The first episode of Saga of Tanya the Evil‘s Second Season set a solid foundation for the rest, with its action, sound design, and funny misunderstandings. The second episode “A Strange Friendship” follows this up well with more setup for the future, and some especially humorous moments by the end. Before discussing the events of the episode, I want to talk about the new opening and outro. The OP is titled Why? RED Induction and is performed by Myth & Royd, the group who did the OP for Season One. This may just be recency bias, but I think their new OP easily tops the old, starting loud, before going quiet and sinister, and then going full bombastic with the chorus. The visuals of the OP also give us plenty to look forward to, especially with the teased two vs one of Tanya facing off against Mary Sue again, along with the mage Mikel. As for the ED Weiter! Weiter! it is performed once again by Aoi Yuki, who continues to show off her vocal talents. I also prefer this ED because it actually has visuals, rather than a showcase of light novel covers and illustrations. Back to the episode, it starts off by once again showing us issues the Empire is having with the war effort. We see this through talks between Tanya and Visha, and Zettour and Rudersdorf. The combat units are only receiving weapons rather than basic necessities, and the Empire has to halt its progress due to winter. Worse still are the partisans in occupied territory, along with the fact that, unknown to the Empire, the Russy Federation is now allowing mages back into its ranks. We see this with the arrival of Political Commissar Liliya and mage Colonel Mikel at Mary Sue’s unit. Liliya immediately sets about making friends with Mary, which is absolutely a ploy to manipulate her. We know Liliya was chosen for being, “loyal to the party and idealistic.” I expect we will see her push Mary to more extreme ends this season. As for Mikel, he has been described as “charismatic,” and he will certainly lead by example, as seen by his fight with Tanya in the OP and trailer. However, I do have to wonder how loyal he really is to the Federation, considering the mages were all put in internment camps. Perhaps he has a similar mindset to the common soldiers, who believe fighting for the Federation will make them listen and improve the country. Tanya is horrified to hear this viewpoint from a captive, realizing that she is not fighting communists but nationalists. This makes the enemy a bigger threat, considering they view themselves as fighting for their country rather than an ideology, which she later explains to Zettour. Zettour, being described as a “conman” by Tanya, is able to find a work around for this problem with Tanya’s advice. In a speech to various nationalists from occupied territories, he drives a wedge between them and the communists by turning the territories over to civilian rule. Given the haunting images of Zettour on a skeletal horse, I doubt this is entirely truthful, but his speech gets the job done, halting most partisan attacks and allowing Tanya’s combat unit to get the supplies they need. In a humorous final scene before the credits, Visha delights in her new socks, and Tanya lights up in cartoonish exaggeration at the offer of coffee. Tany’s joy ends when she notices a Being X nutcracker in the house, demanding Visha get rid of it. The final, funny moment after the ED shows Visha offering Tanya a highchair so she can interrogate prisoners without being looked down on, much to her disdain. After such a logistical episode, it was good to get a few chuckles at the end. We will have to see how long the laughter lasts though, as the war continues to evolve over the season. “A Strange Friendship” is a good follow-up episode to Season Two’s pilot, and I am excited to see what is next in store for Tanya the Evil.
I have fond memories of studying Homer’s classics of The Iliad and The Odyssey in High School. The two epic poems are perhaps the oldest surviving stories in human history but there have not been many big budget attempts to adapt them to the screen. There was the Troy movie many years ago but that was more focused on being an action blockbuster than actually getting into the message of the story. However, when I heard that Christopher Nolan would be adapting The Odyssey, I had no doubt that one of the greatest directors of our time would be up to the task. The film follows the Greek Hero Odysseus, played wonderfully by Matt Damon, on his ten-year journey home following the Trojan War.
Odysseus’ quest to get home to his family is a timeless tale.
During his travels he must face monsters, potential mutiny from his men, and the wrath of the Gods themselves. But even if the hero reaches his home of Ithaca, his trials will be far from over. In Odysseus’ absence, suitors have taken over his home, planning to marry his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and usurp his son, Telemachus (Tom Holland). These suitors are led by Antinous, who is portrayed through a delightfully scummy performance from Robert Pattinson.
Get ready to want to punch Pattinson in this movie. Although, that’s probably a bad idea since he is literally Batman.
Every actor in this movie, from those with large roles to minor, give it their all, which is quite funny given all of the casting “controversy.” In the lead up to the film’s release, it was difficult to escape people complaining about Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and Elliot Page as Achilles. The latter complaint is especially egregious because, guess what? Elliot Page does not play Achilles so all of that complaining was for nothing.
Elliot Page plays Sinon, a soldier from The Aeneid rather than The Odyssey.
Nyong’o and Page’s performances also only take up a few minutes of the film, at most, so it really goes to show just how disingenuous certain people were being. Not to mention, the brief performances the actors gave were solid. As I said, everyone in the cast does a great job, with my favorites being Matt Damon as Odysseus (of course), Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, and John Leguizamo as Eumaus in what might be the best performance of his career.
John Leguizamo is excellent as the faithful swineherd.
