Chainsaw Man Episode Three, Meowy’s Whereabouts Review: All to Cop a Feel.

The first two episodes of Chainsaw Man started off Mappa’s adaptation excellently but, in my opinion, it is Episodes Three and Four where the quality really gets into high gear.
Directed by Hinori Tanaka, Episode Three, “Meowy’s Whereabouts”, prepares us for the excellent quality of animation we are going to see right from the get-go.
“Meowy’s Whereabouts” begins simply, picking up in the aftermath of Power destroying the Sea Cucumber Devil.
Makima is disappointed in Power for killing the devil since it was already being taken care, and in Denji for not controlling Power.
Makima then questions if Power is cut out to be a Devil Hunter.
This scares Power, who attempts to place the blame all on Denji, causing an argument, which comes to an end when Makima calmly asks them to quiet down.
Despite the calmness of this request Power is again terrified into submission, as she timidly agrees to work with Denji.
Although this opening scene is a simple one, animation wise, I was still amazed by simple details like Makima resting her face in her hand.
Even little details like her fingernails were much more detailed than in other anime, preparing us for the fantastic animation that is to come when Denji eventually faces off against the Bat Devil in the back half of the episode.
“Meowy’s Whereabouts” then goes about setting that fight up with its next scene, as Denji and Power are hanging around some vending machines.
A cat approaches Power and she uses this as an opportunity to talk about her own cat Meowy, who was kidnapped by a devil.
Denji seems uninterested, focusing on his goal of touching boobs.
This results in a good laugh when Power manipulates Denji into helping, saying she would let him touch hers if he saves Meowy, causing Denji to act outraged that the devil stole the cat and vowing to save it.
Yet, he is completley unaware that Power has just lured him into a trap.
Although, so is the audience, at that point.
Following the intro, Denji and Power head off to save Meowy, with Denji attempting to relate to Power by talking about Pochita, saying he is sad he cannot pet him because he lives in his heart.
However, much like Denji dismissed Meowy before Power made her offer, Power too dismisses Pochita, believing Denji is just saying that as a way to get through his grief.
It is interesting how despite having a similar love for their pets, Power and Denji still do not get along at this stage and dismiss each other’s feelings, something that will be resolved as the episode progresses.
Before that can happen, however; the scene cuts to Makima being interviewed by her bosses about her squad, to which she describes Denji as “interesting”, while she and her bosses use plenty of dog metaphors for him again.
On the drive back, Aki questions Makima about finding Denji “interesting”, and it is here that we get one of the first big lore dumps of the series, as Makima describes how devils work.
She states that every devil is born with a name and how much that name is feared determines how strong the devil is.
So, for example, a coffee devil would be rather weak but a car devil would be pretty strong since there is a common fear of being run over.
Therefore, a Chainsaw Devil would have to be powerful as well, which is the implication Makima gives for why she finds Denji so interesting.
Aki still insists on Denji being unhelpful and what happens next initially proves him to be right.
As Denji and Power approach the abandoned house where Meowy is being held hostage, Denji wonders why Power is approaching with him because she said the devil would kill Meowy if she got close.
This causes Power’s entire story to fall apart and, once Denji realizes he has been lured into a trap, he lunges forward, only to be too slow as Power whacks him over the head with a hammer made from her blood.
She then drags the injured Denji inside the house where the Bat Devil is waiting for her.
The Bat Devil’s arm was cut off by a Devil Hunter so he uses Denji’s blood to revive himself, only to be disgusted by the taste.
Therefore, he decides to punish Power.
By this point, one could be forgiven for thinking that Power had lied to Denji about Meowy but it is revealed she was telling the truth as the Bat Devil has taken Meowy hostage.
His punishment for Power is for her to watch as he swallows Meowy hole, while she looks on in horror.
We then get a flashback to show how the bond between the two formed.
After the Blood Devil became the Fiend known as Power, she killed and ate everything she came across.
This was until Meowy found her, after Power had killed a bear.
However, Meowy was skin and bones so Power began to feed them in the hopes of fattening them up so she could eat them.
What she did not count on, however, was becoming attatched to Meowy.
It was after she had this realization that the Bat Devil took Meowy hostage, ordering Power to find him a human to eat to save her cat.
Power ran off to do so, only to be eventually captured by Makima off screen.
With the flashback done, the scene changes to present day, where we finally get the first moment of conciliation between Power and Denji, as Power states that she now finally understands how Denji felt when he said that he could no longer pet Pochita.
The Bat Devil’s punishment for Power continues, as he eats her next.
He probably should have chewed, however, because seeing Power and Meowy trapped in the Bat Devil’s stomach makes Denji rush to save them by catching a ride on the Bat Devil.
“Gimme my tits back!” He humorously shouts, calling back to his deal with Power.
But Denji’s reasons for trying to save Power does not fully conform with this dream as he also wants to save her because he has finally come to sympathise with her, just like she did him.
As Denji pulls the rip cord on his chest to unleash his chainsaw powers, he recalls a time when he lost Pochita and became scared that he had eaten by a devil, only to find him when he came back home.
He and Pochita then slept beside each other and Denji remembers how relieved he felt, before wondering how scared Power must have been sleeping while knowing the Bat Devil had Meowy.
This thought concluded, Denji begins his rescue attempt for Power and Meowy in spectacular and gory fashion, as the chainsaw rips through his own head as he transforms.
He then cuts off the Bat Devil’s arm again, causing the two of them to fall from the sky, crashing into a building, nearly hitting a woman.
Denji urges the woman to flee before she gets eaten.
A gloriously animated fight then follows between Denji and the Bat Devil, during which Denji also saves a father and daughter, both of whom should look familar to manga readers.
This is because they are the father and daughter from Chapter Two who were cut from the anime.
However, even though Denji does save them, he could care less about other people, as he throws a car at the Bat Devil with a man still inside.
The man barely manages to get out in time, thankfully.
Afterwards, the Bat Devil seems to be put an end to the fight, defeating Denji with a sonic sound wave, which has great sound design, by the way.
The Bat Devil is then about to begin feasting on humans once more, only for Denji to emerge from the rumble of a building, angrily declaring how mad he is about not being about to cop a feel yet.
It is quite hilarious to hear Denji’s voice actor, Kikunosuke Toya, scream so passionately about this.
The Bat Devil is also stunned by this because it causes him to drop the person he was about to eat.
The question is if he dropped the man out of fear for Denji or because he was stumped by how stupid Denji is.
My money is on both.
Denji then easily kills the Bat Devil in bloody fashion, ripping him open, as blood rains down on him in a killer shot that brings an end to the episode.
We then get our third ED “Hawatari 2-oku Centi” by Maximum the Hormone, which is my favourite so far, with its visuals and foreshadowing for the future.
The entire fight between Denji and the Bat Devil this episode was absolutley excellent, with incredible animation throughout.
I am extremely glad that it was Mappa who was chosen to animate Chainsaw Man because of how great of a job they have been doing and I cannot wait to see more.

