.
Think of it as the opposite of Kaneki and Hide’s friendship from Tokyo Ghoul.
After this great scene, which may be hinting at a potential rivalry between Tokio and Azuma, we then cut to the Mr Fantastic Choujin, Johnny, and the masked man who gave him the injection.
It is here that I see what may be another Tokyo Ghoul refrence, since the man’s mask looks a lot like the ones the Clowns would wear.
The masked man learns about Tokio turning into a Choujin but not who or where he is, and kills Johnny when he refuses to say anymore.
His Choujin power seems to be related to cutting people up, since he decapitates Johnny fairly easily.
This looks to be the main antagonist of the story, or at least this part of it, as he seems to be preparing to hunt down Tokio, maybe for the same reasons that Chandra wanted to recruit Ely.
Overall, Chapter Three is a great chapter that does a really good job of characterizing both Tokio and Azuma, while getting us hyped for the future of this story, as we get more insight into the mysterious masked villain who is now after Tokio.

Chapter Four:

Okay, so Ishida had to have had a terrible first date, right?
I mean, first he has Kaneki nearly get eaten by Rize in Tokyo Ghoul, and now Tokio is currently being eaten by a snake Choujin in Chapter Four.
It can’t be a coincidence.
Jokes aside, Chapter Four is another good chater of Choujin X that starts off by continuing to expand on Tokio’s power set as a Beastial Choujin.
This comes through the comedic surprise of Tokio being able to talk to pigeons, who refer to him as the bread atelier, due to how much he feeds them.
It seems that talking to animals is not just a power only Tokio has, though, because the snake girl also appears to talk a snake in the chapter.
This makes me think that there are different categories of Choujin.
For example, the Beastial Choujins, which includes Tokio and the snake girl, would be in its own category and those who have it can talk to animals but only the ones that resemble their specific Choujins.
Tokio is a bird Choujin so he can talk to pigeons, and the girl is a snake Choujin so she can talk to snakes.
If only Tokio was observant about this, it may have saved him from becoming snake food by the end, as the girl lures him into a zoo and leans in to kiss him, only to take a bite, just like Rize did in Tokyo Ghoul.
Again, it really seems like Ishida is trying to tell his readers how awful his first date was.
Much like Kaneki, I do expect Tokio to get out of this one, he is the main character after all.
Maybe he will be able to gain help from the vulture he couldn’t communicate with at the zoo.
Maybe he will unlock part of his Choujin powers to escape.
Or maybe he will be tracked down by the masked Choujin currently after him.
It will be interesting to see if any of these happen or if it will be something different entirely.
All in all, the fourth chapter of Choujin X is another solid one, with a great blend of horror and humor, which seems to be the norm for this manga.
If I had to rank the chapters we have got so far, I would probably go with Chapter One, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, and then Chapter Two.
They have all been really good reads so far and I am excited to read more of Choujin X and keep reviewing it.
So, you can expect a review for Chapter Five whenever that comes out.

School-Live! Review: An Anime You Don’t Want to be Spoiled About.

Before reading this review, I would highly recommend watching the first episode of School-Live! if you have not watched it yet.
Seriously, you do not want to be spoiled about what this anime’s plot before you see if for yourself.
I had no idea of what was going to happen going in so it made the surprise all the better.
If you have made it this far into the review, I will assume you have either watched it or do not care about spoilers.
Based off the manga written by Norimitsu Kaiho, and directed by Masaomi Ando, School-Live! follows four girls and their dog, Taromaru, who have started the School Living Club, where they strangely stay at the bright and colourful school twenty-four hours a day.
These girls consist of the bright and bubbly Yuki Takeya (Inori Minase), the shovel wielding Kurumi Ebisuzawa (Ari Oazawa), the president of the club Yuuri Wakasa (M.A.O), and new member Miki Naoki (Rie Takahashi).

*School-Live!* follows the adventures of these four girls and their dog.

There is also their teacher and advisor to the club, Megumi Sakura (Ai Kayano), who is especially helpful to the dim witted Yuki.
However, this is where the twist comes in.
The “bright and colourful school” I mentioned?
Yeah, turns out it’s not so bright and colourful because a zombie apocalypse has taken place, leaving the members of the School Living Club as the only survivors, and all the happy stuff is entirely in Yuki’s mind since she has basically created a fantasy world to cope.
So, we are really seeing this story through two lenses, the first being Yuki’s fantasy world and the second being the harsh reality of the zombie apocalypse.
This made for a fantastic cliffhanger in the first episode, which brought the show from looking like a by the numbers slice of life, to a slice of death with plenty of zombies.

