Chainsaw Man Chapter 98, Bird and War Review: Chainsaw Man is Backaw!

Chainsaw Man is one of my favourite mangas and is written by my favourite mangaka, Tatsuki Fujimoto.
Therefore, I am obviously very excited for its anime adaptation and was even more excited for Part 2 of the manga, the first chapter of which just dropped.
Chapter 98, “Bird and War” was honestly not how I expected Chainsaw Man’s second part to begin but, given that this is Fujimoto we’re talking about here, I definitley should have.
A headless Chicken Devil named Bucky, who constantly makes terrible chicken puns, being used as an experiment to teach a highschool class about the sanctity of life is classic Fujimoto craziness.
The concept alone had me laughing hysterically right from the get go, and this was certainly not the last time I would be doing so when reading Chapter 98.
While every student in the class seems excited about spending time with Bucky, there is one exception, a loner girl named Asa Mitaka, the protaganist of the chapter.
Mitaka seems to despise everyone at her school, only tolerating the class president who makes an effort to befriend her.
It is when the two talk for the first time in the chapter that Fujimoto gives us a little bit of worldbuilding for the area they live in.
First, there is the bun the class president is eating, with the packaging it comes in reading, “Chainsaw Curry Man.”
This is a good bit of worldbuilding, showing the impact Denji’s popularity as Chainsaw Man has had an effect on Japan’s marketing companies.
The next bit of worldbuilding comes from Mitaka herself, who describes the city they live in as corrupt, with buildings being constructed illegally, a mayor with a DUI, along with Chainsaw Man himself.
This exposition is a little ham-fisted, since Mitaka is saying things that the class president would already know but it gets the information across to us readers well enough.
At the end of their conversation, the class president attempts to comfort Mitaka by saying that Bucky will be killed in 100 days, yet Mitaka wishes that both the Chicken Devil and Chainsaw Man would die sooner.
Mitaka’s hatred for Chainsaw Man is interesting when you look back and see the class talking about her parents being killed by a devil.
Does she hate Denji just by the assosciation of him being a devil, or does she hate him because her parents were killed in one of his big city fights?
Maybe her parents died in the fight with Reze and the Typhoon Devil, for example?
That’s just a theory for now, though.
Following the conversation between Mitaka and the class president, Fujimoto then delivers a montage of the 100 days the class spends with Bucky, growing closer and closer with him, while somehow tolerating his awful chicken puns.
Although, I suppose I did make just such a pun in the title of this review, so I shouldn’t be one to judge.
By the end of the 100 days, Mitaka is ready for Bucky to be killed, sporting a smug little grin, only for the class president to announce that everyone in the class has become attatched to Bucky and they now want him to live.
The teacher, Mr Tanaka, is overjoyed for his students, as he was hoping that they would come to this conclusion, now declaring that Bucky can live with their class and cancelling math so they can all go play soccer.
The entire class takes part, except for Mitaka, who Mr Tanaka and the class president attempt to coax into playing.
Surprisingly, it is Bucky who convinces Mitaka, jumping into her arms and asking her to come and play, by name.
This is the first time we hear Mitaka’s name in the story and it was a good call from Fujimoto to have this be the case, because it helped isolate us readers from her somewhat, until we learn with Mitaka that, despite her self isolation, she was jealous of the friendships everyone has.
Now feeling hopeful thanks to Bucky’s help, Mitaka holds him in her arms and walks towards her classmates, ready to come out of her shell and begin a new future at the school by making friends… only for her to trip and crush Bucky so hard that his intestines burst from his stomach, killing him.
Cue another burst of laughter from me at this classic use of dark comedy from Fujimoto.
Unfortunately, Mitaka accidentally crushing Bucky to death leads to her being isolated, only this isolation is no longer self-imposed.
Things start to look up, however, when Mr Tanaka and the class president come to take her to Bucky’s Grave to apologize for what happened togethor.
Clearly, Mr Tanaka and the class president are good people who will stand by Mitaka through thick and thin… right?
Well, actually, no, because it turns out that the class president is responsible for tripping Mitaka, causing her to kill Bucky, and has made a deal with the Justice Devil to kill her.
Why did she do this?
Because she was having sex with Tanaka but he wanted to pursue Mitaka, so she got jealous.
Yep, Mr Tanaka is a groomer and the class president only made friends with Mitaka because he asked her to so he could get close and, since then, she has become a devil possessed psycho.
I really like the way this creepy truth is exposed, with Tanaka agreeing with Mitaka that they should stop at red lights, clearly an attempt to begin grooming her in retrospect, and this causes the class president’s jealousy to explode, causing her to finally decide to kill Mitaka.
It is interesting to that the Justice Devil of all devils is the one to make a contract with the class president, since, in her mind, Mitaka deserves a punishment for “stealing” Tanaka away from her, when, in reality, Tanaka is at fault for being a creepy groomer.
However, despite liking the logic of the Justice Devil being the one to attack Mitaka, I will say that I think that its design is a little lacking.
This is not to say that it is badly drawn but most of the devils in Chainsaw Man have designs that perfectly reflect their name, like the Darkness Devil, for example.
The Justice Devil’s form doesn’t really seem to resemble justice in any way that I can see.
Although, maybe there is some meaning behind it that I’m not getting and, even if there isn’t, this is still a very minor gripe, nothing major.