Manga Spoilers Section:
One thing I enjoyed about how “Meowy’s Whereabouts” adapted the manga was how well it translated Power’s fear of Makima.
From the animation of her reaction, to Fairouz Ai’s voice performance; all of this does a great job at foreshadowing how Makima is bad news.
Another nice detail was the inclusion of the father and daughter from Chapter Two, who are saved by Denji from the Bat Devil here, instead of the Muscle Devil.
This meant that they could be used for an Episode Four scene, where Aki flashes back to them talking about how Denji saved them.
I will talk about that scene in the review for that episode, which I will be releasing alongside this one.

House of the Dragon Episode Three, Second of His Name Review: The War in the Stepstones.

Episode Three of House of the Dragon, “Second of His Name” is probably my least favourite of the four episodes so far, however, this does not mean I consider it bad, just the weakest.
The Greg Yaitanes directed episode certainly starts off fantastic, by showing just how badly the war in the Stepstones is going for Daemon, Corlys and the Velaryon fleet, as we see the Crab Feeder and his men nailing captured soldiers to stakes on the beach, so they can be eaten by crabs.
One such soldier is particularly defiant, and his cries of how the Crab Feeder’s time is up seems almost foretold when Daemon launches a surprise attack with Caraxes.
The staked soldier calls out to Daemon for help, certain that he is about to be rescued, and I am sure this is where we all realized this guy was going to be collateral damage.
What was the bigger suprise was him getting stomped to death by Caraxes, rather than burned alive, although I suppose it is the better way to go.
This brutal end is not for the Crab Feeder yet, however, as he and his men hide in caves to avoid the dragon fire, which is how they have managed to drag this war out.
It makes a lot of sense when you think about how this guerilla warfare is one of the many tactics Dorne used to avoid being taken over by Aegon the Conqueror.
Eventually, Daemon is forced to flee when he takes an arrow to the shoulder and we get an interesting moment of Caraxes reacting to this, as if he can feel Daemon’s pain, showing how close the bond is between a rider and their dragon.
After this display of how poorly the war in the Stepstones is going, we cut back to King’s Landing, where a hunt is being planned to celebrate the second birthday of Visery’s son by Alicent, Aegon.
Three years hve passed since the end of the second episode, where Viserys declared that he would marry Alicent, and this is where one of my minor issues with the episode comes into play.
I was a bit disappointed that we did not see Rhanerya’s first interaction with Alicent after Visery’s announcement, nor her reaction to Aegon’s birth, considering now Viserys has a son who everyone wants him to replace her with.
Still, we do get a bit of a display of both in the following scenes, as Otto’s brother Hobert pressures him to convince Viserys to name Aegon the heir, and Alicent then goes to retrieve Rhanerya for the hunt.
She is sitting below the Wierwood Tree where she and Alicent were shown talking in Episode One, only now she is listening to a bard sing about Nymeria and her 10,000 ships.
Interestingly enough, this is what she and Alicent were talking about in that scene from “Heirs of the Dragon” so I am sure that Rhanerya listening to this, rather than talking about it with Alicent, is an indicator of how far their friendship has fallen.
Further proof of this is how cold Rhanerya is to Alicent now, wanting the bard to keep singing over the queen, but Alicent outranks her so she sends him away.
Alicent seems much more confident than she did in the first few episodes, now commanding people as opposed to constantly being ordered around by Otto.
She convinces Rhanerya to come along, although reluctantly, and throughout the journey Rhanerya does an honestly bad job of making allies, something she will need in the years that follow.
That said, she is not exactly wrong either, criticising Lady Redwyne for complaining about the War in the Stepstones when she just eats cake all day.
Well, well, it seems Rhanerya really does jest about cake, the little liar.
On another note, did anyone find the random pug Lady Redwyne was holding to be weirdly funny?
Out of all the animals I expected to see in a Game of Thrones show, a pug was not one of them.
Rhanerya’s next interaction is with a new key character, Jason Lannister.
What is funny about this character is that he is played by Jefferson Hall, who played Hugh of the Vale in Game of Thrones.
Not only that but Hall also plays Tyland Lannister, Jason’s meek twin brother.
Jason is much more assertive than his brother but also pompous and arrogant.