I remember audibly gasping when I saw the zombie twist. I figured there was something weird about what was happening but I next expected that.

From here, the story continues detailing how the girls survive their terrible situation, while constantly trying to keep the fragile Yuki’s fantasy world intact for her betterment.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t really result in anything as interesting as that first initial twist.
This is not to say that School-Live! is bad but I did find it a bit hard to get engaged with the characters and events at times, which was not helped by how convenient and obvious some further twists turned out to be.

While the first twist is genuinely great, others feel too obvious or convenient. Thankfully, some of these twists are not saved for the final episodes and revealed quicker than I expected.

It wasn’t until the final few episodes, which racked up the tension, that I became truly invested in the plot and characters again.
Although, this was also wrapped up kind of conveniently again by the end.
Despite these issues, I would still say that School-Live! is worth a watch.
It may not exactly live up to how fantastic its initial twist is, yet the interest generated by the twist and the intensity seen in the last few episodes do make it enjoyable.
Just don’t expect anything worthwhile and a bit of a slow pace and you will have fun.

Berserk Review: A F###ed Up, Almost Masterpiece.

It would be difficult to find a manga that is more influential than Kentaro Miura’s Berserk.
The dark fantasy manga has been going ever since 1989, where the story of Guts, the Black Swordsman, the Struggler himself, began to unfold for many readers.
Miura continued this gruesome, tragic and reflective story for decades, all the way up until his tragic passing on May 6, 2021.
For whatever reason, I had never read Berserk before, despite knowing it had inspiried so many other stories that I loved from the mediums of manga, anime, movies, video games, and novels.
Well, I finally sat down and read the whole thing over the course of a week and it was quite the traumatic experience.
Joke’s aside, Berserk is quite the disturbing manga, one which provided some of the most horrifying scenes I had ever read.
I actually needed to take breaks when reading because some of it became a bit much.
However, gruesome is not all Berserk is because Miura was brilliant at crafting reflective and emotional scenes, as well as horrifying ones, resulting in what has to be one of the best protagonists I have ever read, Guts.
His struggle against his inner demons in the face of a monstrous world is one I will not forget.
I went from disliking Guts, to sympathizing with him, to being sympathetic but still horrified by his actions, to smiling at his redemption.
There are so many emotional moments with his character.

Guts’ most emotional chapter for me would have to be the Chitch chapters. It was brief but incredibly tragic and heartfelt.

He is such an amazing character and his supporting cast is just as good.
The most noticeable of these if Griffith, who has been the subject of quite a few memes saying, “Griffith did nothing wrong!”
Well, after reading the eclipse chapters, I can say that, yes, Griffith did do something wrong, quite a few things in fact.
You know what?
No.
He didn’t just do “quite a few things” wrong, he took the entire concept of wrong and became the freaking personification of it!
Seriously, what the f**k Griffith!?
Still, an incredible character who complements Guts quite well.

F**k you, Griffith. You’re a great character but f**k you.

Then, there’s Casca, who is also amazing, and her romance with Guts is fantastically written, especially with how it culminates in the brilliant “Wounds” chapters.
Honestly, pretty much every other character is fantastic as well.
Puck, Judeau, Pippin, Rickert, Schierke, Farnese, Serpico, Isidro, Roderick, The Skull Knight, Zod, Luca, Silat.
There is not a single weak character that I can think of… well, except for Nina, she sucks.
The story these characters drive is also both a horrifying and beautiful one, just like the world they live in.
This results in some incredible arcs like the famous Golden Age Arc, and the Conviction Arc.
Accompanying this amazing story and these amazing characters (except for Nina) is some jaw dropping artwork.
So often, I would just stop reading and gaze at the beauty of what Miura had drawn,
I would go as far to say that, in my own personal opinion, Miura is the greatest mangaka of all time when it comes to artwork.
It feels like some of these panels could have gone into a museum, that’s how incredible they are.

Panels like this one are seen all throughout *Berserk* and they constantly leave you in awe at how beautiful they are.

So, with all this praise I have been heaping on Berserk, it would be safe to say that I consider it to be a masterpiece, right?
Well, unfortunately, I do think there are a few things which hold it back from taking that title, at least for me.
The first of these issues is minor, and it is that the story does drag a little bit at the boat arc.
Since this storyline lasted years when being written because of how long gaps were between the release dates of chapters were, I imagine it must have been agony waiting for this storyline to end for some fans.
Well, since this arc had been finished by the time I read it, it only took me a couple of days to read but it was probably the weakest part of the story for me.
Still, this is not a huge issue because Berserk is over 300 chapters long and, when you get a story of that length, it is almost inevitable that it will drag at some points.
The next issue, which I found to be a bigger one, is the treatment of Puck’s character.
I really enjoyed Puck’s role in the story for the first half of Berserk, with him basically serving as the angel on Guts’ shoulder, not that Guts really listens to him.
However, after the Conviction Arc, Puck becomes a complete caricature of his former self, his only role in the story now being to tell insufferable, fourth wall breaking jokes that do not even suit his character.
I remember a moment when I was reading through one of the final arcs in the story before Miura’s passing, where Guts was having an inner monlogue and he thought about Puck, and I realized I could not remember the last time the two of them had even had a conversation.