But enough about the performances, what about the rest of the film? Well, the cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema and soundtrack by Ludwig Göransson are expectedly also fantastic. Nolan shot the movie entirely on IMAX 70 mm (the first feature film to do so), and filmed on location across the globe, resulting in jaw dropping visuals. There was also plenty of camera trickery, which added to the otherworldly nature of The Odyssey’s mythical monsters. This was most apparent with the Cyclops Polyphemus (Bill Irwin), with the way he was filmed reminding me a lot of the original King Kong (1933). Speaking of the Cyclops, his scene is nothing short of absolutely horrifying. The same goes for Circe (Samantha Morton), where Nolan tries his hand at body horror, which resulted in me wincing into the back of my seat. There’s the Laestrygonians, the trip to the Underworld, and many more unsettling moments. Honestly, I would be very excited to hear it if Christopher Nolan’s next movie was a horror film. I cannot imagine how scary such a movie would be.
The Cyclops and Circe scenes are probably going to haunt my nightmares for a while.
Nolan wrote the script for The Odyssey, adding new twists to the age-old tale. I particularly liked how the events of the Trojan War drove Odysseus’ actions in this movie, along with how it led to his interactions with Athena (Zendaya). There is also one particular scene with Odysseus’ dog and, as someone who lost their own dog last year, this moment made me tear up.
Argos is a good boy.
Although, the writing is not completely perfect because, as you may have noticed from the trailer, all of the characters speak in a modern dialect. This does create a few moments where I was brought out of the film because of how modern everything sounded. Also some of the creatures Odysseus faces go by pretty quickly, which makes sense given how packed the film is, but it felt like they should have either been given more room to breath or cut entirely.
Granted, this movie is already so long that extending it might have been a little much.
Otherwise, Christopher Nolan definitely lived up to expectations in adapting The Odyssey. The performances are excellent, as are the techniques used to craft the film, and Nolan’s writing adds plenty of thematic weight to an already rich tale. I expect The Odyssey to be nominated for a lot of awards by the year’s end and, should it win these, it will be very well deserved. Do not listen to the biased detractors and go see this movie. Just make sure not to drink too much water beforehand, otherwise you may be in need of a toilet break halfway through, because this a long one.
After nearly a decade long absence, Saga of Tanya the Evil has finally returned with its Second Season. I quite enjoyed the first season, with its solid action, fantastic sound design, and titular character’s constant hilarious misunderstandings. Going into the first episode of this Second Season, “Salamander Combat Team”, I had my fingers crossed it would live up to the first. If this premiere is any indication, Season Two should be just as enjoyable as the original and movie. The episode begins by setting up our cast of characters. Front and center, of course, is Tanya, whose personality and goals are spelled out by her intro. We see her praying to Being X due to brainwashing, before she violently lashes out, shooting the statue representing her enemy. As Tayna stands before the massive combat unit she was gifted at the end of the movie (much to her horror), we see various characters’ perspectives of her. Loria views her as his “little fairy”, wanting her captured for depraved reasons. I am all for seeing great animation, but witnessing Loria suck on his finger in such detail was not something any of us wanted. I hope Loria gets the same pathetic end the real person he is based off received. After Loria, we see Mary Sue, who seems not to have learned anything from her fight with Tanya in the movie. Sure, she admits to acting recklessly, but she immediately justifies it by saying God is on her side. Finally, we see Lergen, Rudersdorf and Zettour, the former of whom is, as per usual, concerned about Tanya, calling her “a monster in the form of a little girl,” just as he did all the way in Season One. Zettour wants a monster for the war however, and he finishes Lergen’s sentence as Tanya’s theme kicks in and she addresses her new combat team, welcoming them and us to the front lines. Unfortunately for Tanya, her Salamander Team prove to be wildly incompetent. This forces Tanya to step in and hopefully the level of animation and sound design we see here will remain consistent throughout the season because what we got was a fantastic continuation of Season One’s. To the tune of her theme, Tanya flies through storms and swerves to avoid fire, eventually even destroying one of the planes with her knife. Over the top? Definitely. Cool? Also, definitely. There is time for humor as well in this battle, because Tanya’s allies almost kill her with friendly fire, causing her to throw out her fists like child because, well, she is one. This does not save the last pilot, however, and neither do his prayers to God. It must have been pretty confusing for him to hear Tanya denouncing God one moment and then praising him the next, due to brainwashing. The pilot does not have time to ponder this contradiction, though, for he is quickly obliterated by a magic blast from Tanya. Her job done, Tanya naturally follows this up by chewing her new troops out, before we get a look at what the other nations are up to. We see Mary lost her friend from the movie sometime offscreen, so I wonder if we will get a flashback to how that happened? More importantly, Loria seemingly convinces alternate universe Stalin to allow mages back into the army to up their chances of defeating the Empire. We know this will be a big deal, considering we saw one of these Federation Mages wreck Tanya’s men in one of the trailers. Not long after Tanya gives her men a dressing down, Visha arrives with news that two Federation infantry brigades are on the attack. What follows is a tense scene, which constantly makes it feel like Tanya’s forces are about to fall into a trap. I was half expecting the Federation mage from the trailers to ambush them. Instead, we got a classic Youjo Senki rug pull, where it is revealed that the enemy forces have been just as poorly trained as Tanya’s and they are easily defeated. Tanya’s surprised “Eh!?” upon learning this gave me my biggest laugh of the episode, closely followed by everyone’s terrified reactions when she falsely praises them with a childish voice and expression. She does this in the hopes of building a good reputation with her new troops, just in case the Empire loses and she has to rely on their testimony to stay alive. In typical Tanya fashion, however, this has pretty much the opposite effect, because everyone is left absolutely terrified of her. Tanya saying she will have a missing captain executed if he deserted certainly does not help her case. The final scene of the episode then shows the new captains looking at a propaganda poster of Tanya, freaked out by how much it diverges from their reality. Overall, “Salamander Combat Team” is a great return for Saga of Tanya the Evil after so many years. It brought back the classic Tanya misunderstandings, as well as a greatly animated action scene with terrific sound design. I look forward to reviewing the rest of the season as it releases. It is good to be back on the front lines… which is something I am sure no soldier would ever say. Certainly not Tanya.
