Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection Review: A Mixed Bag Just Like the Show.

I have mixed feelings about Code Geass.
On the one hand it has instances of brilliant writing, on the other hand it has instances of pretty terrible writing.
That said, it does have an incredible ending that makes a follow up extremely difficult to pull off.
In order to solve this problem, director Gorō Taniguchi decided to set this story in an alternate universe with a few minor changes to the original story… with mixed results as expected.

lelouch meboy — The film has as many positives as it does negatives, just like the original anime.

Lelouch of the Re;surrection is set one year after Lelouch’s sacrifice during the Zero Requiem.
A revived Lelouch (Japanese Jun Fukuyama, English Johnny Yong Bosh) is under the care of C.C (Yukana and Kate Higgins) when his sister Nunnally (Kaori Nazuka and Rebecca Forstadt) and good friend Suzaku (Takahiro Sakura and Yuri Lowenthal) are kidnapped by the enemy nation of Zilkhistan.
Now C.C and the Black Knights must find a way to bring Lelouch back to his former self so he can rescue the two and defeat Zilkhistan.
The film is well voice acted, animated and scored, with some great action sequences throughout.
Along with this, the writing is occasionally great just like how it is occasionally great in the show.
Lelouch and C.C are definitely the highlights, with their relationship having a fantastic arc that ended the film well.

The way *Lelouch of the Re;surrection* ends with Lelouch and C.C’s relationship is genuinely touching.

It was a lot of fun to see the man of miracles at work again, defeating his enemies using his brilliant tactics.
In particular, one prison sequence where Lelouch got to show off his skills is a terrifically fun sequence.
And then there’s the villains of the film who, while they are not really interesting characters, do have an interesting motivation.
Their actions show the consequences of the Zero Requiem in a way that was believable and understandable.
Although, this does undermine the authenticity of the original ending somewhat.
Unfortunately, the issues of Lelouch of the Re;surrection don’t end there.
For starters, the changes to this story with the alternate universe don’t really have a point.
Take Shirley (Fumiko Orikasa and Amy Kincaid) for example.
She is brought back to life and the reason for this was so that she could sneak Lelouch’s body to C.C but this doesn’t really make any sense considering Shirley doesn’t have the skills to smuggle Lelouch’s body out.

It felt like Shirley was kept alive just because the writer wanted her to be rather than there being a legitimate reason.

Not only this but a lot of the characters seem to forget Lelouch’s actions in the parts of the original story that are still canon.
Cornelia, weirdly enough, seems to be not as angry about Lelouch, you know, using his Geass on her sister Euphemia and then killing her.
Also, Oghi does something in this film that comes out of nowhere and feels really out of character.
And then there’s the problems with the original series that is carried over, chief among these being fan service.
Now, there is nothing wrong with fan service but does it have to come during these big emotional moments?
I can’t get invested in a scene where C.C encourages Lelouch during a dire moment if the shot spends so much time focusing on her private parts.
It makes these scenes comical rather than emotional.
Still, despite these problems, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection is a good film.
It does have occasional moments of brilliance, even if they are bogged down by problems, both old ones from the original show and new ones entirely.

Bodyguard Review: An Adrenaline Shot of a Show.

I’m not sure I have any nails left to bite through after finally watching Bodyguard.
In all seriousness, this political thriller, created and written by Jed Mercurio, and directed by Thomas Vincent and John Strickland, is the epitome of anxiety inducing.
The show follows traumatized war veteran, now police sergeant, David Budd (Richard Madden) who is assigned to protect the controversial Secretary of State, Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes).
However, after Budd joins Montague’s detail, acts of terrorism against the both of them begin to occur, raising suspicions of not just a government conspiracy but also suspicions against Budd himself.
Bodyguard is an intense experience from start to finish with terrific performances, especially from Madden who you quickly come to sympathize with as Budd.

madden — Madden plays Budd perfectly, portraying both the calm and collected soldier and the traumatized war veteran.

It is not just him though because everyone in the cast does an amazing job and, given how good the show is at making you care about its characters, it makes the scenes where they are in danger all the more suspenseful.
Speaking of these scenes, Bodyguard has some of the most heart attack creating moments I have seen in a good long while.
The first scene of the very first episode lets you know what you’re in for with an absolutely gripping opening.
This is followed by shocking moments topped by even more shocking moments as the episodes go on.

sniper — Just when you think this show has surprised you as much as it can, it presents another jaw dropping moment.