I would choose the good old Puck over Chesnut Puck anyday.

The final issue I have with Berserk is the most problematic and its the rape, or rather the constant usage of it.
Now, credit where it is due, I do think that Miura did an amazing job portraying the trauma of sexual assault, especially in regards to Guts and Casca,
How their trauma resulted in the “Wounds” chapters and Casca’s return in the Fantasia Arc was very emotional to read.

Guts’ unveiling his trauma to in the Wounds chapters is one of the most well written romantic scenes I have ever seen.

However, while I do like the depiction of the trials Guts and Casca face due to their trauma, I think Casca suffers from the threat of sexual assault way too much.
I honestly lost count of how many times Casca would go off on her own, comes across a group of random rapists, who would then rip off her clothes, followed by plenty of uncomfortable panels of her naked body, only for Guts to save her or for her to save herself.
The first few times this happened it was horrifying, but by the third, fourth, and how ever many more times it happened, I was completely tired of it.
Was there really no other way to show that Casca was in danger that wasn’t so degrading to her?
Well, at least Miura seemed to realize how repetitive this was because the constant danger of rape Casca was facing ceased in the last few arcs.
It was these issues I had that kept Berserk from the title of a masterpiece for me.
That said, I completely understand why this manga is a masterpiece to so many other readers.
It certainly has many masterpiece moments and characters, with Guts already being one of my favourite protagonists, and the artwork itself is a masterpiece all on its own.
When I reached Chapter 363, I immediately went to read the next one, only to realize that this was the last one released before Miura’s passing.
While it is sad to see that his epic story will potentially remain unfinished, what’s more important is the loss of a man who inspired a generation of creators.
Without Berserk many great stories simply would not exist.
So, may you rest in peace Kentarou Miura and thank you for gifting us with this amazing work that so many have loved and been inspired by.

Wonder Egg Priority Review: Brilliant Beginning, Baffling End that Highlights Everything Wrong with the Anime Industry.

Oh, Cloverworks, you’re not having the best of years, are you?
First, we get The Promised Neverland Season Two, which is one of the worst manga adaptations I have ever seen, and now we have this whole Wonder Egg Priority fiasco.
It was truly a shame to see this anime go from something truly brilliant, to a downright bizarre show that is unnecessarily confusing.
Created by Shinji Nojima and directed by Shin Wakabayashi, Wonder Egg Priority follows Ai Ohto (Kanata Aikawa), a teenage girl reeling from the mysterious suicide of her best friend Koito.
As she sinks deeper into isolation, she is abruptly pulled into a series of trials in a dream world, where she must save the spirits of girls who have also ended their lives from evil manifestations of the ones who hurt them.
Learning this may provide a way to bring back Koito, Ai resolves to save as many of these girls as she can, alongside three other girls, Neiru Aonuma (Tomori Kusunoki), Rika Kawai (Shuka Saito), and Momoe Sawaki (Hinaki Yano), who are all also trying to bring back their deceased friends.

Each of the girls are great, my personal favourite being Rika because of how emotional her standout episode was.

From here, the story takes on an episodic format, with each episode focusing on one or two of these girls trying to save the spirits that hatch from the Wonder Eggs, leading to some incredibly emotional moments.
Episode Seven, “After School at 14”, focused on Rika and her suffering from self harm, which was very well handled and left me a wreck by the end.
Then there’s Episode Ten, “Confession”, where the first half of the episode has the best interaction between one of the girls and a Wonder Egg spirit, with Momoe and the boy she is trying to save.

Momoe’s bond with Kaoru was very sweet, short as it was.