One thing I can highly praise, though, is the amount of thought Fujimoto clearly put into the reveals of the class president and Tanaka because, if you go back and look at a lot of their actions earlier in the chapter, it takes a sinister turn.
The panel right before Mitaka trips obscures the class president from view and in the next panel she is standing right beside the fallen Mitaka, making it clear on rereads that it was in the prior panel where she was obscured when she tripped Mitaka.
Back to the present, as a mere human, Mitaka obviously stands no chance against the Justice Devil but, before she dies, we get a brief look at her thoughts on her life, as she realizes that she is not the only one who is jealous.
Everyone holds some jealously towards another person and, if she had just realized that sooner, she could have had a happy life, making friends and maybe even getting a boyfriend.
Oh, and accompanying these tragic thoughts is some of the most brutal gore we have seen in Chainsaw Man.
Seeing Mitaka’s face get torn apart in slow motion and the horrific aftermath was absolutley brutal.
Almost as brutal as what comes next as, in the instant before she dies, Mitaka sees a strange bird-like devil with the eyes of Makima watching over her from a stop sign.
The devil says that if she wants to live then her body is now its own.
Seemingly in an instant, Mitaka arises from death, now sporting a cool scar and marches over to Tanaka, deservedly decpitating him and sprouting a sword from his head, calling it the “Tanaka Spinal Cord Sword.”
There is already so much gore in Chainsaw Man‘s second part and I am all for it.
It only gets more brutal, as Mitaka announces herself as the War Devil, taking on the Justice Devil, cutting off its arm and transforming it into a hand grenade.
She then slices the Justice Devil in half, before throwing her Tanaka Spinal Cord Sword at her, prompting the class president still inside the Justice Devil to make out with the decapitated head.
I wonder if that’s an Attack on Titan reference?
In any case Mitaka declares this “a happy ending”, throwing the grenade over her shoulder, where it explodes, killing the Justice Devil, as Mitaka walks away in apparent slow motion in what is a clear omage to Fujimoto’s oneshot Goodbye Eri.
Speaking of which, Goodbye Eri is also amazing and if you have not read it yet then you definitley should.
“Bird and War” then ends with Mitaka seeing a poster for a Chainsaw Man Calling Party, and then, resting on the Justice Devil’s corpse, declaring, “Just you wait, Chainsaw Man! I’ll make you vomit nuclear weapons back up!”
This crazy final line from the War Devil controlling Mitaka perfectly spells out its motives, in my opinion.
During the final arc of Chainsaw Man Part One, Makima revealed that whenever the Chainsaw Devil eats another devil, it erases the memory of whatever that devil represented from everyone’s minds.
One of these devils that was killed, wiping its memory from humanity’s existance, was the Nuclear Weapons Devil.
Today, nuclear weapons are the thing we most fear when it comes to the terrible prospect of World War Three.
However, if nuclear weapons never existed, there would be less fear of war.
Not saying the fear would completley vanish, that would be stupid as war should always be feared, but it would be significantly less scary than it is now because without nuclear weapons there would not be a risk of destroying the entire world.
So, imagine the impact removing the memory of nuclear weapons would have had on the War Devil, knowing that devils are only as strong as humanity’s fear of what they represent.
It would have made the War Devil signficantly weaker.
This makes the War Devil’s motives abundantly clear, I think.
I believe that he deliberately took over Mitaka because of her hatred for Chainsaw Man, hoping to use her to kill him, potentially causing all of humanity to remember the fears that he killed, including nuclear weapons, thus returning the War Devil to its original power.
It will be interesting to see, if this theory is correct, how willing Mitaka is to go along with this plan.
We know she hates Chainsaw Man but there are some questions about why, as I have mentioned.
Not only this but we have to wonder how in control Mitaka was of her body when she made a contract with the War Devil.
It seems like the War Devil was completley in control when Mitaka killed the Justice Devil, so will she remember what happened when or if she takes control back and what will she think about her situation?
Would she be willing to kill Chainsaw Man if she knew it would increase the War Devil’s power and bring the world ending threat of nuclear weapons back?
I am intrigued to learn what she will think of all this in the coming chapters.
Another thing I am certain of though, along with the War Devil’s plan, is how Mitaka will attempt to track Chainsaw Man down.
She will do so by attending the Chainsaw Man Calling Party on the fifth of December, as the poster she looks at states.
We also know she and Denji will be at odds because of the promotional material we have got, with one piece showing Denji chainsawing Mitaka’s head open, while she glares at him in defiance.
Speaking of Denji himself, it is interesting to see that he is seemingly not the main character of Part Two.
I wonder what he has been up to, along with the other surviving character from Part One, like Kobeni, Kishibe, Nayuta and Yoshida?
Overall, Chapter 98 of Chainsaw Man “Bird and War” was an eggcelent start to Part Two… I know, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t resist the dumb chicken puns.
In all seriousness, I am incredibly impressed about how Fujimoto made me invested in Mitaka and her story in just a single chapter and I am excited to see where she goes as a character, whether as a protaganist or antaganist or anti-hero.
The chapter was so good that the only criticisms I have of it, those being some of the exposition delivery and the Justice Devil’s design, are so minor that they are barely an issue, showing how great this start was.
The future of Chainsaw Man is looking bright and I am looking forward to more crazy, gory and introspective scenes from Fujimoto