What makes it even better is how usually unexpected these scenes are.
For example, I knew coming into the show that there would be an intense scene with a sniper because everyone was talking about it when it aired.
I remember watching the show, wondering if it would happen at a particular point and then thinking, no, it couldn’t happen now.
Well, guess who was wrong?
I must have jumped a foot in the air when that scene started and I was gripping the arm rest of my chair in the absolutely terrifying minutes that followed.
And then there’s the final episode, which, instead of having a suspenseful scene that went on for a few minutes, stretched it out for most of the episode’s duration in some truly sweat inducing minutes.

shocking — Episode six had me almost tearing my hair out because of how intense it was.

In the end, the show wraps up most of its mysteries well, with plenty of foreshadowing to pick up on throughout the series.
Bodyguard is a series that will make you shake with worry and I think the best way to describe it would be like an adrenaline shot.

Tales From Earthsea Review: Studio Ghibli’s Weakest Film?

After watching Goro Miyazaki’s Tales From Earthsea, I went online to try and find out what had happened during this movie.
What I found was that many considered this film to be the weakest of all the Studio Ghibli films, which honestly does not surprise me.
Based off the book series by Ursula K. Le Guin, Tales From Earthsea is a slow, confusing film that left me with multiple questions but not in a good way.
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki’s son, the film follows disgraced prince Arren (Junichi Okada) who encounters a wizard named Sparrowhawk (Bunta Sugawara), who reminded me a lot of Lord Yupa from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
The film then aimlessly follows these two characters, both of which have little to no agency.

sparrowhawk and arren — Arren has no goal for the majority of the film. Shadowhawk does but this just results in him wandering around until he conveniently finds where he is supposed to go.

This lack of agency eventually results in them taking refuge with Sparrowhawk’s old friend Tenar (Jun Fubuki) and the girl in her care Therru (Aoi Teshima).
Oh, and there’s an evil wizard who wants eternal life that is thrown in there for good measure (Yūko Tanaka).
In all seriousness, I spent an incredibly large portion of the film wondering what the plot of Tales From Earthsea was.
As I said, the characters have little to no agency.
They just spend the majority of the film on a farm talking before the plot suddenly propels them into a confusing finale that left me baffled.
There’s this weird thing about characters having two names and an even weirder dragon scene that isn’t explained.
I had absolutely no idea what was going on during the ending.

Therra something — The third act of this film is confusing, raising way more questions than it answers.

Not only this but some of the characters’ actions make no sense or are not explained.
Probably the worst case of this is our hero Arren.
A terrible act he commits at the beginning of the film is not explained well and it leads to some weird spiritual thing happening within him that feels entirely lacking in substance.
Also, why was Arren a prince anyway?
That had no significance whatsoever.

I’m not going to act like the film is completely terrible though.
Even though a lot of the animation is average, there are a couple of stunning shots here and there.
I also found myself liking Shadowhawk’s character, with one great scene where he uses his magic being very funny.
Overall though, Tales From Earthsea is a confusing film with mostly uncompelling characters and an aimless plot that left me scratching my head.
I have to agree with the majority of people in saying that this is Studio Ghibli’s weakest film.

Attack on Titan Chapter 130, Dawn for Humanity Review: The Devil Brings the Apocalypse.

