Attack on Titan, Chapter 119, Big Brothers and Little Brothers Review: R.I.P Gabi’s Redemption Arc.

I cannot remember the last time I read an Attack on Titan chapter this intense and shocking.
There is so much in Chapter 119, “Big Brothers and Little Brothers”, to talk about and I do not know where to begin.
Oh, wait, yes I do.
I should start with the big cliffhanger of the chapter where Gabi shoots Eren’s freaking head off!
My jaw was on the floor after reading this moment, and the people sitting around me at the time gave me weird looks.
It took everything I had not to scream out loud, in public, because of the shock.
I said in my review of Chapter 118 that Colt’s Titan killing gun was going to end up being a literal Chekov’s Gun but I never expected it would be used this way.
Just to make my opinion clear though, I am 99% sure that Eren is going to survive this.
Sure, that might seem ridiculous but what other character do we know who has survived getting their head blown off?
Reiner.
He survived this in the Return to Shiganshina Arc by transferring his consciousness throughout his body, and I believe Eren did this.
Either that or he will end up being saved by Ymir Fritz like Zeke was.
If Eren does die then this will be a terrible writing decision on Hajime Isayama’s part but, again, I do not believe he is dead.
As for his shooter, Gabi, this gives the fan base another reason to hate her guts.
Gabi is, without a doubt, the most hated character in the series but I have always been supportive of her because of how she was brainwashed by Marleyan propaganda.
And, again, I have to speak against those saying they hope Gabi dies a torturous death.
Both because wishing a little kid will be tortured to death is really messed up and because literally anyone in Gabi’s position would do the same thing.
Not only did Eren kill her friends but Gabi knows he is working with Zeke, who just turned her friend into a Titan, and, as far as she knows, the two brothers are planning to destroy the world by coming into contact.
Of course she would try to stop them, any rational person in her position would.
Still, this does not change how shocking and heartbreaking of a moment this was.
Even though I am incredibly sure that Eren will make it, the distraught look on Zeke’s face as his brother is decapitated by the Titan gun’s bullet left me feeling sick.
You can clearly see from this that Zeke loves Eren.
In fact, the bond between brothers is pretty much the main focus of Chapter 119, shown by the title being “Big Brothers and Little Brothers”.
However, rather than going into the positives of such brotherly bonds, the chapter sadly goes into the tragic circumstances caused by them.
Eren and Zeke, Falco and Colt, Porco and Marcel, these three sets of brothers’ stories all result in tragedy by the end.
Colt tries to convince Zeke not to scream because this will transform Falco but, as I predicted, Zeke’s mission is too important for him to stop.
Zeke is remorseful but screams nonetheless, transforming Falco and killing Colt who refuses to leave his side in a gut wrenching panel.
Then there is Porco, who finally receives Marcel’s memories and realizes his brother was trying to protect him by stopping him from becoming a warrior.
Realizing this, Porco sacrifices himself to save Reiner, by allowing Falco to eat him.
Along with this being tragic, it is also a perfect example of coming full circle and subverting expectations.
Porco sacrificing himself resembles the previous Jaw Titan users Marcel and Ymir, who both gave their lives for someone else.
Then there is the scene right before Porco is eaten, where Falco nearly eats Reiner.
Ever since it was revealed that Falco had ingested Zeke’s spinal fluid everyone, including myself, has been predicting that Reiner would sacrifice himself to save Falco.
Isayama clearly saw this because he makes it look like it is about to happen, before Porco marches in and steals Reiner’s thunder as Falco’s meal.
Colt and Porco’s deaths are very sad, although I am a bit disappointed that Porco never got to interact with Historia using Ymir’s memories.
Although, this could happen with Falco since he is now the Jaw Titan.
He could also be the one to free Annie because it has been shown that only the Jaw Titan can destroy the Titan crystals.
Maybe I am getting too hopeful but who knows?
Sadly, unlike Falco, we cannot hope for any resurrections for Pyxis, Nile and all the other soldiers who were transformed by Zeke’s scream.
They are all mindless Titans now and their transformations are gut wrenching, especially Pyxis who seems to accept it in the end, dying as he lived with a bottle of wine in hand.
There is one character’s fate that I am very unsure of though.
We see Magath gets blown back by a thunder spear fired at Pieck by Armin but we do not see him after that.
Does this mean Magath is dead?
I hope not because it seems like Isayama has been setting him up for something big so it would be disappointing for him to die like this.
How many people did we even lose this chapter?
Pyxis, Nile, Rouge, Colt, Porco and, potentially (although I hope not), Eren and Magath.
I think more named characters died in this chapter than any other in the series.
It will be interesting to see what happens next.
Overall, “Big Brothers and Little Brothers” is an amazing chapter of Attack on Titan that is one of the most shocking I have ever read.
It is because of chapters like this that Attack on Titan is my favourite series right now.

The Walking Dead Issue 193 The Farm House Review: The End… Wait, What!?