Thor: Love and Thunder Review: The Flanderization of Thor.

When Thor: Ragnarok came out, it was hailed as one of the best films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
While I did enjoy the film, I said in my review that is was overhyped and not quite the masterpiece it was being made out to be.
The reception to the sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder, is far more critical and, honestly, I think it is especially deserving of it.
I did still like the movie but the more I think about it, the more problems I have with it.
Directed by Taika Waititi, Thor: Love and Thunder sees the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth) go his separate ways from the Guardians of the Galaxy, after learning that multiple gods have been killed by a villain named Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale).
To stop him, Thor teams up with old friends from Ragnarok, Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (Waititi), and, most surprising of all, his ex-girlfriend, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who has somehow gained Thor’s ability to wield Mjolnir.

I liked the role Jane Foster played in this movie’s story.

The rekindling relationship between Thor and Jane is well written and acted, in my opinion, with it being my favourite part about both characters in this movie.
Unfortunately, it is one of the only good things about said characters, as most of them are flanderized to comedic extremes, especially Thor, who is portrayed as a giant idiot the entire movie, who seemingly forgot most of his character development in previous films.

Thor in *Love and Thunder* is like a dumber version of himself from the first movie before he had his character arc.

Despite my problems with Ragnarok, looking back, it did do a pretty good job of blending the humor with the serious scenes.
This is not the case with Love and Thunder, since it is entirely focused on constant jokes, only half of which made the audience I was watching the film with actually laugh.
It is especially jarring when the movie is dealing with subject matter that should be serious, yet it is played off for a bad joke.
These moments should have been played serious, like the scenes with Gorr, which are undoubtedly the best part of the film, mostly due to the characters’ writing and Bale’s fantastic performance.
That being said, for someone called “Gorr the God Butcher” Gorr hardly did any god butchering in this movie so he felt wasted.

Gorr really did not live up to his name of “The God Butcher.”

What ultimately saves the movie from these massive issues for me is that the action is mostly well executed, some character placement issues aside, and the ending is actually quite good.
I expected a deus ex machina to occur that would result in a completely happy ending without consequence for Thor, so I was pleasantly surprised when something else happened.
It was not enough to entirely save the movie because, as I have said, it still has a lot of issues, but it was enough for me to call Love and Thunder a fun time.
If you go into it expecting the film to take what happens seriously, it’s going to majorly fail for you, but if you go in expecting to turn your brain off and enjoy some action and maybe get a couple of laughs it will work.

Barry Review: One of the Best Shows on Television.

For a while now, I have heard constant praise about the show Barry, with plenty of people making comparisons to other amazing shows like Breaking Bad when refrencing it.
Knowing that the third season was about to be released, I decided to watch the first two seasons and then the third as it was airing and, after finishing Barry, I can say that all of the praise and comparisons to other fantastic series is definitely warranted.
Created by Bill Hader and Alec Berg, the show stars Hader as the titular character, Barry Berkman, a former marine turned hitman who feels lost in life.
After being sent to Los Angeles by his handler, Monroe Fuchs (Stephen Root), to kill a man for the Chechen Mafia, Barry finds himself being drawn into an acting class taught by disgraced actor Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler).
Barry comes to believe that he has found his calling, and tries to get out of the hitman business to pursue acting, with both hilarious and dark results, sometimes a mixture of the two.

The dark comedy of *Barry* can be both hilarious and terrifying.

Along with the dark comedy and excellent writing, what also keeps the show together is its stellar cast of characters.
Hader is incredible as Barry, making the hitman trying to be an actor someone I sympathised with while feeling guilty for doing so because of the absolutley horrible things he does.
Winkler is also amazing as Cousineau, a sympathetic mentor figure who probably bears the biggest loss for letting Barry into his life out of any of the main characters.

Seeing what Barry puts Cousineau through is some of the most tragic stuff in the whole show.

Fuchs is probably the scummiest character in the entire series, with his sociopathic manipulation of Barry and those closest to him to get what he wants.
Noho Hank (Anthony Carrigan) is the exact opposite of this; a somehow charming member of the Chechen Mafia, who I am so glad they did not kill off in the first episode, like they originally intended to do.
Last, but certainly not least, there is Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg), Barry’s acting classmate and later girlfriend, who maintains the trend of characters being flawed yet sympathetic excellently, with Goldberg delivering various fantastic monolgues.

One monologue from Sally in Season Two was so fantastic that I would have been rendered speechless had it not been for the following joke making me bust a gut laughing.

The situations all of these characters are placed in, and often cause in Barry’s case, are also darkly humorous, resulting in multiple masterpiece episodes, like “Loud, Fast and Keep Going”, “Know Your Truth”, “Ronny/Lily”, “Berkman > Block”, and “710N”.
The final episode of Season Three, “Starting Now” is a particularly intense ride, with Bill Hader stating he wanted the episode to feel like an anxiety attack.
He definitley succeeded in giving the episode this effect, with there being one scene that absolutley terrified me, not because of what we see but because of what we hear.

This is probably one of the best examples of sound being scarier than sight. I felt like Hank in this scene: Horrified and helpless.

The ending to “Starting Now” in particular surprised me because now I have absolutley no idea where Season Four is going to go, making me even more excited for it.
Barry is an absolute masterpiece of a show and, if its series finale lands correctly, whenever we do get the final season, it could very well stand alongside the likes of Breaking Bad as one of the greatest TV series of all time.

Stranger Things Season Four, Volume 2 Review: Epic Prelude to the Final Season.

In my review for the first volume for Stranger Things’ Fourth Season, I called it “one hell of a return,” and even stated that it “may be the best season of the show so far.”
Well, after watching Volume 2, I can now state that Season Four is definitely the best season of the show so far, at least in my opinion.
The final two episodes of the season, “Papa” and “The Piggyback”, made for an intense first-time watch, with “The Piggyback” making me grip the chair arm I was sitting by tightly for the entirety of its two and a half-hour runtime.

“Papa” and “The Piggyback” are both nerve wracking episodes with plenty of highlights.