You know, it’s funny how I keep predicting how the story of Attack on Titan will go only for the next chapter to immediately prove me wrong.
In my predictions post for Chapter 130, “Dawn for Humanity”, I predicted that Historia would not be shown again until the end of the story.
So, imagine my complete surprise and happiness when I saw a spoiler that she would appear in a flashback this chapter.
As soon as I saw that spoiler, I immediately went offline so I wouldn’t accidentally get spoiled again and could experience the chapter for myself.
And boy was it an experience.
“Dawn for Humanity” is definitely in my top 10 favourite chapters of the entire manga, which is surprising considering how short it is.
This shortness is due to the final scene of the chapter that is full of constant glorious, yet horrifying double spread panels of the Rumbling arriving and laying waste to Marley.
My jaw was on the floor throughout this entire scene, with these panels being the best artwork Hajime Isayama has ever delivered.
He certainly has come a long way from his wonky artwork at the start of the manga.
Seriously, these panels just made the Rumbling so much more horrifying, with the Colossal Titans swimming under the best ships in the world’s navy and blowing them apart with steam.
Following this, is the terrifying shot of the Titan’s silhouettes as they emerge from the ocean.
Then, as the Marleyan soldiers flee, Isayama finally gifts us with the visual we have been waiting seven chapters for, a full view of Eren’s gigantic Titan.
And it. Is. Horrifying.
My first thought when I saw Eren like this was that he looked like the devil, which may have more significance later on.
The shot of his monstrous face with a soldier yelling that it’s the Attack Titan is chilling and I cannot wait for it to be animated.
I can already imagine this epic reveal with the cry of, “Shingeki No Kyojin!” when this is adapted.
Although, I do feel sorry for the poor souls who have to animate this moment because it is going to be incredibly time consuming and difficult.
Fingers crossed that Studio Mappa can pull it off.
Another interesting feature is the strings that seem to be holding up part of Eren’s Titan form from the spine.
This makes him look kind of like a marionette, which raises questions about Isayama symbolically portraying Eren as not free.
In any case, I have absolutely no clue how the alliance can even hope to stop Eren at this point.
He is the literal devil and commands millions of Colossal Titans.
He’s practically unbeatable.
Also, there’s no longer any hope of there being a Code Geass ending, not that I wanted one.
The Rumbling has reached Marley and Eren’s genocide has begun.
There is no coming back from this.
Speaking of the alliance though, we get a brief scene of them this chapter, which has some fantastic character development for Annie.
The horrified look on her face when she realizes they can’t save Liberio, and that her father is most likely dead, is striking because it is the most emotion she has ever shown.
Her tearful confession that she doesn’t want to kill the 104th or Eren anymore is just as tragic and her deciding to leave the alliance because of these things makes me wonder what Isayama has planned for her in the future.
From here, we go into Eren’s flashbacks, before the reveal of the Rumbling, and they are filled with tonnes of interesting information.
The most important of these is obviously the Historia flashback because of its implications.
The scene between her and Eren is frustratingly vague but intentionally so.
Historia is revealed to be against Eren’s decision to destroy the world but seems to reach some kind of deal with him by deciding to have a child.
A representation of Historia’s childhood story book where Christa made a deal with the devil perhaps?
Whether this is the case or not, Historia asking Eren what he would think about her having a child practically screams to me that Eren is the father of her baby.
Not only this but when Zeke confirms that Mikasa most likely loves Eren, it is revealed that Eren is thinking of Historia in this moment.
However, despite this seeming to show Eren has a stronger connection to Historia and is most likely the father of her child, there is still evidence for the Eren and Mikasa ship.
As I said, Zeke suspects that Mikasa is in love with Eren, confirming that what Eren said about Mikasa only following him because of her Ackermann instincts is a steaming pile of Titan poop.
This most likely means that everything he told Mikasa and Armin in Chapter 112 was a lie meant to protect them by distancing themselves from him.
So, Mikasa being revealed to possibly be in love with Eren for real does raise the possibility of their ship potential.
Sure, Eren does say he doesn’t have time for anything like that because he only has four years left to live but this is back when he lied to Zeke practically every sentence so we should take what he says here with a pinch of salt.
Therefore, even though I am in favor of Eren being the father of Historia’s child because of its thematic weight, especially if the child turns out to be the reincarnation of Ymir Fritz, I can admit that there are some hints to Mikasa ending up with Eren too.
I think we can all agree though that, if any ship turns out to be canon, the last thing we want is another Tokyo Ghoul situation where people whose ship didn’t become canon send death threats to the author.
No matter what happens, lets be respectful guys.
Back to the chapter, other highlights of Eren’s flashbacks include a memory shard of the fez kid being assaulted, revealing that there will be a future flashback between Eren and him, and a flashback of Floch listening in to Eren’s conversation with Yelena.
This leads to Eren tasking Floch with pretending to support Yelena and Zeke so they can start the Rumbling and destroy the world.
What is particularly interesting about this moment is Floch’s reaction to Eren’s plan.
He looks shocked and maybe even a little horrified.
I would love to know what was going through Floch’s head at this moment.
If he does turn out to be alive then I hope we get a POV moment from him where he reflects on how he got to the cruel point he is now.
However, it is with this Floch flashback that I have to take issue because Eren describes the people he intends to kill as “animals.”
This not only makes him pretty unsympathetic but also makes no sense because he confirms he knows there are innocent people to Historia in the very next scene.
And speaking of that scene, there is another problem with the dialogue because Eren says that the Military Police plan to feed Zeke to Historia now that he is on Paradis.
Yet, going by the timeline, this conversation takes place months before Zeke arrived on the island.
All of that said though, I cannot fault the chapter for these dialogue problems because they are not Hajime Isayama’s problem but the translators’.
Not only do they make a mistake with translating in relation to the timeline but also with the “animals” line because, looking into it, I found that it wasn’t quite an accurate translation and that they most likely went overboard with it.
I hope they can do a better job with the translations next chapter.
Overall though, “Dawn for Humanity” was a phenomenal Attack on Titan chapter.
It delivered some great character development for Annie, finally brought back Historia, and gifted us with one of the most gloriously horrifying moments of the entire manga.