These fantastic moments and episodes are supported by amazingly good animation, a subtle yet quirky soundtrack, and solid voice acting.
With all of these contributing factors, it looked like Wonder Egg Priority was going to be a perfect anime for me by the half-way point.
However, there were signs in the initial episodes of the fall that was to come.
For example, in the very first episode, “The Domain of Children”, the magic system of the Wonder Egg world is settup, only for one aspect of it to be completely contradicted and never brought up again later.
Problems like this became more and more persistent as the show went on, as the story went from a simple one about a group of girls entering a dream world to save spirits, to full on ridiculous with plotlines revolving around things like artificial intelligence and parallel universes.
Episode Twelve in particular, “An Unvanquished Warrior”, was so confusing that even now I struggle to understand just what the heck was going on.
The show just became more needlessly complicated as it went along, culminating in the final, special episode which was just released, “My Priority”, and it was quite bad.
So many of the episode’s twists come out of nowhere, the characters are incredibly inconsistent, the anime’s handling around topics such as suicide takes a turn for the worse, the ending isn’t satisfying at all, and the animation is awful at times.

Oh, dear lord, no, this running animation!

Not to mention that the first half of this promised hour long special is a freaking recap, when we already got a recap earlier with Episode Eight.
It is incredibly obvious that there were production issues for this anime.
However, Wonder Egg Priority’s production problems apparently go even beyond the show’s quality.
The anime is already pretty notorious for the suffering of its animators, with the producer reportedly needing to go the hospital because of overwork… twice!
Unfortunately, unhealthy working conditions and bad pay seem to be the standard in the anime industry but the amount of stress and health problems the production of Wonder Egg Priority apparently caused really points to how badly animators are being treated right now.
They really do deserve better.
As for Wonder Egg Priority, it was sad to see this go from a fantastic show that handled difficult subjects to a bizarre, confusing train wreck, that caused those making it to go through the ringer.
I would still recommend watching at least the first ten episodes because, even when the questionable moments begin to seep in, the brilliant moments more than overshadow them.
The rest of the anime I would skip because it’s just not worth it by the end.
A second season could improve the story a bit more but, at this point, I’m not sure I even care any more and I think we can all agree the animators should not be put under the kind of pressure that they were here.
The anime industry needs to do better for its workers.

Chainsaw Man PV Reaction: All Aboard the Hype Devil Train!

Warning: This reaction will contain spoilers for the manga so if you haven’t read it then don’t read this.

Chainsaw Man is one of my favourite mangas.
Written and illustrated by Tatsuki Fujimoto, the story is a constant mix of being endearing, hilarious, horrifying, and emotional.
I’ve reread it twice and I’ve only loved it more each time.
So, obviously, I was very excited for the PV for the upcoming anime from Mappa Studio.
Well, we got the PV recently and its safe to say that the fanbase lost its collective mind over how good it was.
Seriously, I really hope that we don’t get an Attack on Titan Final Season situation where the actual show’s animation doesn’t live up to Mappa’s PV animation.
Not saying that Attack on Titan’s animation was bad but the PV did look better, and this caused a lot of outrage when the actual CGI appeared, which went as far as some stupid people harrassing Mappa’s staff.
Now, was the Chainsaw Man trailer preanimated?
Almost certainly.
However, this doesn’t mean we won’t be getting the same outcome as Attack on Titan because apparently the same people working on this trailer will be working on the anime and also the schedule will probably not be as bad for these animators, hopefully.
As for what happens in the trailer, it has a lot of recognizable and unrecognizable moments interestingly enough.
The PV starts and we see a young Denji standing in a bloody alleyway and a mouse nearby, as the shot pans out to reveal the city outside.
This works as great symbolism, both for what will be revealed about Denji as the story goes on and also the whole country and city mouse discussion that comes about.
From here, the trailer cuts to the Hayakawa household, with Denji, Aki and Power having a nice family meal.
The three of them look excellent and this is seen further with the following shots of Denji, Power and Kobeni at the beach and Aki and Himeno in bed.
Along with these moments leaving a smile on my face because of how well animated they are, they also had me intrigued because these scenes were not in the manga.
It makes me wonder if Mappa will be adding some anime only scenes or if these are just for the trailer.
Will be interesting to see.
However, the fact that the next shots reveals these idyllic settings are happening inside a TV screen means it is likely that these moments are not real and the disturbing stuff that follows is.
These disturbing things include shots of the Eternity Devil, a graveyard for devil hunters, a bloody Gun Devil bullet, Aki’s house exploding, Katana Man and Sawatari walking, Denji’s door, Denji resting with Pochita in an old shack, and Makima herself about to throw down.
Once the horror side of Chainsaw Man has been shown with this, the trailer makes sure to show the action side, with bombastic music set to even more quick shots, this time of Kon, Aki drawing his sword, Kishibe rising up, Power attacking with a sledge hammer, and Denji facing off against the Bat Devil and Leech Devil.
The final shots of the trailer see Denji in his full Chainsaw Man getup, as he cuts down zombies left and right in a gory display.
Now, these last few shots do give more credence to the trailer being preanimated, since Denji is wearing his devil hunting outfit here, when in the manga he was shirtless.
Still, even if it is preanimated, I have hope that the anime can actually make this fight look as good as it does in the PV.
Overall, the PV is excellent.
It does a fantastic job of hyping up fans of the manga and also getting those who will be anime only viewers intrigued.
Also the director has been announced as Ryu Nakayama, who is a first time director but has been a key animator for anime like Kill la Kill and One Punch Man.
As for the composer, they have been announced as Kensuke Ushio, who has composed for A Silent Voice, Devilman Crybaby, and Japan Sinks: 2020.
So, both of these people are promising people to leave Chainsaw Man in the hands of.
I hope that they and Mappa Studio can pull off adapting one of my favourite manga.