I have a system where, if I hear about a manga that sounds interesting, I will write its name down in a Google Doc. Whenever I’m bored, I’ll look at that document for suggestions on what to read. I first added The Bugle Call: Song of War to that list a few years back and it has pretty much been gathering dust since then… well, if something in a Google Doc could gather dust. Well, after recently coming across the first two volumes in a bookstore and remembering its presence on my to read list, I decided to buy them and give it a shot. One week later, I was back in the store to buy the rest of The Bugle Call volumes currently out. When I was done reading those, I immediately jumped online to read the rest of the story. If that does not tell you how much I enjoyed The Bugle Call, I do not know what will.
The Bugle Call is a more obscure manga, but I cannot recommend it enough.
The Bugle Call follows Luca; a boy raised in a mercenary band. Although he would much rather be in a literal band, where he can become a maestro who plays the bugle. What is unusual about Luca, is that he has a tree branch growing out of his head. When this branch manifests a power allowing him to guide and boost the morale of armies on the battlefield, Luca finds himself recruited by a mysterious Pontiff to work alongside other branched individuals. Tasked with protecting the kingdom’s giant Spire from other Branched, Luca makes a deal with the Pontiff: If he kills the Branched known as the Garland, he will be free to become a maestro.
Luca’s goal is a sympathetic one, and it is sad to see him get dragged further into the war the longer this story goes on.
If I had to describe my initial impression of reading The Bugle Call, I would say the beginning of the story feels like a mix between Vinland Saga and X-Men, before branching off into a completely different story with interesting twists and turns. The mangaka Mozuku Sora takes some seriously wide swings with this story, which I am not sure will work for everyone, but worked for me. The characters are also pretty great. Luca is relatable and the squad of Branched he finds himself in is also full of interesting characters. There’s the child-like Zoe, the determined Demi, the timid Miura, the sadist Cora, and many more.
Each of these characters get their own moments to shine.
The bonds Luca forms with these characters are strong and help serve as the backbone of the story. His strongest bond is with Zoe, but it is here that I have to get into my one criticism with The Bugle Call, that being their age difference. Luca is 14 and Zoe is 27. To make their connection even weirder, Zoe has the mind of a nine year old. This makes sense for her character arc, but it makes the romantic undertones of their relationship even more problematic. I hope when the anime releases, they age Luca up a bit to make the whole thing less weird.
Thankfully, Luca and Zoe’s connection does not take up most of the focus, so the rest of the story can still shine.
With that criticism out of the way, let me get back to the positives. As well as our main cast, the antagonists are also well written, with the Garland and the doppelganger being especially sympathetic characters. The art for the series by Higoro Toumori is also incredible. I remember multiple times I had to pause reading just to gaze at the artistry of the paneling.
This panel of Zoe fighting the Looking Glass Branched blew my mind.
With an interesting story, complex characters, and great artwork, The Bugle Call: Song of War is a fantastic manga that I wish I read when I got recommended it years ago. Now that I have caught up, I will read the chapters as they release, and plan to keep supporting the story by buying the volumes. I will also be there day one when the anime drops. Speaking of which, it was kind of funny how that turned out. I had just started reading this story, and then it was announced not long later that we were getting an anime adaptation.
Hopefully, the anime can live up to the manga and will draw in new fans.
If the series gets popular then eventually, we may see the whole story animated. Fingers crossed that Mozuku Sora will also wrap up their story in a satisfying way when they reach the conclusion. Time will tell. Go read The Bugle Call: Song of War if you have not already. It is definitely worth your time.
I grew up watching the first two Toy Story movies. Despite releasing over a decade later, Toy Story 3 was just as amazing, as was the fourth installment, which released after nearly a decade. Now, seven years from that, we have Toy Story 5, which thankfully maintains the series’ quality. For the fifth film, the writers decided to tackle the subject of kids entertaining themselves more with technology than toys. The movie centers around Jessie (Joan Cusack) this time, who becomes concerned when Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) gets a tablet known as Lilypad (Gretta Lee). Not only does this risk the toys becoming obsolete, but Jessie also worries that Lilypad could lead Bonnie to the wrong friends.
Toy Story 5 centers around the conflict between tech and toys.