Hall honestly does a great job of making us dislike the character based on his attitude alone.
His attitude certainly does not impress Rhanerya, who immediately spurns his marriage proposal and storms off to argue with Viserys about him planning to have her married off.
It is here that neither royal proves very smart by taking their argument to a private area.
Instead, they argue loudly in full view of everyone, displaying a loud amount of weakness, something you must never do in the game of thrones.
Thankfully, Otto is there to break it up but only to further his attempt to persuade Viserys to name Aegon heir by declaring that a White Hart, a sign of royalty, has been spotted in the area, indicating Aegon’s legitimacy as heir to the various lords.
In frustration Rhanerya storms off, leaving Criston Cole to pursue her.
The two have some good banter and we see how Cole appreicates Rhanerya for granting him a place in the Kinsguard, a high position for the son of steward.
Their stay in the woods goes on into the night, while Viserys continues to entertain various lords at camp, among them Jason, who presents him with a spear and uses it as a means to offer to marry Rhanerya.
Unfortunately for him, he chooses his words very poorly, thinking that it is a fact that Viserys will name Aegon heir, replacing Rhanerya.
This causes Viserys to grow a backbone and his verbal beatdown of Jason was excellent to watch.
The next marrige proposal Viserys gets for Rhanerya comes from Otto and it is a suprising one.
Otto wants Viserys to betroth Rhanerya to Aegon.
Viserys, naturally, laughs at this idea because Aegon is a toddler.
When you think about it from Otto’s perspective, however, it is interesting to see why he makes this proposal.
He has just been pressured by his brother to convince Viserys to name Aegon heir, however, given how smart Otto is, he likely knows Viserys is reluctant to supplant Rhanerya.
So, he suggests marrying Rhanerya to Aegon, which would make Aegon the future king so, even if Rhanerya remains heir, the lords of Westeroes would still acknowledge Aegon more as the rightful ruler because of the patriarchal society they live in.
As I said, though, Viserys thankfully shoots this idea down, growing more displeased with every proposal of marriage for Rhanerya.
The final lord to make a suggestion is Lord Lyonel (Gavin Spokes), who proves himself to be the most honourable man in Visery’s small council.
Rather than propose that Rhanerya marry his son Harwin for his own family’s power, Lyonel instead proposes that Rhanerya marry Laenor Velaryon, the son of Corlys, since this will help mend the broken relationship between the crown and House Velaryon.
It is rare to see a lord outside of the Starks give advice to the king that is good for the realm rather than just for their own political ambition.
Lyonel reminded me a lot of the show version of Varys in this moment and Viserys also seems to have appreciated the good advice, patting Lyonel on the shoulder as he drunkenly stumbles out.
Meanwhile, Rhanerya and Cole are still out in the woods and have made camp and Rhanerya asks him if he thinks the realm would ever accept her as queen.
Cole answers that they will have no choice but to, which is not exactly a good answer.
Before the two can continue their discussion, they are interrupted by an attacking boar.
Their luck is far better than Robert Barethon, however, as they slay the boar, with Rhanerya getting blood all over herself.
While this is happening, Viserys is standing drunk at his own campfire, when Alicent approahces him and Viserys goes on a drunken rant about the dream he had of his son becoming king, leading to Aemma’s death and how the guilt from it resulted in him naming Rhanerya heir.
It is here where I once again have to give praise to Paddy Considine.
Every episode his performance is fantastic and he has turned the one dimensional ruler from Fire and Blood into a sympathetic, yet flawed and complicated character who is incredibly investing to watch.
This continues in the following scene, where a stag is captured in the hunt, rather than a White Hart, the animal that was supposed to signify Aegon’s right to rule.
It is difficult to tell if the look on Viserys’ face at the sight is one of disappointment or relief.
Knowing how complicated Viserys is, it’s probably a mixture of both.
In the end Viserys’ kills the stag, although he does a poor job of it, displaying yet more weakness while his men applaud.
It is Rhanerya who shows true strength, as she and Cole come across the White Hart, signifying to the audience that she is the rightful heir, yet Rhanerya chooses to let the animal go.
I have to wonder what the lords’ reactions would be if Rhanerya actually walked back into camp with a dead White Hart, though?