Well, I don’t think anyone saw this coming.
There we all were, wondering how The Walking Dead would continue without Rick Grimes when, suddenly, leaks started to come out saying the series would be ending with Issue 193.
It has to be a joke, I thought. It has to be.
But no, this really is the end.
Robert Kirkman somehow managed to keep the ending of The Walking Dead secret before these leaks, even going as far as to create fake covers for future issues that will never exist.
Personally, when I heard of this deception, I was unhappy about it.
I believe that a writer, director, developer, or whatever should never mislead their consumers about future products that they know will not happen.
However, after reading Kirkman’s reasoning behind this, I do understand why he did this.
I still think he should have come clean about the ending of the series but I can see that he wanted to surprise his readers in a good way.
Honestly, I am just sad that it is over.
I remember when I started reading The Walking Dead comics.
I had just finished binge watching the first two seasons of the television show and I wanted to know what would happen next so I started reading.
What I found in the comics was a far superior story to the TV show, with even more engaging characters, plot points and shocking moments.
After catching up, I continued to read the next issue every month to see what would happen.
And, even though I was recently thinking about how much The Walking Dead had descended into mediocrity, I was still a massive fan.
Even after the death of the main character, Rick Grimes (which I thought was handled poorly), I was eager to see how the series would continue… only for it to end in a surprising twist.
Enough about my opinions on the overall series though, now I want to talk about the final issue itself, Issue 193 “The Farm House.”
Since I found the previous issue to not be a very good one, and felt that Kirkman was rushing to conclude his story, I fully expected “The Farm House” to join the likes of Game of Thrones among the worst endings to great series in 2019.
Thankfully, this is far from we got.
I actually love this ending.
Do I still think it is a little rushed?
Yes.
Do I think there are a lot of unanswered questions about certain characters?
Yes.
But, overall, this was a fantastic way to end a story that I have been invested in for so many years.
The ending does not fix the mediocre Commonwealth Arc that came beforehand, not by a long shot.
However, it does bring a fitting end to the series and the many characters we know and love.
Picking up after only Kirkman knows how many decades after Rick’s death, “The Farm House” sees Carl living in the countryside with Sophia and their daughter Andrea, named after Carl’s amazing stepmother.
The issue starts with a Roamer coming across Carl’s house who kills it, before angrily storming into town to confront Maggie’s son Hershel, who sadly reminds me a lot of Sebastian.
Turns out the undead are so rare these days that they have actually become a circus attraction, and Hershel is not happy that Carl put down his property.
This starts an unbelievably absurd legal situation where Carl faces a fine for killing something that could have easily killed his daughter.
Carl states this is not what his father died for and he is exactly right.
Maggie then walks in, now the president of the Commonwealth, and convinces the judge not to fine Carl so long as he gets another Walker for her spoiled son.
It was heartbreaking to see how similar Maggie and Hershel have become to Pamela and Sebastian.
It is a parallel that Kirkman makes plainly obvious with Sophia saying Hershel could end up like Sebastian if Maggie is not careful.
Angered by how Hershel is allowed to keep the dangerous undead, Carl kills the Roamers in the night before going off on a job with his ex Lydia.
It is here that we get a full display of how far the world has come, both after Rick’s death and the zombie apocalypse itself.
Because of the decline in humans, animal populations are sky rocketing with a massive flock of birds flying over the two’s heads.
They then meet up with Eugene, who has actually started to build his railway network, giving off a very wild west theme.
Upon returning, Carl is arrested for killing the Roamers and is sent to Michonne who is now a judge.
It is here that we get a big highlight of the issue, where Michonne actually quotes what is written on the back of each volume, “in a world ruled by the dead we are finally forced to start living.”
After this powerful statement, Carl is released back to his family.
Before this though, we get a final scene from Hershel where we come to understand he is not as similar to Sebastian as we had been led to believe.
Showing those Roamers actually allowed Hershel to feel close to his father Glenn, who he never had the pleasure of meeting.
This gives us another perspective on the whole situation.
We then see that a statue has been made in Rick’s honor, with him in the pose he was in when he saved the Commonwealth from disaster right before his death.
A fitting memorial to the hero we followed for 192 issues.
Finally, we get the final and best scene in the entirety of “The Farm House”, where Carl reads Andrea the story of Rick Grimes.
During his narration, we get shots of Maggie with Hershel, Jesus and Aaron resting on a riverbank, what looks like Negan laying flowers on Lucille’s grave, Princess and Mercer walking their dog, Lydia arriving home to her partner, Magna and Yumiko in a park, Eugene watching his train go by, Laura eating with her crew, Michonne going to see her grandchild, an elderly Pamela going to see a thankfully still jailed Sebastian, and Rick Grimes’ grave right next to Andrea’s.
Carl then tells his daughter she would have liked her grandfather to which she replies she knows, appearing irritated, before she joyfully asks him to “read it again”, as if Kirkman himself is asking his readers to do so.
The final shot sees Carl smiling as he reads to her in his rocking chair, the panel entirely white and vacant around them, except for the big “The End” to the side and, just like that, I break down.
I cried seeing such a heartwarming ending to a series I have loved reading for years.
This was a fantastic end to The Walking Dead story, and I am overjoyed with how it subverted my expectations from a day ago, when I first heard the story was concluding.
Sure, it does feel a little rushed and it makes characters like Princess seem pretty pointless in hindsight but, overall, I am happy with the ending.
Goodbye, The Walking Dead.
You will be missed.