Picking up from Episode Seven’s cliffhanger, Volume Two sees our various groups of characters preparing to take the fight to Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower).
In California, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) decides to engage in this fight prematuely to save her friends, which Dr Brenner (Mathew Modine) is against, unaware that Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will (Noah Schnapp), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Argyle (Eduardo Franco) are on their way to rescue her.
Back in Hawkins, Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Steve (Joe Keery), Robin (Maya Hawke), Eddie (Joseph Quinn), Dustin (Gaten Mazzaro), Max (Sadie Sink), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Erica (Priah Ferguson) prepare for their own fight with Vecna, initiating a complicated plan in the hopes of killing the monster.
Meanwhile, Hopper (David Harbour), Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Murray (Brett Gelman) attempt to escape Russia, before realizing they may have to deal with the Demogorgons connected to the Mind Flayer’s Hive Mind.

Almost every character has a part to play in Season Four’s epic conclusion.

These three storylines intersect as the plan to kill Vecna is put into action, with various excellent cases of editing connecting the characters in different locations together.
Speaking of these characters, there are so many standout moments from all of them, from Eleven confronting Brenner for his horrific actions, to Will’s confession to Mike through taking about Eleven, and Eddie and Dustin’s epic distraction that was teased so often in trailers.
The best scene by far, however, is the one I’ll call the “Running UpThat Hill” scene and leave it at that.
Just as Volume One’s best scene centered around the Kate Bush song, so does Volume 2’s.

It’s crazy how *Stranger Things* revitalized the song through using it in epic scenes twice for Season Four.

The aftermath of this scene even has some of the best acting of the entire series, with Caleb McLaughlin’s performance being so gut wrenching it brought me to tears.
This was not the only moment in Volume 2 to do this because there is another scene with Dustin that also had a similar effect on me.

There are a few scenes in the final episode that are tear inducing but McLaughlin’s scene takes the cake.

However, this is where my my one criticism of Volume 2 comes in and that is the character fates, some of them anyway.
A few of the saves characters get do feel a little too deus ex machina, though I do understand the Duffer Brother’s reasoning for making the saves happen.
I just think such moments could have been written a little better.
Otherwise, I would say that Volume 2 is excellently written, with so many scenes that made me feel tense, fearful, gut punched, overjoyed and extremely excited for what is to come in Season Five, which I think it has been said is the final season.
If it is indeed the last we get of Stranger Things, then I’m looking forward to it even more than I was previously because Iam now pretty confident that the Duffer Brothers can end this story right, after the greatness that was Season Four.

Spy x Family, Episode 12, Penguin Park Review: Wholesome and Funny Conclusion to the First Cour.

Rather than continue by explaining the previous episode’s cliffhanger of the dog’s vision of the Forger family, Episode 12 of Spy x Family, “Penguin Park”, is instead a filler episode.
While this might be disappointing for some, I do think it is for the best because the explanation about the dog comes with an entire story arc that would be better to be seen in its entirety, rather than just cut off right as it starts.
So, we will have to wait for the explanation in the second cour, three months from now.
As for the Tomoya Kitagawa directed episode “Penguin Park”, it does start a bit tediously because, while there is some new stuff, like the elderly agent giving Twilight new missions to take, it’s mostly just recapping Operation Strix, Anya’s telepathy, and Yor being the Thorn Princess, all of which we learned long ago.
Thankfully, the episode gets much better after this recap, as the true story of “Penguin Park” begins with Loid coming home exhausted, only to hear the neighbours gossiping about his late nights, believing him to be having an affair.
Wanting the image of his fake family to stay intact, Loid suggests a trip to the aquariam to Yor and Anya, hoping to complete all of his other missions before then so he will not be interrupted.
This causes him to look like an absolute wreck on the day of their trip, yet he pushes himself forward, wanting to maintain the Forger family’s image for his mission.
He projects his facade of a family man to the neighbours, only for Anya to humously almost squander it again, as she robotically states how everything about her family is normal.
Upon arriving at the train station, Twilight again sees a summons from the elderly WISE agent and goes to tell her he cannot accept this mission because of the aquarium trip, only for the agent to reveal that the mission is coincidentally at the aquarium.
This results in the funniest moment of the episode, where the agent misinterprets this as meaning Twilight is prepared for the mission and giving it to him, all the while Twilight just tries to say no and buy a drink.
In the end, however, Twilight cannot refuse because intel about chemical weapons that could be used against his country of Westalis is being smuggled through a penguin at the aquariam.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if he accepted the mission just to keep the elderly agent quiet because she was speaking about their covert operations way too loudly.
Upon reaching the aquarium, Loid’s concerns are doubled when they come across the neighbours who were bad mouthing him and Yor invites them to stick togethor.
Then, his concerns are tripled when he sees that the penguin park at the aquarium is the largest in the world with 200 penguins, so it will be almost impossible for him to find the penguin with the smuggled intel, not unless he knows a telepath or something.
Oh, wait, he does!
Anya quickly deduces which penguin has the smuggled intel by reading its mind and seeing it coughing, pointing it out to Loid, who makes the excuse of going to buy some drinks again, before knocking out a new hire at the penguin park and posing as him to get to the intel.
Twilight manages to get the penguin, while amazing the boss of the penguin park with his skill while he is posing as the new worker.
However, as he takes the penguin away to grab the intel, he is interrupted by an enemy agent trying to get it as well, with Twilight quickly deducing his identity, after which a fight ensues.
The agent gets away and Twilight is forced to give up the pursuit to get the intel from the penguin, leaving it up to Anya and Yor to take down the enemy.
Anya smartly acts as if she is being kidnapped by the agent, giving Yor motive to kick him up into the ceiling, amazing both Anya and Twilight once more.
Loid then returns to his family, gifting Anya with a massive plush penguin, saying that he spent the entire time he was away trying to win it for her, when in reality it only took one try.
This gets the suspicious neighbours off his back and, aside from Loid still feeling overworked, all is well for all of the characters… well, except for the new hire at the penguin park who Twilight did an excellent job pretending to be.
Too excellent of a job, however, because now the new employee is being promoted to the job of chief with absolutley no experience.
We then get the final few moments of the episode, which, in my opinion, is a culmination of everything Spy x Family tries and succeeds to be: Funny and wholesome.
In this scene, Anya is playing with her new plush penguin, who she imagines is being recruited for a spy organization much like Twilight’s.
After Anya eats the split peanut that will complete Penguin’s recruitment, pretrending that the plush ate it, she leads him on a trip of her secret spy base (her house).
This initially ends poorly, when Anya is scolded for trying to go into Loid and Yor’s room, which is fair considering there is a lot of secret intel, belonging to Twilight, and a lot of knives and poisons, belonging to Yor, inside.
Yet, things pick up with Twilight and Yor acting like they are Anya’s plush toys and the young girl leads them outside on a mission, embarassing them all in, as I said, a funny and wholesome moment, ending the first cour of Spy x Family extremely well.
“Penguin Park” was a good way to end the first cour.
It may have had a tedious start with the needless recap, but it picked up with the aquarium storyline, and the wholesome and funny ending.
Now, we just need to wait three months to see the second cour, where we will finally learn about the dog who had a vision of the Forger family, along with other storylines, some of which are among the best arcs of Spy x Family.
It will be a joy to see.