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas Review: Expectedly Tragic Yet Unexpectedly Tragic.

Admit it, when you first heard the title I Want to Eat Your Pancreas you instantly thought this would be some kind of weird fetish anime.
If you did think that, I don’t blame you because that’s what I thought it would be as well, and I questioned why the anime club I belonged to would watch such a thing.
Well, in 108 minutes the film turned the title of I Want To Eat Your Pancreas from cringe inducing to one laced with tragedy but not the kind of tragedy you expect.
Directed by Shin’ichirō Ushijima and based off the novel by Yoru Sumino, the film follows a high school loner (Mahiro Takasugi) who learns that a girl from his class Sakura (Lynn) is suffering from an illness that will eventually kill her.
Initially wanting nothing to do with her, Sakura quickly worms her way into his life, befriending him and slowly teaching him about the beauty in life.

Sakura practically drags our main character kicking and screaming into friendship.

The bond between these two is genuinely sweet, yet filled with dread because you know any chance of romance between the two can only end in an expected tragedy.
Yet, somehow, I Want to Eat Your Pancreas succeeds in making the tragedy unexpected as well, delivering a shocking twist that literally had me screaming “WHAT!?” when I first saw it.
This twist was a stroke of tragic genius on the writer’s part, delivering a gut punch that left me and many others viewing the film reeling, causing quite a few of us to tear up.

sakura — Prepare to cry when watching the film.

With solid animation and music, this all combines to create an emotional experience that I was not expecting going in.
Watch I Want to Eat Your Pancreas.
You expect one tragedy but end up with another one entirely.

The Wind Rises Review: An Inspirational Dream.

Hayao Miyazaki intended to finish his directing career with his 2013 animated film The Wind Rises.
Now, while Miyazaki is actually returning to direct another film soon, this would have been a great way for him to finish because The Wind Rises is easily one of my favourite of his movies, alongside Princess Mononoke.
The film tells a fictionalized version of the life of Jiro Horikoshi (Hideaki Anno), a plane designer during the second world war.
However, despite Jiro being a wartime plane designer, the film does not focus on this.
Instead, Miyazaki chooses to focus on Jiro’s life, his passions, his dreams, and his relationship with the love of his life Naoko (Miori Takimoto).

jiro and naoko — The way the film focuses on Jiro’s life, especially his relationship with Naoko is really well done.

This could have easily ended badly, with the film sweeping what Jiro’s planes were used for during the war under the rug.
Thankfully, this is not the route Miyazaki took as the planes’ use in war is fully acknowledged, yet Jiro’s success in making his “beautiful dream” into a reality is also portrayed as a departure from this.
It is also in these dreams that we see Jiro interacting with his hero and inspiration, Giovanni Battista Caproni (Nomura Mansai).
The bond Jiro has with his mentor, even if this bond is only his head, is very touching, with Caproni delivering many inspirational lines.

The Wind Rises — Jiro’s bond with his dream version of Caproni leads to many touching and meaningful quotes.

Just as touching is Jiro’s relationship with Naoko and the struggles they experience with her illness.
This creates a moving ending that is tear inducing and leaves you sad yet satisfied.
Other great aspects about The Wind Rises include its animation, sound design, and score.
Being a Studio Ghibli film, the animation is once again stellar but it is the sound design and score that really drew my attention upon watching it.
A lot of the sound effects are actually created vocally, with people making the sound for planes and other features.
This could have easily come off as silly but it somehow works completely.

The decision to have people make the sounds of the planes was a stroke of genius on Miyazaki’s part.

And then there is the score by Joe Hisashi which, along with his score from Princess Mononoke, may be my favourite score in any Studio Ghibli film.
The Wind Rises is a fantastic film and one of Hayaok Miyazaki’s best.
I am truly glad he is returning to direct his new film How Do You Live?
The Wind Rises is an emotionally compelling film with a great story, animation, soun design score, and some inspirational quotes like, “The wind is rising. We must try to live.”