My Hero Academia Season Two Review: Spectacular Fight Sequences Inbound.

The first season of My Hero Academia was a good start to the anime and I saw a lot of potential in it.
Thankfully, this potential is fully realised in season two, which absolutely blew me away with its character development, animation, music, and downright phenomenal action sequences.
The season covers around three story arcs and each of them has a great mixture of all of these features I mentioned.
The first arc follows the U.A Sports Festival, where the training heroes compete in a tournament to be scouted by pro heroes.
During this arc, we get amazing character development from many of these characters, most notably Shoto Todoroki, voiced by Attack on Titan’s Yuki Kaji.
Other than knowing that he is extremely powerful, Todoroki left little impact on me in the first season but this all changes here.
He is now probably my favourite character of the series.
Along with this, his fight with Deku is one of the greatest fights I have seen, not just in anime but in everything that has been put to screen.

Deku’s fight with the scarred Zuko-I mean Todoroki, has to be one of the best fight sequences I have ever seen.

Everything just combines in that battle to make it such an incredible moment from the character arcs, to the animation, music and shot composition.
This fight is not the only fantastic one, however, because there are two other phenomenal fights, with Deku and Bakugo having to face off against All Might for an exam and Deku, Todoroki and Iida facing off against the Hero Killer, Stain (Go Inoue).
Speaking of Stain, he is a fascinating villain with a complex ideology and moral code that makes him the series’ best antagonist so far.
I have my fingers crossed that we will see more of him in the future.

Stain is a very engaging villain, with his impact on the series looking to be very important compared to the other antagonists.

The season also goes into more detail about All Might’s backstory, and his rivalry with what looks to be the main villain of the series All For One.
We get to meet All Might’s teacher, Gran Torino (Kenichi Ogata) who I think may be named after the Clint Eastwood movie.
His introduction probably made me laugh harder than any joke in the anime so far.
As for the final episode, rather than the bombastic action one of the previous season, we get more of a meeting of the minds between our hero and villain that seems to set up their potential rivalry for future seasons.

nightmare fuel.jpeg — Tomura Shigaraki’s (Koki Uchiyama) meeting with Deku is especially tense, with Deku being literally one finger on his neck away from death.

Overall, the second season of My Hero Academia is downright fantastic, providing constant laughs, amazing character development and, of course incredible fight sequences.
If you can sit through the Deku vs Todoroki fight without your jaw dropping like me then I will applaud you.

Attack on Titan Season Three, Episode 22, The Other Side of the Wall Review. One of the Manga’s Most Impactful Moments Adapted.

Spoiler Free Review:

Attack on Titan season three just ended and I miss it already.
It adapted the manga chapters excellently the entire way through, and the final episode, “The Other Side of the Wall”, is no exception.
Coming into this final episode, I was concerned that since only Chapter 90 would be adapted then the episode would need to add pointless scenes to lengthen the runtime.
Thankfully, all of the scenes that are added in “The Other Side of the Wall” serve a point and this all combines with the manga adapted scenes to create a somber and meaningful season finale.
“The Other Side of the Wall” adapts a scene I and many other manga readers have been waiting to see and it does not disappoint.
This moment almost brought a tear to my eye with its thematic weight, beautiful animation, and the way it continues to push Eren’s fantastic character development forward.
Eren is the standout of this episode with Yuki Kaji doing a fantastic job as per usual.
I am so excited to see Eren’s character arc continue in the final season because when I finished this arc in the manga Eren was a top 10 favourite character but the next arc makes him a top five favourite character, for me.
Along with Eren, other characters like Floch get their chance to shine.
Many people may not like him based on what he says this episode but it definitely makes you understand him as a character and what he stands for.
The episode also gives a look at how the society within the walls views the truth of situation and it is done very naturally.
The big scene of “The Other Side of the Wall” though is still its impactful and almost tear inducing ending.
The credits sequence is also pretty surprising, blending images from season one, the future final season, and even some images that I have no idea what they mean.
Overall, “The Other Side of the Wall” is my favourite Attack on Titan finale so far.
It may not have any action like season two’s finale “Scream”, but what this ending represents for the series and characters as a whole going forward makes it one of the most impactful episodes of the series.