This makes Toy Story 5 the most topical of the flms, and I love the way the messaging they decided to go with. Instead of making the technology completely bad, it showed how they could coexist with toys through Jessie’s meeting with a toilet training toy named Smarty Pants (Coan O’Brien). As for Jessie herself, we get the continuation of her storyline from Toy Story 2, eventually resulting in one of the most moving scenes of the franchise.
Jessie steps up as the main character in this film.
But what about Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen), the main characters of the past four films? Well, Woody had his character arc resolved in Toy Story 4 so he is just here as moral support this time around. Buzz thankfully gets more to do than he did in the previous film, although the rest of Bonnie’s toys feel more like cameos than anything else. The movie is most focused around Jessie, the conflict between toys and technology, and a weird side story about some lost Buzz Lightyear toys. The latter storyline seems to just be there so a part of the third act can work.
It also feels largely disconnected from the rest of the film before that point
That is my only big criticism of Toy Story 5 though. Along with the great commentary and character arc for Jessie, the animation is fun, the story is charming, and it made me reflect on my own time as a kid. Five movies in and the Toy Story franchise is still going strong when it comes to quality. Will there be a sixth one, though? We shall see.
Ah, The Amazing Digital Circus. I first became a part of the fandom after Episode Four released. I binged all four episodes and was there day one for every subsequent episode. As the years passed, and Gooseworx’s story drew closer to its inevitable conclusion, I decided to do a ranking of all the episodes. After watching The Last Act in theaters and then recently watching the finale again online, I think I have a good enough idea what my final ranking is. There will be full spoilers, so do not read this ranking if you have not seen the entire show. Also, you may have noticed this post is titled “From Weakest to Best”, rather than “Worst to Best.” This is because I do not think there is a bad episode of The Amazing Digital Circus. Sure, there are some issues, which I will get into but, overall, they are all great. So, the episode in last place is still good even if it is my least favorite.
9. Episode One: Pilot.
Yes, I think the Pilot episode is the weakest of The Amazing Digital Circus’ nine. That being said, it was still a great way to start this story. Pomni serves as our introduction to the Circus, Caine, and all of the other humans trapped there, along with the ever-approaching threat of Abstraction. She is made instantly relatable through her panic and desire to find an exit. It is not just her though because Gooseworx does a great job of getting us interested in the supporting cast. Jax’s bullying, Ragatha’s desire to help, Kinger’s insanity, Gangle’s timidness, and Zooble’s complete lack of interest in Caine’s adventures, much to the AI’s frustration. All of these character traits are set up wonderfully, making for a compelling Pilot that builds well into the following episodes. It is also fun to look back at this episode and see how much the animation improved over time. The only criticism I really have for the Pilot is that it does seem a bit scatterbrained at times, but it is still introducing us to the world so that makes sense. I may consider the Pilot to be The Amazing Digital Circus’ weakest episode, but it was still a great way to start, and the episodes only got better from here.
8. Episode Five: Untitled.
Speaking of scattered, Episode Five, Untitled, is exactly that. Now this is not entirely a bad thing, since seeing various adventures pitched by the characters was fun. My particular favorite was Jax’s President Pomni Adventure. Why? Well, because it gave it gave a shout out to New Zealanders of course! Oh, and Gangle? We New Zealanders threaten people with a haka, better start practicing. In all seriousness, there are many other good adventures in this episode from the funny ones to the character focused ones where we get further insight into Ragatha and Jax. Untitled is also the episode where the show begins its strong focus on Jax as a character, with our first bit of foreshadowing towards him and Ribbit’s friendship and falling out. The ending also teases “Abel” who will reveal himself a few episodes later. Untitled is a fun episode, if one that feels a little over the place at times.
7. Episode Four: Fast Food Masquerade.
It was shortly after Episode Four released that I became a fan of The Amazing Digital Circus. So, this was the point I caught up before the wait for Episode Five, and what a funny episode to finish on. Watching the cast of the Circus work at a fast-food place surprisingly provided a lot of laughs, whether it be from Ragatha on the Stupid Sauce, or Gangle realizing that Jax is right about the clock being broken. Speaking of Gangle, this is her episode. We get great insight into what her life was like before she unwillingly joined the Circus and get a deep look at her struggles with depression. It is also the episode where Pomni begins to step up as the unifying character in the Circus, as evidenced by her locking up for Gangle after finally being able to say goodbye to Gumigoo, which she was denied in Episode Two. This is also the first episode where Zooble joins in on an Adventure, and they give a sinister tease of what is to come when they say, “The only thing holding Caine back is that he likes us.” If I had to name a problem with Fast Food Masquerade, it would be that it felt like the episode set an expectation for each character to get their own episode focused on them, like Gangle did, only for Jax to take up most of the screen time going forward. Not to say what we got with Jax later was bad, it was good, but I do wish we got more from characters like Ragatha and Zooble.