The Last of Us Part Two Review: Fantastic Gameplay Ruined by an Atrocious Story.

When I reviewed my favourite video game of all time, The Last of Us, I said that, whether I loved, hated, or had mixed feelings about the sequel, I would always find myself returning to the original game because of how incredible it is.
While that is still true, whenever I do replay the game I will have to pretend that The Last of Us Part 2 never happened.
Seriously, what the hell happened with this game?
The graphics and gameplay are amazing, as expected, but the story is absolutely god awful, literally spitting in the face of Joel (Troy Baker) and Ellie’s (Ashley Johnson) relationship.
Before I get into the onslaught of terrible things about this game’s story, I’ll mention the great stuff first.
As I said, graphics and gameplay are near perfect.
There were numerous times where I was hating the story and was thankfully distracted by beautiful scenery or an amazing action sequence.
Crafting was well handled once more and I liked the more personal touch to enemies that made them feel like real people when I fought them.
The new kinds of infected are great to fight, especially the one that was teased but not revealed in the State of Play presentation.
Other amazing set pieces see you fighting through a burning village and a car chase, both of which are thrilling.

I can at least say that the gameplay of *The Last of Us Part 2* is good.

Along with this, Gustavao Santaolalla’s score is amazing, again as expected.
As for the story, there are a couple things I like about it.
Some of the new characters like Dina (Shannon Woodward), Jesse (Stephen Chang), Yara (Victoria Grace) and Lev (Ian Alexander) are likeable.
Not to the extent that the characters from the first game are but they are enjoyable for the most part.
Also, some of the scenes during Ellie’s initial revenge quest are very compelling.
Then there are the flashbacks to Ellie and Joel’s time in Jackson, which are the best parts of the game by far.
However, the rest of the story is absolutely horrible.
Written by Neil Druckmann and Haley Gross, the story sees Joel and Ellie living in the town of Jackson.
After an act of extreme violence, Ellie leave for Seattle to seek her revenge, as the writers try to create a message about the cycle of violence.
Sadly, this is a message that falls flat over on its face.
The ending to this game makes no sense whatsoever and completely derails any notion of vengeance being a bad idea, which is what the story was trying to say.

ellie should have killed abby — *The Last of Us Part 2* does a terrible job at trying to tell a story about revenge.

The build up to this ending is just as bad, with the inciting incident that causes Ellie to seek vengeance being driven by poor character decisions and feels like it was done for shock value.
A large part of why The Last of Us Part 2’s story is so bad though comes down to one, individual word.
Abby.
Played by Laura Bailey, she is the mystery woman from the trailer that introduced the Seraphites and she is, in my opinion, the worst video game character of all time.
She is completely unlikable in every sense of the word.
Naughty Dog tries to make you sympathize with her but every attempt fails spectacularly.
The story follows both her and Ellie’s struggles with revenge and the damage it causes but Abby never shows any remorse or regret for her actions, unlike Ellie.
She came across as a complete psychopath at times, making her almost impossible to care for, yet the writers try so hard to make you do so, which fails entirely.

fuck abby — I honestly cannot remember the last time I hated a character as much as I hate Abby.

Given that she is the most important character in the game next to Ellie, this is a huge problem and that problem culminates in a boss fight before the third act of the game that left me feeling insulted.
Not to mention that the game’s trailers misled and lied to us on multiple occasions.
The Last of Us Part 2’s story is just atrocious.
The game spits in the face of Ellie and Joel’s bond, the characters’ decisions make no sense, the inciting incident is not justified, Abby is an unbelievably terrible character, and the ending completely undoes any message they were trying to create.
The graphics and gameplay may have been amazing, and some story elements may have been good, but the majority of the story is so bad to the point that I never want to play this game again.

Toy Story 4 Review: Four Installments in, Still Going Strong (Reposted).

I can honestly not think of a single film series where there have been four fantastic installments in a row, except Toy Story.
Before seeing the most recent of them, I, like many, was concerned about where the story would go.
Toy Story 3 felt like a perfect sendoff for the franchise so I was concerned that they were just doing another one for a cash grab.
I was wrong, however, because Toy Story 4 is another heart warming installment in the series with great character growth, animation and laughs.

animation toy story.jpg — *Toy Story 4* delivers a strong story with the best animation out of all the films by a wide margin.