Ghost in the Shell Review: One of the Most Influencial Anime of All Time.

When someone asks for an example of an anime that had an impact on genres in the film industry, it’s hard not to think of Ghost in the Shell’s influence on sci-fi.
It is constantly referenced whenever this topic comes up and, after finally watching it, I understand why.
Based off the manga by Masamune Shirow, and directed by Mamoru Oshii, the film takes places in a cyberpunk future where the lines between what constitutes as human have begun to blur, due to so many people being augmented with technology.
It seems that the only feature that it takes for one to be recognized as a person in this world is the human consciousness known as a ghost, with the outer body merely being a shell, hence the title.
Our main character is Major Motoko Kusanagi (Atsuko Tanaka), who has become so augmented that it appears only her ghost remains.
As she and her team track down a cyber terrorist known as the Puppet Master, we see how Kusanagi is struggling with her own questions about her humanity, leading to an ending that feels like a new beginning.

There are many great scenes that build into this ending, like the diving scene.

This is achieved not so much through words but rather through the visuals, as we see Kusanagi traveling the city, her almost robotic gaze raising questions about the perception she has of herself, with the terrific score playing in the background accompanying the likewise terrific animation.
It is through means like this that Ghost in the Shell raises interesting questions about what it means to be alive and evolve… which it never really answers.
Although, this is not not a bad thing because rather than it feeling like a copout, it feels like the writer is trying to raise genuine discussion on this subject.
This clearly worked too with how many films and shows took inspiration from the film, from shortly after it was released all the way up to now.
For example, I saw features that would influence both The Matrix and Westworld in the opening credits alone.

The opening scene itself where Kasanagi’s cyborg body is created is practically projecting its influence on sci-fi as a whole.

It achieves all of this in a pretty short runtime too, which is surprising and really shows how good its messaging is.
Along with this, the film has a surpisingly positive outlook on the future of technology, and I say “surprising” because so many other sci-fi films seem to focus solely on the negative consequences of these advancements.
I get the feeling that Ghost in the Shell is a film that will take me multiple rewatches to fully appreciate all of its questions and implications, yet I still feel like I experienced something after watching it for the first time.
Ghost in the Shell is definitely a masterpiece anime, one where its influences can be seen in movies to this day.

Nichijou Review: Selamat Pagi!

If you ask a large group of anime fans what their favourite comedy anime is, I’m sure that someone would bring up Nichijou, and rightfully so.
Based off the manga by Keiichi Arawi, directed by Tatsuya Isihara, and adapted by the great Kyoto Animation, I remember watching Nichijou’s first episode a few years ago but, for whatever reason, not continuing with it after that.
Well, now that I have finished watching the series with everyone at the anime club I go to, I can say that I regret this decision because Nichijou is an absolutely perfect comedy in every sense of the word.
Every single episode got a massive laugh out of everyone attending.
The story (if you can call it that) follows two sets of people.
First up, we have the three high schoolers, the ditz, Yuko Aioi (Mariko Honda), the yaoi artist, Mio Naganohara (Mai Aizawa), and the emotionless-looking, yet still intelligent, Mai Minakami (Misuzu Togashi).
Next, we have the robot, Nano Shinome (Shizuka Furuya), her creator the child, Professor (Hiromi Konno), and their talking cat, Sakamoto (Minoru Shiraishi).
I know, it seems like these are two completely different storylines that don’t belong in the same show.
Well, Nichijou somehow makes it work completely, as we see both sets of characters go about their normal, over the top, everyday lives.

*Nichijou* somehow manages to blend normal and over the top seemlessly.