6. Episode Seven: Beach Episode.
Beach Episode is essentially a massive troll episode from Gooseworx. They take almost every theory fans had about the Circus, teases them with Abel arriving and introducing a possible escape, only to pull the rug out from under us by revealing it was all one big adventure designed by Caine. Out of all the torturous adventures Caine made, this one is probably the cruelest because it gave the characters the false hope that they might leave the Circus. The twist was also well set up, with various hints like that Abel was the only one sympathetic to Caine and distrusted Kinger. Heck, even Jax called the twist verbatim before he agreed to help. As for Jax himself, he very nearly abstracts in this episode, and it is expectedly horrifying and trippy. We also get more teases to his backstory with the flashes during his panic attack, followed by his attempt to keep everyone in the Circus. The only thing stopping this episode from being higher is that a lot of the things Beach Episode set up don’t really amount to anything by the end. There was nothing significant about Scratch, or Caine being implied to deliberately alter the characters’ minds. That being said, Beach Episode is still a great one, with a fantastic rug pull.
5. Episode Nine: Remember.
Before I rewatched the final episode online, I thought “Remember” would be among my least favorite episodes, potentially even the one I considered to be the weakest. This was because, after watching it in the theater, I had a number of issues. So, I was surprised to find myself enjoying it a lot more on my second viewing, without my expectations getting in the way of things. There are still some problems, like the confusing editing of Caine’s time in the Void, and what I feel to be a lack of setup for his redemption. However, the things I liked about the finale only shined more on my second watch. For starters, Gooseworx nailed the ending’s main theme of finding meaning in a stagnant life. The revelation that the characters are digital copies resulted in the moving scenes of them looking at the online profiles of their real-world selves, followed by the final shot of them all unknowingly gathering at the same bus stop. And then there is Jax. Yes, I do wish other characters got more screen time in the finale, but what Jax got is great. We see the formation and crumbling of his friendship with Ribbit, along with a look at how he views each of the characters, through how he believes he would react if they abstracted. This goes from the insanely dark scene of him strangling Pomni, to a looney-tunes style skit with Zooble. By the end of Jax’s scenes, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. He did nothing to redeem himself, but I still found him to be deserving or pity… or should I say I found her to be deserving of pity. The episode heavily implies Jax is trans and Gooseworx themselves confirmed this online. Granted, Jax is still closeted (even to herself), so that is I why I am referring to her as him throughout this list. Overall, “Remember” is a pretty great finale for The Amazing Digital Circus. Sure, it has problems, but the themes of the ending are great and the deep dive into Jax’s mind is undeniably interesting. Not to mention the animation is fantastic. If you had issues with the ending like I did, I recommend you rewatch the finale. You might find yourself gaining a more positive outlook, like I did.
4. Episode Two: Candy Carrier Chaos!
After enjoying the Pilot episode of The Amazing Digital Circus, I immediately jumped into the second, Candy Carrier Chaos! and was met with an ever better one. The Pilot teased the adventures with the Gloinks mission, but Episode Two showed how deep they go, as Pomni and the rest are tasked with saving the Candy Kingdom from a group of thieving Australian, gummy crocodiles, led by the NPC Gumigoo. Oh, Gumigoo, poor, poor Gumigoo. Gooseworx did a fantastic job of making us care for this NPC who gets an understandable existential crisis upon learning the reality of his existence. He is also the first true connection Pomni made in the Circus, making his deletion at the hands of Caine all the more shocking and tragic. However, this does lead into Pomni gaining her first moment of hope upon attending Kaufmo’s funeral, realizing that her horrible nightmare of being forgotten after abstracting will not come true. As for the rest of the episode, it is solid, with a lot of good gags, like the numerous knives in the war-rig. Speaking of which, as someone who believes Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the greatest action movies of all time, the homage to the film with the adventure was a lot of fun. It is with Pomni and Gumigoo’s brief but tragic friendship that the true heart of Episode Two lies though, making Candy Carrier Chaos an immediately memorable episode.
3. Episode Six: They All Get Guns.
After dissatisfaction with his adventures boils over, Caine appears to give up and the characters are given the simple task of, well, shooting each other. From here, the group splits into teams of two, each of which have their own emotional moments. We see the bond between Gangle and Zooble grow, eventually leading up to the reveal of their relationship in the credits of the final episode. Kinger gets his own darkness moment with Ragatha, where he once again proves himself to be the dad of the Circus. And then there are Pomni and Jax, who seem to bring out the good in each other. Jax convinces Pomni to embrace the wackier sides of the Circus, while Jax seemingly lets someone in for the first time since Ribbit… only to quickly ruin it due to his own trauma. The fallout between the two is dramatic, with Jax putting up walls to Pomni’s every attempt at friendship. It is not all drama, however, because I think They All Get Guns is actually the funniest episode of the series. My favorite joke is Kinger’s “I’m right behind you, aren’t I?” That made me belly laugh when I first watched the episode. Episode Six also sets the stage for Caine’s breakdown following the Favorite Character Awards, where he learns nobody voted for him. Emotional, funny, and with plenty of foreshadowing for the future, “They All Get Guns” is a great episode.