I am sure they would have found some mental gymnastics to explain how it was still a sign of Aegon’s right to rule but I feel it would have brought quite a few allies to her side, not that Rhanerya does not do that already when she walks into camp.
As we can see, a few people are impressed by her walking in, covered in the blood of the boar, in particular Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr), who throws her an impressed grin.
After the hunt, the royals and lords return to King’s Landing, where Otto turns to plan b for convincing Viserys to name Aegon heir… have Alicent do it.
Although Otto is still manipulative with his daughter, it is interesting to see the shift in the power dynamic, as Alicent fights the idea a lot more, having gained confidence as queen.
It was bit distracting to see the orgy art in the background of this scene though.
Wonder what the High Septon would think of that?
As for Alicent, she does go to talk with Viserys but, as proof that she is still a good person, rather than attempting to convince him to name Aegon heir, what she actually does is convince Viserys to help out in the Stepstones by sending support.
Another interesting detail in this scene is Viserys’ hand, as when he removes his gloves we can see that he has lost two of his fingers from the cuts he recieved when sitting the Iron Thone, yet another sign of his weak nature as a king.
The next morning Viserys summons Rhanerya to speak of her future marriage and the two argue again, with Rhanerya making a lot of good points like that if Viserys had married for political reasons then he would have just married Laena rather than Alicent.
Viserys concedes to this but does make good points for why Rhanerya needs to marry because it will help build alliances and any children she has will strengthen her line and claim to the throne.
However, he does allow Rhanerya to make her own choice in husband, just like he chose Alicent.
He ends the conversation by revealing to Rhanerya that he did waver about keeping her as heir but swears on Aemma’s memory that he will not replace her with Aegon, temporarily bridging the gap between father and daughter once more.
The episode then cuts from this touching moment to the war in the Stepstones, where Corlys and his advisors, including his brother Vaemond (Wil Johnson) and son Laenor (Theo Nate), are planning their next move.
Laenor has an ambitious plan to draw out the Crab Feeder using Daemon as bait but Vaemond is against this, leading to Laenor dubbing him “the master of complaints” in a funny moment.
As the argument progresses, Daemon arrives, followed by messengers, who deliver Daemon a letter from Viserys, promising his brother aid.
Rather than react joyfully, Daemon reacts violently, beating the messenger, since the entire reason he entered this war was to gain recognition for himself, and Viserys sending him help now would make him weak.
This causes Daemon to go on a suicide mission, appearing to surrender to the Crab Feeder’s men, before killing them and going on a mad dash to reach his opponent, dodging multiple arrows before being struck.
Then, right as Daemon is surrounded and about to be killed, Corlyss’ forces arrive, with Laenor on his dragon Seasmoke.
United, Corlys’ forces defeat the Crabfeeder’s, while Daemon chases the prince down and cuts him in half off screen, emerging from the cave blood soaked.
The episode then ends on Daemon having proved himself with blood, just like Rhanerya did on the hunting trip earlier.
Oh, and Daemon does all of this without a single word, making it even more awesome.
As for the Crab Feeder, I was a bit disappointed not to see their fight since Episode Two’s cliffhanger hyped it up but the Crab Feeder is pretty much a footnote in the book so I suppose it makes sense.
Although, I do have quite a few criticisms of this battle, mainly Daemon’s plot armour.
Sure, it is can be argued that a group of archers would find it difficult to hit a lone man at a distance, but Daemon still seems to recover from the arrow wounds he does get very quickly.
Then there’s the fact that the Crab Feeder’s army surrounds Daemon first, rather than immediately kill him, allowing Laenor and Seasmoke to blast them with fire, which also somehow avoids hitting Daemon.
Finally, there is the fact that Corlys’ army is somehow able to completley sneak up on the Crab Feeder’s with no one noticing.
Admittedly, had this been in any other show then it would not have been as much of an issue.
But, since House of the Dragon is a Game of Thrones show, this did break my suspension of disbelief slightly and reminded me of the absurd plot armour seen in Seasons Seven and Eight of the original show.
It was these issues that made “Second of His Name” the weakest episode of the show so far, for me, although it is certainly by no means a bad episode.