Directed by Josh Cooley, the film follows Woody (Tom Hanks) who is still dealing with the departure of Andy in the previous film pretty heavily.
When his new kid, Bonnie, literally makes a toy out of a spork, which she names Forky (Tony Hale), Woody makes it his mission to protect him to ensure her happiness.
However, this becomes difficult when Forky is separated from them on a family trip and, upon looking for him, Woody is reunited with the long lost Bo Peep (Annie Potts), who has certainly changed a lot since Woody, and the audience, saw her.

Woody and Bo Peep’s relationship is at the center of the story, being a key part to Woody’s character arc.

The two then work together to rescue Forky and bring him back to Bonnie, before she and her family leave them behind.
Accompanying this story is, once again, the animation and comedy, which are all spot on.
Animation continues to get better and better every year, and it looks especially stunning in Toy Story 4.
Along with this, the comedy is also fantastic with new characters Ducky and Bunny (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele), and Duke Caboom (Keeanu Reeves) being particular highlights.

Ducky and Bunny.jpg — Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele are hilarious as Ducky and Bunny, especially during the plush rush scene, which is more than the trailers make it out to be.

It is with the character development of Woody, though, that the film truly shines, with Woody having what is probably his best arc out of any of the films.
Many of the new characters have great arcs as well, including the film’s villain (if you can even call her that) Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks).
However, this also ties into the one issue I have with the film.
This being that, even though Woody, Bo, and other characters’ arcs are fantastic, characters like Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and many more of Woody’s friends feel a bit underdeveloped and underused.
Otherwise, Toy Story 4 is another great installment in the franchise, and it will be interesting to see if it continues or if this is the final one for real this time.

The Last of Us Remastered Review: My Favorite Video Game of All Time.

Naughty Dog is one of, if not my absolute, favourite video game studios.
The first game I played on the PlayStation 3 was Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and I have kept up with that brilliant series as it has continued over the years.
But, I think we can all agree that Naughty Dog’s undisputed masterpiece is their 2013 game The Last of Us, created by Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, which was remastered for the PlayStation 4.
The tale of Joel and Ellie travelling across a post-apocalyptic America is the height of video game storytelling, with many emotional and heart bounding scenes.
There were numerous times I cried during my first play through, even in the first 20 minutes, which is something no video game has ever done for me.
Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson both give enthralling performances as the two lead characters, with the game following their growing father-daughter bond in both its positive and negative consequences for the two.
This culminates in an ending that is so morally ambiguous that it makes the simple line of “Okay” crushing.

okay — The ending of *The Last of Us* leaves you conflicted but that’s what’s so great about it.

It is not just Joel and Ellie though because almost every other character is exceptionally written.
From Joel’s partner in crime Tess (Annie Wersching), to his estranged brother Tommy (Jeffrey Pierce), to the paranoid Bill (W. Earl Brown), to brothers Henry (Brandon Scott) and Sam (Nadji Jeter), and many more, the characters of The Last of Us are some of the best in video game history, with Joel and Ellie right at the top.
The story accompanying these characters is also enthralling, which shows how amazing the writing is because the story could have easily become very cliched.
There are so many zombie games out there, many with save the world plot lines, so it would have been easy for The Last of Us’ story to fall into this cycle of mediocrity.
However, with the game focusing on the fantastic growing relationship of its two leads, and having a new type of zombie never seen before, the game jumps over the mediocrity scale by a wide margin and leaving it completely in the dust.
Having the source of the infection be the very real Cordecyeps Fungus was a stroke of genius and it makes for some incredibly scary enemies to fight.
Speaking of, the gameplay in The Last of Us is also amazing and accompanies the brutal story well with its likewise brutal conflict.
Fighting Clickers, Runners, Stalkers, and Bloaters throughout is a constant nerve wracking experience.

clickers — The Clickers are one of the most terrifying renditions of zombies ever put to screen, be it a movie or video game.