2. Episode Three: The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor.
I said in my review of The Last Act that Kinger was my favorite character in the show. The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor was the episode that established that for me, and my high opinion of him did not change throughout the entire series. Episode Three sees Pomni and Kinger trapped together during a horror adventure, which Caine strangely thought Zooble would like. As a fan of horror video games, I chuckled at the multiple gags focusing on the convenient tape recordings. Since the adventure takes place in the dark, this is also where we see Kinger’s sane side, with him coaching Pomni through the horrors they face, thus establishing his father figure role in the Circus. It is through learning of this side to Kinger, along with the story of his wife, that convinces Pomni to open up with the other Circus members, starting with Ragatha. Speaking of, the cut from the horrifying adventure to the pleasant adventure her, Gangle and Jax went through also got a laugh out of me, as did the therapy scenes between Caine and Zooble. For being a funny but also moving episode which made Kinger my favorite character, The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor takes the second spot on this list.
1. Episode Eight: hjsakldfhl
With a title that sounds like it came from Caine’s random name generator, Episode Eight is my favorite of The Amazing Digital Circus. Right from the beginning, the penultimate episode sets itself apart from the others with the way it portrays the origins of Caine and the Circus. The visual storytelling with the red and blue dots are great, followed by the reveal of what Kinger and Ragatha’s entrances into the Circus were like. From there, the episode cuts to the present, where Caine pays off Zooble’s warning from Episode Four. What follows is absolute chaos as Caine literally tortures the cast through song. Alex Rochon sings his heart out for this scene, delivering the best vocal performance of the show. Caine’s torture of the cast eventually evolves into Kinger’s plan to fix him, resulting in the callback to the Pilot with Pomni, followed by her and the others calling Caine out for his actions. Caine is terrifying when he glitches into a giant, before Kinger accidentally “deletes” him. I put delete in quotations because Caine is revealed to be alive in the final episode. Honestly, part of me wishes Caine had really died here. It would have been poetically tragic. He could not understand the characters, due to being an AI, and this led to a psychotic break where he was accidentally killed. Reviving and redeeming him lessens the impact of that somewhat, although not enough to remove this episode from the number one spot. With the most intense storyline of the show, great visual storytelling, and a very catch villain song (which I have listened to a lot on Spotify) is it any wonder I consider hjsakldfhl to be the best episode of The Amazing Digital Circus?
When asking what the best Alien video game is, I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who would not say Alien: Isolation. Released all the way back in 2014, the game is often praised as one the greatest survival horror experiences of all time. It is also well known for its controversial IGN review, where the reviewer only rated it 5.9 out of ten. Well, after first playing Isolation years ago, I found myself having a much more positive reaction, and my opinion on the game has only improved in the years since. So, after watching in excitement as the sequel was revealed at Summer Game Fest, I decided to do another playthrough, but this time on Hard Mode since I’m still too scared to do a Nightmare playthrough.
Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to play through the game on Nightmare… but not today.
Alien Isolation follows Amanda (voiced by Andrea Deck), the daughter of iconic heroine, Ellen Ripley. After learning the flight recorder from the Nostromo has been recovered and taken to Sevastopol Station, Amanda travels there to hopefully find some closure. Instead, she finds herself facing the same nightmare her mother experienced because a Xenomorph stalks the ship, determined to hunt her (and, by extension, YOU) down. The story and characters of Alien: Isolation are pretty simple. Nothing spectacular but they get the job done. They are not the game’s selling point; the titular Alien is. Over ten years later, this game is still famous for the creature’s AI. It is programmed to be given hints about where you are on the map and constantly adapts to your escape or distraction strategies. The Xenomorph also kills you immediately if it catches you, and all of these things combine to create one of gaming’s most terrifying stalker enemies. I accidentally walked into the Alien at one point, resulting in me screaming like a child, firing my gun at it in a panic (even though I knew it would do nothing), ending with this being the last thing Amanda Ripley ever saw.
Prepare to die a bunch to the Alien, especially on harder difficulties.
Way back in 1979, Ash described the Alien as “the perfect organism.” Well, Creative Assembly certainly replicated this with the Xenomorph in their game, and they deserve all the praise for it. There are so many iconic cat and mouse moments in this game, from the medical wing, to the trap, to that god damn long hallway. The Alien is not the only enemy, however, for there are also humans and androids The humans are easily dealt with for the most part, but the Working Joes are another matter. They take a lot of hits to kill on Hard Mode, and you almost always risk alerting the Alien when fighting them. I cannot imagine what it would be like on Nightmare Mode.
The Working Joe’s also have that uncanny valley look, which adds to the fear.
That being said, it is also with the Working Joes where some players’ criticisms come in. There are a few chapters in the game where you are only fighting androids, and some consider this to be the weakest part of the game. I know I felt that way when I first played but, in my recent playthrough, I actually had a lot of fun finally having the freedom to take these guys down, without having to worry about the Alien dropping down and instantly killing me. What I will not praise, however, is the space-walking segments. There are three in the game, and the first gets a pass because we are exploring an interesting area. The other two, however, are extremely tedious, and you move at a snail’s pace so that certainly does not help.
The nostalgia of visiting the ship from the first film is one of this section’s only saving graces.
At the least the visuals during these brief moments are still great. That is another thing to praise the game for because the graphics have aged fantastically. While the NPCs do look a little flat outside of cutscenes, the environment is flawless and a perfect replication of the environment from the original Alien. It is no wonder this game inspired Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus. Isolation is a fantastic video game. While the story is basic, the graphics are excellent and the AI for the titular Alien is out of this world, making for a both terrifying and very difficult game.