Spy x Family, Episode 11, Stella Review: Excellent Commentary on Silent Drowning.

While the previous, hilarious episode of Spy x Family detailed Anya’s failed attempt to get a Stella Star through PE, Episode 11, “Stella”, depicts her actually obtaining one through a heroic act.
Directed by Toshifumi Akai, this episode also begins on a hilarious note, with Anya glumly watching her Bondman cartoon while the lines of dialogue depressingly match up with Loid looking at all the Fs she received for her tests.
“This can’t be happening!” One of the cartoon characters cries out as we see Loid going over all of the failed tests, before Anya attempts to flee from studying when the lights are turned on.
Eventually, both Loid and Yor sit down with Anya in an attempt to help her study and Anya again shows she can learn through her cartoon, prompting Loid to attempt this new study technique, only for it to be revealed to us that Anya failed because she read the wrong people’s minds about the answers for the test.
She decides to learn which student is best at which subject so she can cheat off them, sporting a humorously evil grin at the thought.
Unfortunately, it is here that we see the downside of Anya’s telepathy, as she hears Loid thinking that if she were to get perfect scores so suddenly then it could make her classmates shun her.
This terrifies Anya, once more showing why she has not revealed her powers to either of her parents, as she believes it will disgust them and they will abandon her.
They obviously would not but it is that fear which shows just how rough Anya had it back when she was with the organization who created her, since they instilled this fear in her.
Seeing that studying isn’t working, Loid decides to teach Anya to excel in other areas such as art, music and sports.
Cue a comedic sequence of Anya failing at absolutley all of these, leading to Loid deciding to take Anya on a special father daughter “ooting.”
In reality, this is a trip to help at a hostpital so Anya can potentially gain a Stella Star through community service.
Cue yet another hilarious sequence of Anya failing at all the jobs she is given, leading to the head nurse yelling at her and Loid to leave.
As they do so, both looking dejected, the perspective cuts from them to a young boy named Ken who is going through physical therapy to help his broken leg.
However, he heads out to the pool ahead of his mother and falls in, beginning to drown, completley and utterly silent.
This is a fantastic piece of commentary Spy x Family is doing here, educating those who do not know that a drowning can happen in complete silence with no one noticing.
Thankfully, Anya certainly notices due to her telepathy and, still afraid of Loid abandoning her if he learns the truth of her powers, stages a situation where she runs to the pool in an attempt to save Ken that looks coincidental.
Unfortunately, Anya cannot swim very well herself, leading to her almost drowning as well, but thankfully Loid is there to rescue them, pulling both Anya and Ken out of the water, before again repeating the commentary of drowning often being silent for both the characters and the viewer.
Anya is rightfully hailed as a hero for her actions, leading to her gaining her first Stella Star, the first of the first-graders so do so.
The happy face Anya pulls during her award ceremony is pretty funny, along with Becky’s, “I’m really proud of you for some reason” line.
The episode only gets funnier as it goes on, with Anya wanting Loid to cook for her instead of Yor (can’t really blame her though), and Anya presenting an overly smug persona at Eden College the next day, demanding that Becky call her “Starlight Anya.”
Anya even begins to think that Damian will want to be friends with her now, helping Twilight’s mission succeed, only for Damian to immediately cut this down by declaring that she shouldn’t get a big head.
Yet, Damian still proves to be a good kid at heart, as he supports Anya when some of his fellow students begin spreading vile rumors of her pushing Ken in the pool to fake saving him, declaring that Eden College would never hand out a Stella by mistake.
Although, he does admit to himself that he wishes Anya cheated, so she wouldn’t be ahead of him.
Anya and Becky later have lunch togethor and Becky says Anya should ask for a reward for her actions, like a dog.
After reading Damian’s mind to learn that he too has a dog, Anya decides to ask Loid and Yor for one as a reward, so that she can get closer with Damian for Twilight’s mission.
Anya’s request for a dog goes over well with Loird and Yor but Yor imagines a big dog ripping Anya to shreds so she asks for a little puppy instead… only for Yor to imagine the puppy killing Anya with a knife.
Anya being horrified by Yor’s messed up way of thinking never stops being funny.
As they look through a dog book to find the perfect one for Anya, she points out a fox terrior, which I know is a good choice since I have one, but fate may have other ideas, as we cut to a terrorist cell who plan to use their captive dogs as bombs.
One of these dogs, a large and fluffy one, has a mysterious vision of the Forger family.
Why is it having a vision of them and what does it mean?
Well, we’ll have to wait for the second cour to find out because the final episode of the first cour is a filler episode, although a good one.
All in all, “Stella” is another great episode of Spy x Family with plenty of funny moments.
The big thing I have to commend it for, though, is educating its viewers on how drownings can be silent so to always pay attention when at a pool.
After all, someone could watch this episode and because of it later realize that someone is drowning and save their lives.
You never know.