Spoiler Review:

As I said in the spoiler free review, I was concerned that “The Other Side of the Wall” would add scenes to lengthen the runtime, which would drag down the episode.
I feared this because another episode that adapted a single chapter, “The Basement”, did this and, as a result, I found that it lessened the episode’s impact.
Thankfully, this is not the case with “The Other Side of the Wall” because every single new scene adds to the character development.
This is most obvious in the scene right before the characters arrive at the sea, where they come across a Titan that can barely move.
Rather than kill it, Eren instead walks up to it and places a hand on its head, sympathetically calling it “a fellow patriot.”
This brilliant scene really shows how far Eren has come.
He has gone from wanting to kill all Titans at the beginning of the series to coming to understand them and even sympathize with them, understanding they are not the true threat.
In the manga, Eren just rode past the Titan while speaking that line so it was not portrayed as clearly how much Eren had changed.
After this great addition, the anime delivers the scene manga readers have been waiting forever to see, the ocean scene.
Watching this joyous moment where characters like Armin finally reach their goal of seeing the ocean is very emotional, even more so because of Eren’s undermining of it.
Rather than celebrating like the others, Eren realizes the threat they all face.
He knows now that reaching the ocean does not mean freedom for them but means they have an entirely new and more dangerous enemy to face.
This moment marks the first big separation Eren has with Mikasa and Armin.
While these two celebrate, Eren does not, and this divide will continue to expand in the final season, as shown by the separation of Eren and Armin in a small post credits scene.
Speaking of the credits though, they are full of many images from next season and even ones we have not seen yet.
There are two particular images I find to be of interest.
One is of a group of kids at some kind of school, and another is where it appears to literally be raining blood.
What the latter image means, I have no idea other than it must be terrible.
As for the image of the kids though, I have a few ideas.
The kid actually looks a lot like Gabi, a character we will meet in the next arc, but the lack of an armband, and with her friends nowhere in sight, makes me question this.
I have also heard people suggest a younger version of Willy Tyber’s sister, which would be interesting.
Whatever these shots may be of, they continue to how how excellent Attack on Titan is with its foreshadowing.
As for the other scenes of the episode, they are just as good, the other highlight being the ceremony where Eren and the rest of the nine survivors from the battle of Shiganshina are awarded medals.
Before this, Floch has a confrontation with Eren and Armin, declaring how he thinks Erwin should have been given the serum instead.
This not only gives us insight into Floch but Eren as well because we see this is the first time that Eren’s belief in the ocean representing freedom are questioned.
Just as he tells Armin he thinks they will be free if they reach the sea, he experiences a flash from his father’s memories of Fay’s dead body in the water.
This not only shows how they are far from free but is also an incredibly smart use of creative censorship.
Even though Fay’s body in the water covers up the gruesome image, it also brilliantly foreshadows that the water Eren and the others will see at the ocean means they are not free but rather in even more danger than before.
I usually criticize the censorship of Attack on Titan but this was such a smart use of it that it surprisingly manages to improve on the manga by adding new symbolic aspects.
“The Other Side of the Wall” is a fantastic season finale.
There may be no action, but the character development and symbolism of the episode is phenomenally handled.
With the final season being announced for 2020, it makes me wonder how long the manga has left?
I personally believe it will end around Chapter 130, which means 12 chapters left, and if I am right then Attack on Titan season four should start right after the manga ends, which would be cool.
Either way though, I just hope the series will get a satisfying conclusion that we all can enjoy, whether that ending is hopeful, tragic, or something in between.

Psycho-Pass: The Movie – This Should Have Been Season Two.

I love the first season of Psycho-Pass.
It is an intense cyberpunk anime with great characters and thought provoking material.
Psycho-Pass 2, on the other hand, is a complete mess with terrible new characters and incredibly dumb storytelling that has numerous plot holes.
As a result of this disappointing sequel series, I was put off watching Psycho-Pass: The Movie but I finally got around to watching it the other day.
Coming into the film, I was both hopeful and concerned.
Hopeful because the directors of the original season, Katsuyuki Motohiro and Naoyoshi Shiotani, were returning.
Concerned because this would be a follow up of the second season.
So, how did Psycho-Pass: The Movie deal with the terrible story telling from its predecessor?
Why by completely ignoring it, thank god!
This time around, the story sees Akane Tsunemori travel from Japan to the Southeast Asia Union, meaning the events of Psycho-Pass 2 are barely acknowledged.
And while the terrible character of Mika Shimotsuki is still there, she mercifully gets barely any screen time.
No, that screen time goes to Akane and Shinya Kogami, who it was great to see return.

Kogami and Akane — It was fun to see Akane and Kogami working together again, especially after Kogami’s absence in *Psycho Pass 2.*

Both remain great characters with a lot of depth and the crime they are investigating is just as interesting, along with its commentary.
I was very intrigued to see how the Sybil System was being implemented in other countries and the implications of this.
Although, I will say, it does feel a little rushed.
It would have been better if this was a series rather than a movie because there would have been a lot more time to flesh out the story and villains.
Honestly, I wish this had been the second season and Psycho-Pass 2 never existed.
However, despite the rushed quality, I was still intrigued by the commentary and the action is decent enough to keep viewers engaged.
This results in an entertaining film that, while nowhere near as brilliant as the first Psycho-Pass season, feels like a nice return to form.
I do have to advise you to watch the English Dub though.
I prefer the Subs when watching the series but the Dub is definitely better when watching the film.
This is because many of the characters speak English and, since they are voiced by Japanese voice actors, their pronunciation is pretty laughable.

The Sub is often hilariously terrible, due to the awful English.

If you want to take the movie seriously then you should watch the English Dub first, before watching the Sub to get a good laugh.
Psycho-Pass: The Movie is a definite step up from the second season, and gives me hope for more good things to come in the Psycho-Pass universe.
Especially with a third season coming soon, which I am very eager to see how it will turn out.