I say over the top because almost every single action in Nichijou is.
The first episode literally has a scene where Yuuko trying to catch some food she dropped is animated like it’s a stylized fight sequence.
There is a common joke in the fandom that they spent almost all of their animation budget on scenes like this and I honestly would not be surprised if it was true.
These scenes are so ludicrous that they’re hilarious and there is one of them in pretty much every single episode.
Just wait until you get to the Mio fight scene and the high jump scene.
You will know what I’m talking about when you get to those moments and I highly suspect you’ll be dying of laughter when you do.

If you value your saftey, whatever you do, do not sneak a peak at Mio’s yaoi art.

This is what Nichijou is essentially, a series of skits, most of them focusing on the characters I mentioned, with very little overarching story.
There is development and plot progression for Nano but, other than her, there is next to none of this for the rest of the cast.

Nano’s character arc is quite good, made better by the humor surrounding it.

Ordinarily, I would say that the characters not being developed was a bad thing but this is not the case for Nichijou.
It’s not trying to be a show where every character grows to the point that they are different by the end.
It’s trying to be a show that makes us laugh at all the insane things going on in these characters’ everyday lives, and it more than succeeds at that.
If you haven’t seen Nichijou yet then I recommend you go see what you’re missing out on.
You will laugh so hard your sides hurt at least once every episode.
It is, in my opinion, the perfect comedy anime.

Attack on Titan Updated Final Chapter Review: It was All for Nothing.