The challenge is part of the experience in Alien: Isolation.
In space no one can hear you scream, but I am sure the neighbours heard me screaming in terror while I played this game. I am both excited and afraid to finally get my hands on the sequel after all these years. Alien: Isolation is certainly not a 5.9. It is one of horror gaming’s greatest terrors.
Back in 2014, I was a day one Until Dawn player. The idea of my decisions shaping which characters lived and died in a horror setting was quite appealing to me, and the game more than lived up to expectations. Since then, Supermassive has released many games in the same vein, from The Dark Pictures Anthology, to The Quarry. Despite this, none of these games have quite lived up to the game that started it all. There was even a remake of Until Dawn by a different studio a few years back, but that also paled in comparison. Nevertheless, I was quite excited to play the latest installment Directive 8020, because it seemed like it would be Supermassive’s version of John Carpenter’s The Thing, one of my favorite horror movies.
Directive 8020 certainly gives the same vibes as that masterpiece of a film.
After finishing it, I would say that Directive 8020 presents interesting choices to go along with that vibe, but also some rather tiresome gameplay. Set in the far future, where Earth is dying, the story follows the crew of the Cassiopea, who have been sent to survey a distant planet which is humanity’s last hope for survival. However, along the way, the ship is struck by an asteroid carrying an unwanted visitor. From there, your choices shape the narrative across eight chapters, determining who among the crew lives and dies. This crew consists of the five playable characters Young (Lashana Lynch), Stafford (Danny Sapani), Eisle (Lotte Verbeek), Cooper (Anna Leong Brophy), and Cernan (Philip Arditti), along with a few other characters, who are all standard enough as the cast. I liked and wanted to save them, although there was nobody I was overly attached to.
The cast gets the job done.
The story is a bit of a slow burn, with the intensity only really kicking off in the last three chapters. As for certain twist and turns the story takes, I found them riveting, both narratively and thematically. I actually started a second playthrough immediately after my first so I could see the foreshadowing for these twists. I also did it so I could try to save everyone, as I got two of the five playable characters killed on my first playthrough due to my choices. The choices are not the only thing that can lead to character deaths because there are also the quick time events, which are incredibly easy to mess up on the hardest difficulty.
You have to be incredibly lucky or quick to not get at least one character killed by missing a quick time event in the final chapter on hard mode.
Directive 8020’s gameplay is not just limited to quick time events for there are also stealth sections in the game, although, by the final mission, I really wished there were not. These segments are extremely simplistic, with the enemies following scripted pathways and being incredibly easy to avoid. The stealth mechanics are also practically identical from Episode One all the way to Episode Eight. This would not be too much of an issue if they did not repeat ad nauseam. I quickly grew tired of them and it makes the final few episodes quite the slog to get through when it is stealth section after stealth section.
Avoiding the game’s extraterrestrials gets old fast.
Overall, though, I would still say Directive 8020 is a solid experience. The characters are decent, and the story is well told with plenty of twists and turns, making a second playthrough to spot the foreshadowing worth it It still does not beat Until Dawn but at this point I think nothing will. I will just have to wait and see if the long awaited Until Dawn 2 can live up to the original’s status but, given that a different studio is also behind this game, I have my doubts.
I first got into Gooseworx’s The Amazing Digital Circus not long after Episode Four released. Since then, I have been there day one whenever an episode released on YouTube. So, of course when it was announced the final episode would be airing in theaters, I decided that would be where I first watched it. That being said, getting tickets was a bit of a hassle. First, I had to change screenings because I stupidly forgot I’d arranged to go out with family at that time, then that second screening got cancelled. In the end, the third attempt was the charm, and I managed to watch The Last Act in theaters. After much excitement, the question remained: Would this be a satisfying conclusion or a disappointing one? Well, I for one was satisfied with the ending, although it was certainly not without its disappointments.
Opinions seem to be divided on the The Amazing Digital Circus’ ending.
I will get my negatives out of the way first. One thing I was concerned about before watching the finale was Jax. He had been taking up a lot of screen time, to the point that other characters began to feel slightly neglected. So, when I saw Jax quite literally taking over the final episode’s posters, I was worried. If you shared this concern, you will probably be disappointed because, yes, the episode is mostly focused on Jax. That is not to say the story surrounding him is bad; just that I wish other characters got equal amount of screen time. I wanted the ensemble cast to shine in this finale, but it felt more like the Jax Show than The Amazing Digital Circus at times, with other characters having very little to do. This is especially the case for Kinger, who pretty much vanishes after the first ten minutes of the episode.
Kinger’s my favorite so it was a bit disappointing to see him get so little.
My second criticism is that certain scenes were executed in a confusing way. There were times where I could not tell if I was watching a flashback, a dream, or some bizarre alternate reality. But easily my biggest criticism is the abrupt change for a certain character in the third act of the episode. This change seemed really at odds with what came before and felt like it only happened because Gooseworx had a last-minute change of heart. I’m not saying that is what happened, just what it felt like watching the character’s transformation play out. I also want to mention a few of the things I was mixed on. There is a certain event that happens off screen, which I think we should have seen, and there is also a moment between Pomni and Jax which is by far the most uncomfortable The Amazing Digital Circus has made me. You will know the scene when you see it, trust me.