Attack on Titan, Season 3, Episode 21 The Attack Titan Review: Potentially Fantastic Episode Weighed Down by Some Scenes.

Spoiler Free Review:

I had to think over how I felt about the 21st episode of Attack on Titan’s third season, “Attack Titan.”
The reason for this is that, even though it has many fantastic moments, it also has some that drag it down for me.
The biggest of these scenes is actually my most hated from the manga.
It is admittedly a small moment but it still really annoys me with how badly it is written, so I was hoping they would improve the scene in the anime.
However, I did not expect them to make the scene even worse.
It just left me feeling angry about how badly this was thought out.
Sadly, this is not my only problem because “Attack Titan” has a twist that was only just revealed in the manga.
Moving it up like this has created some confusion among the anime’s fan base about what it means.
Along with this, I feel like revealing the twist here will limit a lot of the impact the moment that this was revealed had in the manga, when it is adapted.
Although, I cannot quite fault the episode for this now because that scene has yet to be adapted so I cannot tell if this is what will happen.
All of that said though, the rest of the episode is fantastic, mostly making up for these problematic bits.
While I do not like how one twist is revealed early, the other twists are delivered right on time and are just as shocking and impactful as they are in the manga.
They also raise a lot of interesting questions for anime only viewers to consider.
On top of this, I found the episode to be surprisingly hilarious during some points.
These moments did not really make me laugh when I read them first in the manga, but here I was clutching my stomach.
The music is once again a highlight, especially during the final moments of the episode, where the outro “Name of Love” plays over a scene brilliantly.
These standout scenes could all have come together to make “Attack Titan” a top ten favourite episode for me, however, the problematic moments got in the way of this.
Still, it is a great episode that will have a lot of people confused by the end, but in a good way.

Spoiler Review:

Coming into “Attack Titan” I was pretty sure they were going to show that Ymir had died when Historia read her letter.
The reason for this?
Ymir’s backstory, which was shown here in the manga, had already been shown in season two so it made sense to replace it with her death.
I had my fingers crossed that they would use this opportunity to fix her death.
Granted, I knew I would be disappointed by it because of how much of a waste I think it is but I still hoped they could make me feel emotionally gut punched when her death was revealed.
Sadly, I was wrong because the death is made even worse than in the manga.
Not only is her death still off screen but the actual reveal is only two seconds long.
Seriously, I timed it.
This is so short that people will and have missed it.
I enjoy watching people react to the episodes online after they air, and only about one in ten people realise that this was revealing Ymir’s death.
The rest completely miss it.
If your audience does not realise that a character has been killed off then you have failed to give them a meaningful death.
All it would have required is ten additional seconds of seeing a chained up Ymir’s final moments as she is eaten by her successor and it would have been acceptable.
As for the other problem I have, “Attack Titan” also revealed that Ymir saw the Paths connecting to the Founding Titan after she ate Marcel and turned back into a human.
I find this problematic because when this was revealed in the manga it came alongside something else and was subtly implied in such a way that it was mind blowing.
Here it is just simply stated and is also generating some confusion among anime watchers.
I have actually seen people take this scene as meaning that Ymir is the Founding Titan, once again not realizing that she is dead.
As I said though, despite all this weighing the episode down, the rest of it is still fantastic.
The scenes between Grisha and Eren Kruger is wonderfully adapted, if cut a little short.
The mind blowing reveals that Eren is named after Kruger and that every Titan Shifter dies 13 years after they inherit their power, meaning Eren and Armin are going to die, are very well done.
What are, without a doubt, the bests twists of the episode, though, are Eren realizing that he could use the Founding Titan power because he touched Dina, a royal blooded Titan, and that Kruger somehow had memories of Mikasa and Armin from the future.
These twists are just as shocking and confusingly great as they are in the manga, with the “Name of Love” outro accompanying Kruger’s final scene being a great addition that adds plenty of emotion.
Hange is another standout of the episode, with her talking about Eren going through a phase and imitating his title reveal moment being particularly hilarious.
Speaking of the title reveal, it is funny that the title Attack on Titan is actually a mistranslation of the Japanese Shingeki no Kyojin, which translates to “Attack Titan.”
The name of Eren’s Titan is literally the title of the series and it is mistranslated in English, which is pretty funny.
Overall, “Attack Titan” is still a great episode, even if it weighed down by some aggravating moments like Ymir’s poorly written death reveal.
The next episode, “The Other Side of the Wall”, is the last episode of the season and potentially the last episode from Wit Studio.
I hope they do the manga justice but I do have some concerns.
They will most likely only be adapting Chapter 90, like “The Basement” episode only adapted Chapter 85 and that episode felt like it was padding for time.
Hopefully, if they do have to add some scenes to lengthen the episode then it feels like new necessary scenes, rather than just an excuse to add to the runtime.
Still, I am excited because that episode will have one of the most important scenes in the series’ history.

My Hero Academia Season One Review: Plus Ultra!