Wow… just wow.
Okay, so I made it clear in my review for the final chapter of Attack on Titan, “Towards the Tree on that Hill”, that I thought the ending of the story was a mixed bag.
There was a lot to dislike about the chapter, from Ymir loving King Fritz, to Armin thanking Eren for committing mass genocide, to Eren killing his own mother and whining about Mikasa even though he just murdered billions of people, to Historia’s drawn out pregnancy subplot amounting to absolutley nothing.
However, there was also a lot to like about the ending, from Levi’s fantastic sendoff, the final panels mostly bringing a satisfying conclusion to the Alliance and Mikasa, and, of course, Titan powers coming to an end which meant that the characters had actually achieved something by the end.
So, overall, the final chapter had plenty of good things and plenty of bad things about it.
This made me excited for the volume release where Hajime Isayama would add additional pages to expand on the ending.
I hoped that these additions would work towards making the things I didn’t like about the ending easier to digest.
Well, Hajime Isayama just released this updated ending and, having read the new pages, I can confidently say that the characters achieved pretty much nothing.
Seriously, these eight pages take the things I actually liked about Attack on Titan’s ending and completley contradicts them.
Without this updated ending I would at least be able to say that the ending to my favourite story was decent, if a bit problematic.
Now that these pages have been added to the canon, though, I don’t like the ending.
I think it makes all the past sacrifices of the story meaningless in the long run.
This said, I won’t act like everything Isayama added here is bad.
There is one addition that I do like and it is Ymir actually getting a sendoff.
In the original chapter, she just disappeared completley, which was bizarre given how much she had been a focus in the final arc.
However, in the updated chapter, she is actually given an ending.
Right after Armin yells that he is the man who killed Eren Yeager, we see Mikasa walking away with Eren’s head and seeing the specter of Ymir, in adult form this time for some reason.
It is revealed that Ymir was the source of Mikasa’s headaches, and Mikasa thanks her for bringing her children into the world before Ymir fades away forever.
I was glad to see Ymir actually get a sendoff here as opposed to just vanishing, but there is still a lot about this scene that just does not make sense.
If Ymir was the one causing Mikasa’s headaches, then how the heck did she know that Mikasa would be key to freeing her?
Mikasa’s headaches have been happening for a long time so why was Ymir reaching out to her then?
Also, how does Mikasa even know what Ymir looks like to recognise her or know about her love for King Fritz?
Not to mention that Mikasa being the one to ultimately free Ymir still comes out of absolutley nowhere.
The most troubling thing about this though is that during this scene we get a flashback, which shows Ymir not saving King Fritz from the spear and then comforting her children.
There are two possibilities as to what this could mean.
Option number one is that Ymir really didn’t save King Fritz and everything we saw after she died in Chapter 122 was just some weird hallucination she was experiencing.
Option number two is that this is just Ymir wishing she had not saved Fritz and had instead lived on with her children.
If it’s option number one then Isayama retconned a massive part of the story’s history and lore, completley ruining Chapter 122.
This is why I am choosing to believe it’s option number two that he is depicting here because otherwise it completley ruins a chapter that I once loved.
No matter what the intended ending is, though, Isayama still made this really unclear, so he should have either been more clear about its intent or just removed it all togethor.
Now, we get to the part of the updated conclusion that made me go from thinking the ending was alright to that it was just downright bad.
Right after the original final scene, where Mikasa thanks Eren for wrapping the scarf around her, we get a series of panels showing different timeskips on Paradis.
The first of these shows Mikasa with an unknown man who she presumeably married and had a child with, visiting Eren’s grave.
I can’t believe Mikasa got the Historia treatment, marrying an unknown person.
As if that happening to one character wasn’t bad enough.
Still, this unknown man could be Jean since it does look like him from behind.
Even if the husband is Jean, though, it still feels forced because of how onesided their past interactions have been.
Much like Mikasa’s love for Eren being properly built up but not Eren’s for her, Jean’s feelings for Mikasa were built up but hers wasn’t for him.
From here, we see a progression of Mikasa’s life, with her continuously visiting Eren’s grave with her family, until she dies an old woman.
Then we get the kicker.
Paradis is destroyed in a war.
I’m sorry, what?
You’re telling me after all that build up in the original final chapter towards the future for Paradis being hopeful, despite the danger, it just gets destroyed?
Then what’s the point of the fantastic Levi scene where he tells his comrades that this is the outcome they sacrificed their lives for?
They didn’t sacrifice their lives just for the island to be destroyed.
This contradicts so much that was in the original final chapter.
In that first ending, it felt like Isayama keeping Paradis’ fate ambigious was him trying to stay consistent with one of Attack on Titan’s biggest themes, this being that the world is cruel but also beautiful.
There was danger on the horizon but Paradis had the Alliance as peace envoys, working to build a bridge between them and the outside world.
This updated ending changes the entire feeling of the conclusion from hopeful to just plain cynical.
Not that a depressing ending couldn’t have worked but, as I said, this just contradicts so much of what was in the original chapter, and this was stuff about that chapter which I actually liked so it makes it way worse for me.
Then we get the big slap in the face.
After Paradis has been destroyed, we see a young boy, who looks like Mikasa’s descendent and has shaded in eyes, meaning that he is a slave to something as the symbolism of this story dictates.
The boy and his dog head towards the tree where Eren’s head is buried, which has now grown to look exactly like the tree Ymir fell into where she was infected with the Hallucigenia and became the first Titan 2000 years ago.
Therefore, it is heavily implied that the power of the Titans will be coming back.
Are you freaking kidding me?
What the heck was the point then?
It was all for nothing!
In the original ending, Titan powers disappearing was an incredibly big deal.
It was one of the biggest achievements the characters made.
Even if the cycle of violence did continue, at least they could say they achieved ending the cycle of Titans, something which Eren sought to end right at the beginning of the story.
Now, that meaning is completley taken away.
Eren ensuring a long life for his friends is the only thing any character achieved with this ending.
Other than this, there was nothing else achieved in the long run.
Paradis is destroyed and the Alliance and Historia’s descendents are all dead, making their attempts to try for peace meaningless, and the Titan powers are hinted to be coming back, making one of the biggest goals of the story go absolutley nowhere.
This ruins the ending for me.
Before, it was okay.
It had big problems but I felt that it was at least somewhat satisfying.
Now, with this updated ending, I can say that Attack on Titan‘s ending is just straight up bad.
The updated ending keeps the things I didn’t like, rather than expanding on them in ways that could make them good.
It also adds worse things that make the good parts of the final chapter completley meaningless.
Ymir getting a sendoff is the only good addition in this updated ending.
Otherwise, it’s a complete disaster.
I still love Attack on Titan because it’s a story where I really connected with its world, themes, characters, and plot twists.
The ending, though?
Not so much now.

My Hero Academia, Season Five, Episode Ten, That Which is Inherited Review: The Controversial Twist.