I thought Jax looked creepy in some of the marketing. After seeing The Last Act, this was definitely the point.
And now for my positives. For starters, I think Gooseworx absolutely delivered on the themes of this show. To paraphrase them, the main theme of The Amazing Digital Circus is to find meaning in a stagnant life. The finale delivers this message perfectly, resulting in the final minutes of the episode leaving me with a big smile on my face. I also got a bit emotional at times. One Jax scene even got me close to tearing up. I know I said I thought Jax took up too much screen time, but that is not to say what he got was all bad. I like how ambiguous a lot of it was, and how experimental his story got at times. And even though I wish the rest of the cast got more to do in the ending, they still had a few brief scenes which I liked. My favorite of these was a moment of friendship between Pomni and Ragatha at the beginning.
Said scene was probably my favorite between Pomni and Ragatha of the whole show.
Finally, the animation is expectedly fantastic. Once the episode airs on YouTube, it will be fun to compare it to the Pilot and see how the show’s success propelled its animation budget. So, overall, I would say the ending to The Amazing Digital Circus is satisfying, although flawed. It would probably end up on the lower end of an episode ranking, but that is only because the rest of the series is so great that I have very few criticisms of those episodes. And, yes, that does mean I will be ranking the episodes after the finale releases on YouTube. You can expect to see my spoiler thoughts on the ending there. Until then, know that I think the conclusion is worthy of the journey. The ending has its issues, but there are also many positives, primarily the nailing of the themes. Catch the final episode in theaters if you can.
I remember, years ago, I read a story where a character with mind control powers accidentally made one person fall in love with another. The author of the story bizarrely treated this like a good thing, with it being implied the brainwashed character would come to accept their out of nowhere “love.” Reading this sickened me because the character had a part of themselves erased and replaced with something forced upon them, and I was somehow supposed to see this as a positive thing. When watching the latest horror hit Obsession, I was reminded of this story but surprisingly not in a bad way. Not only does this movie treat its premise with the weight it deserves, but its main character felt like a representation of the misguided people who would write such a story.
Although initially sympathetic, the main character eventually reveals himself to be the real villain of the film.
Directed by Curry Barker, Obsession tells the story of Bear (Michael Johnston), an awkward and lonely man who has feelings for one of his best friends Nikki Freeman (Inde Navarrette). Too scared to confess his love for her, Bear instead makes a wish using a “One Wish Willow.” His wish? For Nikki to love him more than anyone else in the world. To his surprise, the wish works. Unfortunately, the violating nature of said wish corrupts Nikki to the point that her “love” for Bear ends with a trail of bodies.
This bloody end is Bear’s fault rather than Nikki’s though.
It would have been easy to make Bear a sympathetic protagonist, what with him being too timid to confess to the girl he has a crush on. Even the making of the wish itself could be forgiven, considering he did not expect it to actually work. However, as the film goes on, it becomes perfectly clear the titular obsession is not Nikki’s for Bear but Bear’s for Nikki. Whether it be ignoring countless red flags, brushing off the concerns of his friends, or just outright refusing the real Nikki’s wishes, Bear reveals himself to be a selfish and cowardly character by Obsession’s end. He would rather have the imaginary Nikki he has idealized in his mind than the real breathing woman with her own separate life from him which, again, is why he reminded me so much of the writer for that problematic story I mentioned at the beginning of this review.
If Nikki had been less crazy after the wish, Bear would have been 100% okay with continuing the “relationship.”
In contrast to Bear’s villainy, Nikki is the real victim of the movie, with the temporary moments when her real self breaks free from the wish being particularly heartbreaking. That is not to say she isn’t completely terrifying when “Freaky Nikki” is in control because she absolutely is. Inde Navarrette gives an incredible performance as Nikki in both her terrifying and sympathetic moments. The way she moves and is depicted with the lighting and editing is also masterful. Director Curry Barker and cinematographer Taylor Clemons deserve all the praise in the world for how they shot this movie. Bear’s terrified reactions to Nikki’s movements and actions reflect our own as the audience (still does not redeem him even slightly though).
I have heard a lot of Oscar buzz among audience members for Inde Navarrette’s performance. It might seem unlikely but, given that Amy Madigan (rightfully) won for her performance in Weapons, anything is possible.
Speaking of Bear and Nikki, their actors’ chemistry is practically nonexistent, which is perfect for the film. It creates so many awkward moments, which blends well with the film’s humor and horror. I burst out laughing and jumped in my seat many times when watching this, often within minutes of each other. All of this built up to the adrenaline dump of an ending where all we can do in the moment is linger in the aftermath of all this chaos and wonder what happens next.
The characters’ disturbed reactions in this scene mimics the audience’s by the film’s end.
Overall, Obsession is a masterful horror film. Its performances are incredible, it is both funny and scary, and it delivers on themes of projection, codependency and, well… obsession obviously. I am definitely seated for Curry Barker’s next film after this one.
THE REVIEW MONSTER 