Book Spoiler Section:

For Episode Three’s spoiler section, I do not have much to discuss, other than some of the minor characters introduced who will later go on to be important, like Harwin and Larys Strong (Mathew Needham).
Harwin smiling at Rhanerya when she walks into camp is a great touch, subtly hinting at their future relationship.
As for Larys, I did not catch that he deliberately sat himself amongst the women so he could gather information until someone pointed it out online.
Already, he is setting himself up to be a Varys or Littlefinger type of character and most of the show only audience do not even realise this yet.
I look forward to seeing how these two characters will be portrayed in future episodes.

Spy x Family, Episode Three, Prepare for the Interview Review: A Family Ooting.

I was quite interested to see how the third episode of Spy x Family would turn out, since the preview showed there would be some anime original scenes.
Directed by Takashi Kataragi, Episode Three, “Prepare for the Interview” begins with such a scene, as Yor is welcomed to her new home by Twilight and Anya.
This is then followed up by another wholesome anime original section, as Anya shows Yor around the place, including adorable moments, like when Anya pretends to be her toy greeting Yor, and great gags, like when Yor stops Anya from touching her stash of poison.
The funniest anime original gag of the scene, though, is the two moments when Anya claims to have helped, looking for approval, only for Twilight to reveal how Anya failed to help both times, causing Anya to give some of her classic mortified faces.
Afterwards, we get back to the adaptation of the manga, with Twilight running a practice interview for Yor and Anya, which goes about as poorly as expected, especially for Yor, who equates passing the interview with the passing of her victims, much to Anya’s comedic horror.
Hoping to give the two an experience of what it is like to be a cultured family, Twilight then takes them out on what Anya calls “an ooting.”
The adorable telepath then attempts to get closer to her new mama, offering to hold Yor’s hand, only for her to read Yor’s mind and hear how she accidentally broke her brother’s ribs once because she hugged him too hard.
Cue yet another humorous horrified expression from Anya as she runs to hide, before Twilight takes them all to various cultured places.
There’s the opera, where Anya falls asleep and Yor looks rather distressed, and an art museum, where Anya yells out that she can see a woman’s boobies in a painting and Yor is excited by a painting of an execution, much to Twilight’s dismay.
The Forgers’ next two stops are the tailor and a photography shop where they get an awkward family photo, before eventually stopping at a restaurant, where Anya eats with her hands and Yor is fascinated by a knife, once again scaring Twilight into thinking he may have picked the wrong family.
Wanting to cheer Twilight up, Yor takes him and Anya to a spot overlooking the city with a great view.
This has a much more melancholic effect on Twilight, however, as he looks at a group of children playing with a sad expression on his face, a moment that may not mean much to anime only watchers but, for the readers of the most recent manga chapter, takes on a much more unfortunate meaning.
Twilight does not have time to dwell on this, however, because down below a thief steals an elderly woman’s purse and the newfound family work togethor to catch him, because what family ooting is complete without bringing a criminal to justice, am I right?
While Yor initially gives chase and then helps the elderly woman, Anya manages to find the thief by reading his mind and pointing him out to Twilight without the spy realizing it.
Twilight then takes down the thief and retrieves the elderly woman’s purse, who thanks him and Yor by agressively shaking their hands, a display which makes Twilight happy, as it is probably the first moment he has ever been thanked for his efforts, since spying is naturally a mostly thankless task.
Twilight then goes on to thank Yor for changing the pace of the day, causing the two to blush and Anya to speculate that the two are flirting, earning a shocked display from both would-be parents, who deny this wholeheartedly.