Have you ever had an experience where, after hearing common place references on multiple occasions, you coincidentally watch the show with those references and you go, “Oh, so that’s where that came from?”
Well, this pretty much encapsulates my experience with the My Hero Academia anime.
I had seen so many memes and quotes from this anime but I never knew where they came from so it was a joy to see them when I started watching it.
Based off the manga of the same name by Kohei Hirikoshi, My Hero Academia is set in a world where 80% of the population are born with super powers, called quirks.
This leads to being a super hero becoming an actual job, with many hoping to become one.
One of these people is Izuku Midoriya (Daiki Yamashita), nicknamed Deku, who is unfortunately born quirkless, making him unable to accomplish his dream.
However, he then meets his idol and the greatest hero of all time, All Might (Kenta Miyake), who, after seeing Deku’s heroic qualities, decides to train him and have him inherit his quirk, One For All.

Deku and All Might.jpg — Deku and All Might are both great characters, with Deku being the underdog hero and All Might being the over the top hero.

From here, Deku begins his quest to become a hero.
My Hero Academia is a very inspirational story with Deku being a very likeable underdog.
Likewise, All Might is a great teacher for him, being both heroic, sympathetic, and hilarious.
Both the voice actors for these characters do a great job with their characters.
The same can be said for many of the other characters, who are just as memorable.
There is the strict rule follower Tenya Iida (Kaito Ishikawa), and the two characters desperately fighting for the title of Best Girl, Ochaco Uraraka (Ayane Sakura) and Tsuyu Asui (Aoi Yuki).
Sadly, not every character is as great because there are few who did get on my nerves, most notably the bully, Katsuki Bakugo (Nobuhiko Okamoto), who I found myself constantly wanting to punch.

Even though I would like the punch Bakugo in the face that would definitely not be a good idea because he would most likely kill me.

Strangely enough, he seems to be a lot of people’s favourite character, which makes me hope he will be developed in later seasons.
On top of this, there are so many characters introduced in this 13 episode first season that quite a few slip under the rug.
Honestly, if you asked me, I would be hard pressed to remember even half of the characters’ names.
Another issue is the flashbacks which, rather than showing something new, often show scenes we have already seen.
Still these did not diminish my enjoyment of My Hero Academia because it is still funny, inspirational, and has great action sequences.
This is helped by the good animation and music that helped put me on the edge of my seat.
Overall, My Hero Academia is a great start to a series and I am interested to see where it will go.

Akira Review: A Revolutionary Yet Confusing Anime.

Akira is the film that many credit for setting off the anime bomb around the world, with numerous people becoming aware of the capabilities of Japanese animation because of it.
Knowing this, and seeing it being advertised for a limited time on AnimeLab, I had to check it out.
And, after seeing it, I can say that I realised why Akira is considered such a revolutionary anime but was also left very confused by it.
Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, and based off his manga of the same name, the 1988 film is set in our own year of 2019, and picks up in the decades after a massive explosion in Tokyo sparked World War Three.
Now named Neo-Tokyo, the city is plagued by corruption and gangs.
One of these biker gangs is headed by Shotaro Kaneda (Mitsuo Iwata) who leads on his signature, futuristic motorbike.

akira bike — Kaneda’s bike has become a symbol of the cyberpunk genre.

After the gang inadvertently stumble across the escape attempt of a secret organisation’s test subject, Kaneda’s friend Tetsuo Shima (Nozumu Sasaki) is taken away for experimentation.
This draws Kaneda into a world of weird science with telekinetic powers, super powered children, and some serious “Oh, God! Kill it with fire!” body horror.
All of these features combine into a crazy, complicated and confusing story that, somehow, I still find to be very thought provoking.
It’s strange.
I honestly cannot remember the last time I felt so confused yet challenged, in a good way, by a film.

*Akira’s* ending is both challenging and gruesome, helped by the amazing animation for the time.

Along with this, Akira has some stunning animation because every single shot breaths with movement and style.
This not only makes for some intense action sequences but some grotesque moments as well, especially at the end when the body horror is put on full display.
However, Akira is still an overstuffed story with way too many side characters to keep track of or care about.
This does make sense considering the anime adapts a six volume manga in two hours, and was made years before the manga was even completed.
Although, it does not help that I sometimes ended up confusing Kaneda for his love interest Kei (Mami Koyama) because of their very similar designs.

Kaneda and Kei’s designs are so alike that sometimes their clothes were the only things I could use to tell them apart.

Still, despite these problems, Akira is still a great anime film, not just because of its thought provoking material and amazing animation but also because of what it did for anime itself.
I have heard that Taika Waititi will be directing an live action adaptation so it will be interesting to see how that turns out, and how his style of film making will be added.
Personally though, I think it would be more interesting to see an anime adaptation of the entire Akira six volume manga.

Attack on Titan, Season Three Episode Twenty, That Day Review: The Exposition Dump to End all Exposition Dumps.