Spy x Family, Episode 10, The Great Dodgeball Plan Review: Funniest Episode Yet.

Directed by Kenji Takahashi, Episode 10 of Spy x Family, “The Great Dodgeball Plan”, is one of the funniest episodes of the series so far.
Before the jokes start, however, “The Great Dodgeball Plan” begins with some slice-of-life elements, as we see Anya’s teacher Henderson go about his everyday, elegant routine of excercising, saluting the statue of Eden College’s founder and taking a shower (with the shot only focusing on his feet for the latter, thank god).
As the bell rings, signaling the start of the day, we see all of the curtains be flung open at once, again showing how professional Eden College is with its committment to time.
Then, the scene transitions to Damian, where we go more in depth with his character by focusing on a small detail from a previous episode.
This detail is the photot that was taken of Damian and Anya along with their classmates and parents.
However, some may have noticed that Damian is completley alone in the photo, his father Desmond, Twilight’s target, not being present.
Now, four episodes later, “The Great Dodgeball Plan” puts a deliberate focus on this photo, with Damian looking up at it mournfully, longing for his father’s approval.
Damian’s situation is not helped by his two friends coming up to ask him about his brother, seeing in a photobook that he won many Stella Stars.
As his friends swoon over this, they don’t notice Damian’s nerves, as a shadow falls over his face in a pretty good usage of show don’t tell through animation.
Damian never says that he is desperate to gain his father’s approval or that he is nervous that he will not be able to live up to his older brother’s standard, but we can see it on his face clear as day.
Yet, as quick as this happens, Damian is given a chance to live up to his brother’s standard, as his friends point out that he might be able to win a Stella Star if he becomes the MVP of the upcoming dodgeball game in PE.
Daminan’s hopefulness is contrasted with Henderson’s, who is looking forward to teaching his elegant students… with the exception of Anya, Becky, Damian and his friends, who are all arguing when he comes in.
While this is another good joke, it also does point to the notion that Damian’s hope of aquiring a Stella Star through PE is fruitless, much like how Henderson’s hope for his students to be elegant is fruitless.
Unfortunately for Anya, she also takes the rumor of aquiring a Stella Star through PE seriously, as she reports it to Twilight after Becky tells her about it.
Yor immediately tasks herself with training Anya, something that is easier said than done, as Anya struggles with this about as much as she does studying, resulting in various moments of humor, like her pathetically funny attempt at doing situps.
Despite her troubles, Anya believes she is ready on the day of the dodgeball game.
However, the possibility that gaining a Stella Star through PE is just a rumor is not the only problem Anya faces because her team’s main opponent in the dodgeball game is Bill Watkins, a 6-year-old boy who looks more like a twenty-year-old man who eats steroids for breakfast.
This does result in plenty of hilarious moments, though, as we see someone who looks like an adult be a kid.
Probably the funniest moment of his is during his flashback, where he runs up to his father, who is twice his size, and calls him “daddy.”
Hearing that word come from such an adult sounding voice will never not be funny.
As for the dogeball match itself, it is full of even more humorous moments, like flashbacks to Damian’s training, with various visual allusions to locations from other anime, like Namek from Dragon Ball Z.
There is also Emile’s over dramatic sacrifice, followed by Ewen getting hit not a moment later because he wasn’t paying attention, followed by Anya reading Bill’s mind to dodge his attacks.
However, she quickly becomes distracted by shooting Damian her signature “heh” expression, leading to her nearly getting hit and falling over, allowing Bill his chance to throw the ball at her. Rather than be hit, Anya is saved by Damian who sacrifices himself for her in a moment of growth.
Anya looks set to avenge Damian’s sacrifice in the game, which Damian likes to remind her is not a literal death, remembering the ultimate move Yor taught her.
The animation for this ultimate move, the Star Catch Arrow, is spectacular and is made all the more hilarious when Anya spectacularly fails, allowing Bill to knock her out of the game with a simple throw.
As expected, though, there was no Stella Star up for whoever won the game.
It was just a rumor, in the end.
On the other hand, Henderson does think that Anya and Damian may be future recipients of Stella Stars, given how they were able to put aside their differences to work togethor… only for this elegant thought to be immediately cut off by Damian starting an argument with Anya again, as the episode concludes.
Overall, “The Great Dodgeball Plan” is a great episode of Spy x Family, with it having some of the best humor of the series so far.

The Northman Review: If You Seek Revenge, Dig a Hundred Graves.

Robert Eggers is a director who has been highly praised for his previous films, The Witch and The Lighthouse.
Given this, and how much I was impressed by the trailers for his latest film, The Northman, along with the movie’s positive reception, I went to see it last weekend.
After watching it, I can definitely say that I agree with the reception the film has been getting.
The Northman is a brutal, viking revenge story that is thrilling from beginning to end, even in its slower moments.
Our main character is Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård), a viking prince, whose father (Ethan Hawke) is murdered and mother (Nicole Kidman) kidnapped by his uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang).
Amleth barely escapes the assassination and coup where Fjölnir steals the kingdom, growing up to become a savage warrior; one with three promises keeping him going over the years: “I will avenge you, father. I will save you, mother. I will kill you, Fjölnir.”