Upon arriving home, Twilight again tests Anya, which goes well at first, until Anya recalls Twilight beating up the thief he caught.
However, Twilight takes some comfort in the fact that the elderly woman they helped clearly saw him, Yor and Anya as a happy family, which is key to his mission, bringing an end to the episode with the start of the ED.
This ED is “Comedy” by Gen Hoshino, and it is just as good as the OP, presenting a pleasant feel-good vibe.
“Prepare for the Interview” is another enjoyable Spy x Family episode, with some great anime only additions, which do not feel out of place at all.
This episode also does a good job of building into the next one, with the actual interview and the introduction of a certain elegant character.

The Wheel of Time, Episode Three, A Place of Safety Review: A Gleeman’s Exposition.

Episode Three of The Wheel of Time, “A Place of Saftey”, is the second best episode of the first three.
It may have the best scene of these episodes but it also has one particular scene that holds it back right behind Episode Two, “Shadow’s Waiting.”
Directed by Wayne Yip, “A Place of Saftey” begins like I thought it would, by explaining how Nynaeve escaped from the Trolloc that kidnapped her in “Leavetaking.”
Waking up after the Trolloc puts her down, Nynaeve sees the monster brutally kill and start eating an injured member of its kind, showing just how merciless the Trollocs have been created to be.
Using this as a chance to escape, Nynaeve flees to the sacred rock pool to hide but is quickly tracked down by the Trolloc, forcing her to go underwater.
The Trolloc follows but that was its mistake because Nynaeve knows these waters, and is able to expertly sneak up behind it and then kill it with its own blade, the blood forming a Dragon’s Fang symbol.
Nynaeve then emerges victorious with her iconic braid flip.

We got the braid flip, now we just need the braid tug.

Following the title sequence, we then cut to the present, with Nynaeve still holding the same blade she took from the Trolloc to Lan’s throat, demanding to know where her friends are.
Lan defends Moiraine’s actions, explaining that he is the one who left the four, and now Moiraine is Nynaeve’s only hope of finding them so she needs to help her.
Unfortunately for Lan, he underestimates Nynaeve, thinking she won’t try to kill him but, oh, how wrong he is.
His surprised, “you tried to kill me” after she attempts it, only to be stopped by Lan’s skill, had me chuckling.
Lan then knocks her out and we cut to the best storyline of the episode with Rand and Mat, as the two are leaving Shadar Logoth, still calling for Egwene and Perrin.
Mat wants to head back home but Rand wants to head to the White Tower so he can find Egwene, since he knows she will go there.
It is here they we also get some pretty good comedy, with Rand saying, “all roads lead to the White Tower” and Mat wittingly replying, “that’s not how roads work.”
In the end, though, Mat agrees to go with Rand.
The episode then changes scenes to the weakest storyline of the episode with Egwene and Perrin, as the two are being pursued by wolves and take shelter.
There is nothing wrong with this scene, though, it’s only a later scene I have an issue with that brings this storyline down.
This first scene of Perrin and Egwene’s is actually pretty good, with Egwene continuing to test her Chanelling of the One Power, starting a fire for them to keep warm.
We then go back to Lan, Nynaeve and Moiraine, with Nynaeve waking up, tied to a tree with a gag in her mouth.
Lan ungags her to give her some water and asks if she’s ready to cooperate, and Nynaeve replies if she does Moiraine better have the answers she needs.
Then in a moment that is classic Nynaeve from the books, Lan asks if she’s in a position to make demands and Nynaeve replies, “it’s not a demand, it’s a threat.”
Zoë Robbins is continuing to do a great job as Nynaeve.
Lan does allow Nynaeve to treat Moiraine after this, though, and we get some more good interactions between them.
Following this comes an intriguing scene where Perrin has a nightmare about the mysterious man with fire eyes, where he sees his wife’s dead body being eaten by a wolf (I will get into why this is intriguing in the book spoilers section).