Spoiler Free Review:

Exposition is notorious for being difficult to get the viewer invested in, without becoming bored.
This speaks to how brilliant of an episode “That Day” is because it is entirely exposition driven, and yet, every second of it is so investing.
The episode is essentially the true basement reveal.
No, “reveal” is not the right word.
What I should say is “reveals” because there are so many, and each and every single one of them is mind blowing.
I have viewed numerous people watching the episode online and their reactions to certain twists are priceless.
As I was watching the episode, I ended up jumping with excitement every time one of these twists was perfectly delivered, which was always.
“That Day” adapts Chapters 86 and 87 of the manga, the prior of which is my favourite chapter in the entire Attack on Titan manga so far.
So, I was almost praying that the episode would manage to adapt that material properly.
And you know what?
It did just that.
With this episode, Attack on Titan changes into a much more complex and deep story in which the lines between the good and bad guys are constantly blurred.
Watching Grisha’s tragic backstory is just as enthralling as it is in the manga, allowing the viewer to understand his motivations and sympathize with him all in a single episode.
Speaking of Grisha, his voice actor, Hiroshi Tsuchida, does an amazing job here, especially at the ending where his full range becomes apparent.
All of the newly introduced characters in this episode are great and interesting, even if we will not see many of them outside this flashback.
The music is once again fantastic, bringing back a track that was introduced in “Hero” for the climactic end.
If I had one criticism, it would be the censorship.
The violence of the manga chapters really highlights both the terror and themes in the manga so it as shame this is not adapted here.
Still, this does not affect the episode in any big way, and if you have not read the manga then you will not notice it.
In my review of “The Basement”, I predicted that “That Day” might actually beat “Midnight Sun” to become my new favourite episode of the series.
And does it achieve this?
Well, right now I am unsure of that.
Both episodes are amazing in very different ways.
“Midnight Sun” is amazing in the way that it hits you emotionally, and “That Day” is amazing in the way that it hits you with all of these exciting and epic twists that change the entire story.
Both are master piece episodes so it is a bit hard for me to judge which one is better without thinking really hard about it.
I will say this, though.
Even if “That Day” does not beat “Midnight Sun”, it comes incredibly close.
It is an amazing episode that needs to be watched twice in order to adsorb all of the colossal information.

Spoiler Review… Seriously, if you have not seen the episode then DO NOT READ THIS! Trust me, you do not want this spoiled for you.

I remember the complete and utter shock I felt at the massive twists of chapters 85 and 86 of Attack on Titan.
The death of Grisha’s sister, Zeke being Grisha’s son and Eren’s half-brother, Dina being the smiling Titan the entire time, and Kruger turning out to the the Owl.
All of these twists are masterfully adapted in “That Day” where Grisha narrates over his tragic life.
This said, you may have to watch the episode a couple of times before you understand everything because there is so much information but this does not stop the twists from being mind blowing.
Following the post-credits scene of “The Basement”, the beginning of the story sees Grisha take his sister Fay to see the airship.
They are caught by two soldiers, Kruger and the detestably, yet appropriately named, Gross.
Since their race, Eldians, are not allowed outside their internment zone, Grisha is punished by receiving a beating from Kruger.
Sadly, Fay receives a far worst punishment as Gross feeds her to his sons’ dogs.
This tragedy leads to Grisha’s father telling him why they are being oppressed.
Nearly 2000 years ago, a woman named Ymir Fritz made a deal with the devil to obtain the power of the Titans.
After her death, her soul was split into the nine Titan Shifters who build the empire of Eldia and began a worldwide ethnic cleansing, which lasted around 1700 years.
However, the defeated nation of Marley managed to incite a civil war and get seven of the nine Titans under their control.
King Fritz, the holder of the Founding Titan, fled to the island of Paradis and created three walls to protect his people.
Those Eldians who were left on the continent were then persecuted for their ancestors’ sins, forced to live in ghettos and wear armbands.
However, this story cannot be taken at face value because it comes from a biased viewpoint.
It is plausible that the story of Eldians being descendant from the devil is just propaganda for Marley to justify its persecution of the Eldian race.
It is also just as plausible that the ideology Grisha later develops, that the Eldian empire was uncompromisingly good, is false as well.
Watching Grisha come to this conclusion to justify his anger towards Marley is very investing, just as much as what follows this.
After joining a resistance group, Eldia Restorationists, their spy in the Marleyan army, the Owl, sends the last descendant of the royal family, Dina Fritz, to help.
She and Grisha fall in love and have a son, Zeke.
That’s right, the Beast Titan is not only Grisha’s son but Eren’s half brother as well.
This also adds context to what Zeke was talking about when he told Eren his father had brainwashed him.
Grisha tried to force Zeke to become a Marleyan Warrior in an effort to steal the Founding Titan, pushing his ideology onto him.
Zeke, however, had no way of knowing that Grisha actually allowed Eren to develop his own ideology before giving him a Titan power.
He was not brainwashed like his brother was, which ultimately led Zeke to betray his parents and the Restorationists to the Marleyan authorities.
After being tortured for information, Grisha and the others are taken to Paradis to receive their life sentence of being turned into a mindless Titan.
There, Grisha is forced to watch as his friends and wife are all turned into Titans, some of which will look familiar to the viewer.
This is because, not only are many of the Restorationists Titans we saw in the battle of Trost, but Dina is also the smiling Titan, the one who ate Eren’s mother and Hannes.
No wonder this nightmare makes Eren scream upon waking up, as he is now starting to experience his father’s memories after learning the truth.
Back to Grisha’s plight, he realizes Gross and Kruger are there and he accuses Gross of murdering Fay.
Gross sadistically decides that he will make Grisha “dance” by feeding him to a mindless Titan.
Attack on Titan is a show where there really are no good guys or bad guys but Gross is the one exception.
He is disgustingly evil and revels in this, which makes it all the more satisfying to see Kruger push him off the wall so he is fed to a Titan just like he fed Fay to the dogs in a great sense of poetic justice.
This is one of the scenes I was disappointed to see censored because watching Gross get eaten is satisfying both because it allows the viewer to cheer as this monster is killed, and because it also ties into what Gross said about humans enjoying violence, pointing the finger at the viewer.
Kruger then reveals himself to be the Owl, before transforming into a Titan that strongly resembles Eren’s and attacking the remaining Marleyan forces, bringing the episode to a shocking end.
“That Day” is a fantastic episode.
It has so many exciting twists and turns with its massive exposition dump, which the episode somehow keeps interesting throughout its runtime.
Sadly, not everyone sees it this way.
Some are suggesting, or outright stating, that the information about the Eldians shows that the write,r Hajime Isayama, is an antisemitic fascist.
You can see these concerns being raised in the Polygon article “The fascist subtext of Attack on Titan can’t go overlooked”, where the absolutely ridiculous suggestion that some Titan noses are made to resemble antisemitic Jewish stereotypes is made.
Honestly, I rolled my eyes upon seeing this was an actual article.
People who think Attack on Titan is fascist seem to be conventionally forgetting that the main characters took down a monarchy with fascist elements this very season.
Not only this but if Attack on Titan is antisemitic, like some claim, then why are the characters who represent the Jews the main characters who we root for?
It makes no sense for the series to be fascist with all of its themes about freedom and it saddens me every time I see someone misinterpreting this.
Attack on Titan is a thoughtful story that is creating a message about cycles of hatred and “That Day” proves this.
It is an amazing episode that may actually be my favourite episode of the entire anime.