Upon recieving a form of prophecy, Amleth embarks on his quest of vengance.

The direction of The Northman is stellar, along with the cinematography by Jarin Blaschke, and the score by Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough.
These features help propel the writing forward, as the film manages to be quite entertaining, despite its often slow pace, with some excellent action sequences and compelling twists and turns to the narrative.
The actors also all bring their A game.
Alexander Skarsgård feels like a literal beast at times as Amleth, yet still manages to show vulnerabilities in a performance that would not surprise me if it earned him a Best Actor Nomination at the very least.

Skarsgård makes Amleth both brutal and sympathetic as he is eventually faced with the choice of love for his kin or hate for his enemies.

The other actors all bring the same quality to their performances, even those with minor roles like Willem Dafoe and Björk.
The only character I have an issue with in this movie is Olga, played by Anya Taylor Joy.
However, this is not because of Joy’s performance.
In fact, I think she does an excellent job, like everyone else.
No, my issue has to do with the way she is written.
I just find the kind of relationship she forms with Almeth to be sort of unrealistic, considering how the two of them meet.
It made me think there was going to be some kind of twist surrounding Olga but there wasn’t.

Not to say that I did not like Olga’s character and, again, Joy’s performance is excellent, but I think some more explanation for her bond with Amleth would have been nice.

This was not a huge issue, however, and, other than this, I absolutely loved The Northman.
It is a gripping revenge story that has a lot to say about the consequences of vengeance, the brutality of people, and even the effect love can have on a person.
The Northman is easily one of the best film’s of the year.

Spy x Family, Episode Nine, Show Off How in Love You Are Review: Don’t Encourage the Creepy Brother, Yor.

Picking up from the cliffhanger of the previous episode, which teased a kiss between Twilight and Yor, Episode Nine of Spy x Family, “Show Off How in Love You Are,” pays that cliffhanger off but not with a kiss.
Directed by Takashi Katagiri, the episode begins with Yor getting herself drunk so she can kiss Twilight.
Not exactly flattering for the spy but it was probably the nerves that made Yor do this.
Unfortunately for Yuri, this leads to him being mortified when Yor’s drunkenness makes her act rather lewd when she goes to kiss Twilight.
Unfortunately for us, this builds into another flashback from Yor and Yuri’s past.
The reason this is unfortunate for us is because it shows just how deep Yuri’s obsession for his sister goes.
Yor kisses Yuri on the cheek for scoring a 100 on his test, and Yuri responds by saying he will marry her when he grows up.
Yor’s response to this is to sit Yuri down and tell him that they cannot get married because they are siblings, although she still loves him as family.
Nah, just kidding.
What Yor actually does is say that she will wait paitiently for him.
Thankfully, Yor is clearly humoring Yuri in this flashback.
It did no favors for Yuri, though, as this memory leads to him lunging to stop the kiss between Yor and Twilight, only for the pay-off for the teased kiss to arrive.
Not with an actual kiss, however, but with a slap, because the pay-off for last episode’s cliffhanger is humor.
Too embarrassed to kiss Twilight, Yor appears to try and slap him, only to accidentally slap Yuri into the wall instead, causing him to sprout blood from various parts of his head.
The crashing sound also wakes Anya up who, still half asleep, comedically thinks it’s the end of the world, before falling back into bed.
Back with Twilight, Yor and Yuri, Yor goes from unintentionally slapping Yuri to intentionally slapping him, when he tearfully gives Twilight his permission to kiss his sister, before he storms from the house, all the while Twilight is trying to convince him to go to the hostpital.
This gag goes on for a good while too, with Yuri eventually asking two strangers about the station’s location, only for them to scream at him to go the hostpital first.
Afterwards, we get my favourite scene of the episode, which is Anya’s reaction to the previous night when she reads her parents’ minds.
First, she stumbles from her room, still half asleep, mistaking a plant for Twilight.
Both him and Yor are surprised to hear that Anya does not even remember how excited she was to meet Yuri, before she fell asleep.
Anya only remembers this when she reads Twilight’s mind and learns Yuri is a member of the Secret Police, meaning she was denied her daily excitement that comes with having a spy and an assassin as parents.
Her outraged reaction to this left me chuckling.
After this point, the episode moves into its main plot, as Twilight becomes suspicious of Yor, wondering if she knows Yuri works for the Secret Police, leading to him bugging her.
Meanwhile, Yor is worried that Twilight sees her as a disappointing wife.
Anya picks up on both of these things with her mind reading and tells them they need to get along, before hopping on the school bus, leaving her parents to go about their activities, Yor at work, and Twilight spying on his wife.
Before the episode goes further into this plotline, however, we get the conclusion to this part of Yuri’s story, as his boss further pushes him towards eventually finding and capturing Twilight, Yuri not realising that Loid Forger is the spy himself.
We also get a look inside Yuri’s locker during this scene and surprise, surprise, it’s full of pictures of Yor.
You have to wonder what his colleagues think of his creepy obsession?
Well, he’s clearly a good agent, so they probably don’t care too much so long as he gets the job done.
Cutting back to the main storyline of the episode with Twilight and Yor, Twilight listens in to Yor’s conversations at work and hears her fretting over her lack of cooking skills, worried that this makes her a bad wife.
However, Twilight is still not completley satisfied that this clears her, so he concocts a scheme with Franky, disguising themselves as Yuri’s bosses to interrogate Yor, thinking she will name Yuri as a member of the Secret Police to help herself, proving to Twilight that she knew about him.
Instead, Yor proves herself to Twilight as both innocent and strong, figuratively and literally on the latter, as she is figuratively strong by speaking up for her family, and literally strong with how she easily beats Franky when he tries to take her with them.
This leads to Twilight calling the scheme off, allowing Yor to go and rightly feeling quite guilty for his actions, which Franky calls him out on, saying he should not develop feelings for Yor because it could endanger his mission.
Twilight retaliates by ripping off Franky’s mask, ruining his chances of picking up women with it.
As Franky mourns the lost oppurtunities, Twilight tells him that it is a terrible idea to date a woman while deceiving her, a hilariously hypocritical statement from him.
Twilight then meets up with Yor and removes the bug, before cheering her up, saying she should be confident with herself.
He then suggests they get a cake for their one-year wedding anniversary.
Time sure has flown for them, huh?
The episode then ends when Anya arrives home and is overjoyed to learn her parents are getting along again after reading their minds.
All in all, “Show Off How in Love You Are” is another really good episode of Spy x Family.
Once again, my only criticism of it is how deep Yuri’s obsession goes for Yor.
Otherwise, it’s quite an enjoyable episode, with some wholesome moments and good humor, mostly with Anya’s reactions and the slap pay-off to the kiss cliffhanger.