The events of Episode Ten from Season Five of My Hero Academia are ones I have been interested to see adapted in the anime for a while.
My reason for this is that not only was I excited to see the big twist play out, but I was also curious to see what the fan reaction would be.
The reveal that One For All would give Deku multiple Quirks was a controversial one when it happened in the manga because many thought it would make him too overpowered and lessen the stakes.
Personally, I think it has been handled great so far in the manga, although I won’t be saying anything more about the source material beyond that.
It also seems that the anime only reaction has been mostly positive as well, which is good to see, with fans seemingly open to see where this goes, even if they have concerns about it, which, to be fair, are natural.
As for the episode itself, “That Which is Inherited”, directed by Ikurō Satō, it is the best episode of Season Five so far and gives new life to this arc, along with the previous two episodes, which were also pretty great.
Before those episodes, the arc had been a bit drawn out, with the anime making things longer than it should have been by adding various recaps to things we did not need them for.
“That Which is Inherited” does prove the importance of this arc, though, because the big reveal is clearly one of the most important moments in My Hero Academia, being one that shapes the direction the story is going.
The episode begins in a rather creepy fashion, opening up at Tartarus Prison where All For One is being held.
The king of all supervillains is under constant surveillance in his prison cell and the guards express concern at his movement in his cell along with the movements of his subordinates in the League of Villains who are still at large.
It is at this moment where the creepy factor comes in, as All For One is revealed to have heard them talking and aplogises for making them nervous, before saying he can hear his brother’s voice, which makes sense considering how One For All’s true potential is about to be activated.
This scene is followed up with even more hints at One For All’s unlocking, as All Might recieves a call from Gran Torino about something his predecessor and mentor, Nana, told the elderly hero.
She said to him once that she dreamed of a man in shadow telling her, “the time has not yet come.”
From here, the episode goes into the hyped up final fight between Deku and Monoma’s team.
We see the moments before this fight, as Monoma has a talk with Shinso about how they are similar, since both were told they couldn’t be heroes because of their Quirks.
This heart to heart actually does a good job of building up Monoma as a character, which is good for him because I usually find him to be incredibly annoying, what with his constant, annoying shouting about how better his class is than 1-A’s.
We also get a good bit of foreshadowing here for the event that will unintentionally unlock One For All, as Monoma asks Shinso how he got Deku to talk so he could brainwash him during the sports festival.
Shinso says he insulted his classmate and the look on Monoma’s face just screams that he now has a plan to use his Copy Quirk to brainwash Deku.
With this plan now set, so begins the attack on Deku’s team by Monoma and Shinso’s group.
We also get an introduction to the other members of their team but they’re not important so I won’t go into their Quirks.
What really matters is the fight between Deku and Monoma, as Monoma sets his plan to brainwash Deku into motion by insulting Bakugo, saying his actions brought down the symbol of peace.
This turns out to not be the best plan, though, because it pushes Deku’s buttons enough that it unlocks One For All’s potential, and the Black Whip Quirk explodes from Deku’s hand.
The way this scene is animated and edited is stellar, with the sound cutting out completley for a bit, followed by All Might’s horrified face as Nana’s words ring in his head.
With Black Whip going crazy and Deku desperately trying to control it, the music and the reactions of the characters and are particuarly great.
I really liked the moment when Deku bursts through a wall and we get to see Shinso’s shocked reaction.
Even though we can’t see his mouth, it’s clear he is terrified by what’s happening.
Now, with Deku unable to control this new Quirk, who should come in to save him?
None other than Uraraka, as she jumps up and grabs a hold of Deku in an effort to calm him.
We then get more of an exploration of her backstory, as we see that along with her wanting to become a hero to help her parents financially, she also became one because she loved helping people and making them happy, building into the present where we see her help Deku.
There is also a great line in this scene, when Uraraka wonders, “who protects the heroes when they’re hurting.”
Much like Monoma, I am glad we got some Uraraka spotlight this episode.
It’s pretty clear that My Hero Academia is a show where the male characters get a lot more spotlight than the female ones.
Not to say that the content the female characters get is bad, far from it, but it is far less frequent to get character development and important scenes for the girls in My Hero Academia, so it was nice to see Uraraka finally get some of the spotlight in this episode.
That said, don’t expect her to have much more importance after this moment, unfortunately.
Well, at least the content we get from her here is pretty good, as she calls for Shinso to save Deku by brainwashing him, which succeeds, propelling Deku into One For All to talk with a Vestige.
This past user of One For All informs Deku that the Black Whip power he used is actually his Quirk and soon Deku will inherit six others, as One For All has finally reached the singularity point mentioned in the season premiere.
Not only this but these Quirks are much stronger than they were originally because they have been cultivated by One For All over the years.
Given how strong this will make Deku when he activates all six, you can see why it would make plenty of readers concerned when it was revealed in the manga.
If used wrong by Horikoshi, this power up could completley break the power scaling of the series.
Again, though, I do think that the way it is used in the future of the story is well done, so I advise those of you who have doubts to continue watching, before making your own judgements on this.
Maybe you will come to like this twist and its impact on the story, like I do.
Anyway, following this reveal, Deku awakens from Shinso’s brainwashing and the fight continues, with Deku and Uraraka having each other’s back and Aizawa deciding to allow the match to continue, bringing the episode to a close.
All in all, “That Which is Inherited” is the best episode of Season Five so far.
It adapts the twist of One For All’s upgrade really well and portrays the initial horror of Black Whip activating greatly.
There are even some good comedic moments, like one good gag with Jiro.
The twist may be controversial for some but I hope they come to like this twist and its impact on the story as the anime goes on.