This culminates in a flooded basement segment some time into the game that is absolutely terrifying the first time you play it.
But it is not just the infected that you have to worry about because people are even more dangerous and, whether you go in using stealth or go guns blazing, it is almost always an intense experience trying to take them out.
Although, it is probably best not to go in all guns blazing on Grounded Mode because, if you try to do that, you will die… a lot.
Seriously, Grounded is an incredibly difficult mode to beat the game on.
I must have died around 100 times in the final, brutal combat sequence of the game.
What makes the combat of The Last of Us so satisfying though is its intensity.
You can just feel every punch that Joel dishes out.
Also, when you play as Ellie during the winter segment, which is my favourite level of the game, she is realistically much weaker than Joel, making gameplay a lot harder, as you have to think of new ways to get around or kill enemies.

ellie and joel baby girl — The Winter segment is gripping, with its emotional conclusion being a turning point in Joel and Ellie’s relationship, and the point where their personalities flip.

Helping the intensity of the combat is the reward of it you feel from scavenging and then crafting from various materials, creating Molotov cocktails, nail bombs, smoke bombs, and med kits to help you throughout the game.
The supplies needed to make these things are also fairly spread around throughout, adjusting the quantity based on the level of difficulty you are playing at.
Upgrading your weapons is also fairly handled, based on how much you scavenge as well.
Materials to build weapons is not the only thing you can find scavenging though, because there are also various notes and pieces of information that create side stories about people trying to survive in the outbreak.
One of these stories is about Ish, who I didn’t find much about on my first play through but on subsequent ones, where I made sure to scavenge, he became a very fleshed out character, even though we don’t meet him in person.
Accompanying this fantastic level of story telling and gameplay is the incredible soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolla, who deserves just as much praise as Druckmann, Straley, and the rest of the creators for adding to the game.

walk in the woods1 — Santaolla does an incredible job with the music for the game and I cannot wait to hear his soundtrack for the sequel.

All of this combines to make The Last of Us an emotionally intense experience that is, without a doubt, my favourite video game of all time.
Accompanying this masterpiece in the Remastered addition is the DLC, Left Behind, which mostly details the last happy moments shared between Ellie and her best friend Riley.
Just like the main game, Left Behind is fantastic and a worthy addition to the story.
So, as you can expect, I am incredibly excited for the sequel, which will be released tomorrow.
Unfortunately, a lot of story details were leaked about the game and I accidentally stumbled across one of these spoilers the other day.
I don’t know if what I saw is true or not but, even if it is, I won’t allow it to taint my experience of the game.
And whether I end up loving, hating, or even having mixed feelings about the sequel, The Last of Us will remain an incredible experience for me that I will constantly find myself replaying for many years to come.

Ponyo Review: Miyazaki’s The Little Mermaid.

Have you ever wondered how Disney films would be if they were turned into anime?
Well, wonder no longer because Hayao Miyazaki’s 2008 film, Ponyo, is basically an anime version of The Little Mermaid.
Okay, in all honesty that’s probably simplifying things a little to much because, despite reminding me of The Little Mermaid, with its similar plot, the two films are very different.
Miyazaki’s film follows the titular Ponyo (Yuria Nara), a goldfish that is the daughter of a sea wizard (George Tokoro) and a sea goddess (Yūki Amami), who runs away from her overbearing father, only to be rescued by a five-year-old boy, Sōsuke (Hiroki Doi).
Upon being taken away by her father, Ponyo decides she wants to stay with Sōsuke so uses magic to transform herself into a human and goes to live with him.
And this is where The Little Mermaid similarities end, as Ponyo then follows the effect her decision has on Sōsuke’s seaside town, although not enough in my opinion.
This is one of my problems with Ponyo as it makes a point to depict what happens because of her going to live with Sōsuke but kind of ignores the consequences.
If this had happened in real life it would have been disastrous but the characters all act like it is just an everyday occurrence.

pony becomes human real — How nobody ended up dying in a tsunami Ponyo causes is a mystery to me.

It was also not made very clear why some of the apparently world ending stuff was about to happen because of Ponyo’s decision.
Also, everyone in the film seems oddly accepting of her once being a fish.
I know this film is primarily directed towards children but these plot holes and inconsistencies really bothered me while watching it.
Still, these issues did not ruin the film because Ponyo is still a lot of fun.
The animation and music are great, as with all of Myazaki’s films and the characters are all likeable.

grouchy toki — There are a lot of fun side characters in *Ponyo* like the elderly Toki (Kazuko Yoshiyuki).

Ponyo is also really funny as well, with a few of the jokes that came towards the end leaving me in stitches.
I also liked the bond between Ponyo and Sōsuke, which was really sweet.
Overall, I would say Ponyo is the weakest Miyazaki film that I have seen so far.
However, this says a lot about the quality of his films, considering I still consider his weakest to be a good film.