Spy x Family, Episode Eight, The Counter-Secret Police Cover Operation, Review: Will They or Won’t They?

Following the last episode’s cliffhanger of Yor’s brother Yuri learning of his sister’s marriage, Episode Eight of Spy x Family, “The Counter-Secret Police Cover Operation” depicts the humorous fallout.
Directed by Yukiko Imai, the episode begins with a brief look at Anya’s schooling, which predictably is not going all that well, as she bombs the answer to a question so hard it leaves everyone staring at her.
Naturally, we then cut to Twilight lying to his Handler about how long it should take Anya to be an Imperial Scholar, something the Handler picks up on pretty quickly.
This all leads to her telling him that one on their agents at Yor’s work, Jim Hayward, has been captured by the State Security Service, which is then shown happening.
These three scenes all flow togethor nicely, going from Anya failing at school, to Twilight lying about her grades, to Hayward being captured after the Handler talks about him.
It gets even better with Yor’s introduction this episode as, after witnessing Hayward being taken away, she and her colleagues talk about Yuri, who plans to drop by the Forger household, while also introducing his quite frankly weird obsession with his sister, before cutting to Hayward being interrogated.
This all builds to the reveal of Yuri as a State Security Service agent, with him interrogating Hayward after his superiors get nothing out of him.
How does Yuri begin this expert interrogation?
Why, by talking about his sister, of course!
It’s a running theme with him and an honestly uncomfortable one.
Although, it’s thankfully mostly played for humor rather than completley serious, at least in this episode.
This interrogation also goes to show Yuri’s darker side, with him appearing to be cheerful when it begins, only for him to turn violent when he proves Hayward’s guilt and states his devotion to protecting the country his sister lives in.
Cue another great cut, as the scene transitions from Yuri pretty much saying that he will resort to any torture to meet his goal, to Anya watching her favourite cartoon, where Bondman refuses to submit to torture.
This leads to Twilight realising Anya can learn how to study when she views it through the lens of her cartoons, before Yor runs in to warn them of Yuri’s eventual visit.
Thankfully, Twilight is able to make the room look more lovey-dovey before Yuri’s arrival, leading to a repeat of Anya assuming they are flirting, which both of her parents vehemently deny again.
Yuri arrives not long after Anya falls asleep, carrying a ridiculously large bouquet of flowers, ready to test if Twilight is good enough for his sister.
What follows is various comedic moments as Twilight and Yuri act as though they are getting along around Yor, while their inner monologues highlight their suspicions of one another, with Twilight eventually deducing that Yuri is with the Secret Police.
Before this moment, however, Yuri understandably asks for an explanation as to why Yor would not tell him about her marriage for an entire year.
So, what with Yor being an expert assassin, she surely has a great lie ready to go, right?
Well, not exactly because her explanation is that she forgot to tell Yuri and then she forgot that she forgot to.
Twilight is understandably baffled by explanation but even more baffled that Yuri beleives it.
The narrator then notes that when it comes to his sister, Yuri’s “sense of logic goes out the window.”
Is this funny?
Yes.
Is this creepy?
Also yes!
Thankfully, as I said earlier, Yuri’s obsession with Yor is treated comedically rather than seriously so that does help somewhat.
This also does lead into the funniest moment of the episode, when we see a flashback of a young Yor returning to take care of a child Yuri, sometime after their parents’ deaths.
The reason this is the funniest scene in the episode is because Yor is covered in blood when she does this, definitley having killed someone as part of her assasination job, and does not even bother to clean up when going to take care of her kid brother.
Cutting back to the present, Yuri’s expanation of why he cares for Yor so much leads to him getting more and more agitated, to the point that he actually knocks over a glass.
When Yor and Twilight attempt to clean it up, their hands touch, causing them to flinch back, naturally tipping off Yuri’s investigative skills, as he becomes suspicious, since any married couple would not be afraid to touch hands.
Therefore, in order to prove their marriage, he demands that they kiss in front of him.
And so, Twilight leans in to kiss a mortified Yor, ending the episode on the cliffhanger of whether our main couple will actually kiss.
Overall, “The Counter-Secret Police Cover Operation” is another good episode of Spy x Family.
My only criticism of it is that I wish Yuri was merely overprotective of Yor and not have this obsession he clearly has with her, since it is quite creepy.
Otherwise, the episode is pretty good, with the way scenes flow togethor being especially well done.