Dark Phoenix Review: Not a Complete Dumpster Fire but still a Fire.

I was not anticipating Dark Phoenix.
With the lackluster trailers, which spoil the film, and the numerous stories about production problems and reshoots, it seemed that the second attempt to adapt the X-Men’s Phoenix Saga was not going to work.
Sadly, this did prove to be the case because Dark Phoenix, directed by Simon Kinberg, is definitely one of the weakest X-Men films.
However, I will say that the movie is not as terrible as I thought it was going to be.
There are some redeeming qualities about it.
For starters, all of the actors do a good job with what they are given, especially Sophie Turner as Jean Grey.
I believe she could have done a fantastic job if the story had been good.

Jean Grey.jpg — Sophie Turner does a good job as the corrupted Jean Grey, and could have been fantastic had the script made her more than a pawn.

Then there is the action, which serves as some mindless entertainment.
Even though the final action sequence does have some atrocious CGI, it is still enjoyable to watch.
Dark Phoenix also starts out pretty promising.
For the first twenty minutes I was actually liking it.
Sure, it was not amazing or anything, but I felt like it would not be that bad.
And then the aliens showed up.
Lead by Jessica Chastain’s Vuk, these discount Skrulls should not have been in the movie.
Not only are they boring and uninteresting but the main threat of this story should have been Jean.
One of the big reasons many people find the Phoenix storyline so engaging is because the X-Men are forced to fight one of their own.
Yet, somehow, both this film, and The Last Stand, have Jean simply being a pawn for a bigger villain.

Jessica Chastain.jpg — The aliens should not have been in *Dark Phoenix.* People want to see the Phoenix Force being the main threat, not it being manipulated… again.

I wish I could say these aliens are the only bad things about Dark Phoenix but they are not.
While I did like the opening twenty minutes, there is one thing I absolutely hated there that persisted for most of the film.
This being the absolute character assassination of Charles Xavier (James McAvoy).
He acts nothing like the Xavier from the previous films, coming across as a complete narcissist, even after one of his close friends dies.
I get this was a part of his character arc but it does not work at all, considering how unlikable he is during the first hour and a half.

Charles Xavier resident asshole.jpg — Did a Skrull take over Charles Xavier? Well, one might as well have because this is not the Xavier we saw in the other films.

It is also obvious that there were reshoots done because sections the film feels different from the rest of it, creating a jumbled experience.
The cinematography is also just bland, with no interesting shots to speak of.
Dark Phoenix is a mess.
It has some redeeming qualities like the performances, a few decent action sequences, and the first twenty minutes.
Other than these features though, the film falls flat on its face.
There have been two attempts at adapting this story and both have failed.
Hopefully, the third time will be the charm if Marvel decides to reboot the X-Men franchise.
In any case Dark Phoenix is a forgettable film that ends the X-Men series on a less than memorable note.