Perrin sees the ember eyed man in his dreams.

However, when Perrin wakes up, we get the worst scene of the episode: the wolf chase scene.
This chase just feels very artificial, with constant cuts that make it feel like they didn’t want the audience to focus on the sketchiness of the wolf CGI.
It really drags Perrin and Egwene’s storyline down in this episode.
Well, at least we follow this scene up by cutting back to the best storyline of the episode, Rand and Mat’s, where we see them finding a small village, which serves as their titular “Place of Safety.”
This title is ironic, though, because it is made clear right fom the beginning that it is anything but safe, with Rand and Mat seeing a dead man strung up in a cage.
Mat’s desire for jewels then starts to get the better of him, as he sees something shining in the dead man’s pocket.
Yet, he has no time to snatch it, so he and Rand walk into the tavern to try and find a place to rest for the night.
The barmaid, Dana (Izuka Hoyle), alerts them to a gleeman about to perform, and it is here that we are finally introduced to a fan favouite character, Thom Merrilin (Alexandre Willaume).
On that note, I will say that Thom is much more serious and gruffer than he is in the books.
However, this is not a bad thing, as I do personally like this take on the character.
His first scene is also great, serving as a nice piece of exposition about the Dragon who broke the world.
The lyrics tell you the story and in a way that does not make it sound like you are being spoken down to, as all good exposition should.
Willaume is also a good singer, so they clearly made that a part of the casting, which was a great decision.

Thom mostly serves as an exposition character in this episode but an excellent one at that.

Thom then talks with Rand and Mat, and it’s immediately apparent how he is different from the books, as he actually takes their money.
The two boys then manage to get a room at the tavern by doing jobs for Dana.
Or, at least, Rand does because mat is more of a jerk about it.
Although, this does lead to some good humour from Mat again.
Meanwhile Moiraine’s condition is still deteroirating, even after Nynaeve’s help, so Lan goes to find some help himsef.
From here, the scene once again changes to Perrin and Egwene, but in a much better scene than the one before because it actually explores Perrin’s guilt for killing Laila.
After following the wagon tracks to try find help, Perrin volunteers to go ahead and see if the people they’re tracking are safe.
Egwene recognises that this is because of what happened with Laila and says that it was not his fault.
Marcus Rutherford’s broken reply of “it is” is gut wrenching.
It makes me wonder if Perrin will eventually confess to what he did later in the season.
In any case, the two do follow the wagon tracks and find that their “Place of Saftey” is much better than Rand and Mat’s, as they meet up with the Tinkerers, a group of nomadic travellers, among them the family consisting of Ila (Maria Doyle Kennedy), Raen (Narinda Samra), and Aram (Daryl McCormack).
The tinkerers take the two in but their introduction is a bit shaky, appearing as if from nowhere, which is quite strange since there’s a lot of them.
We do get a brief look into their culture, though, with them looking for a song, so that is interesting.
Meanwhile, Rand and Dana grow closer, and we get another great bit of comedy, where Dana mistakes Rand and Mat for a couple and Rand corrects her saying, “if I wanted a man, I could do better.”
Later that night, Mat goes to take the jewel from the dead man in the cage but is confronted by Thom, who came to bury the man.
After Mat says he has been attacked by Trollocs before, peaking Thom’s interest, the gleeman asks Mat about his Two Rivers past, noticing his accent and other features.
After cutting down the man, Thom points out to Mat that he is of a people known as the Aeil, as seen by his clothing and red hair, unusual to see outside the Aeil Waste.
He then shows Mat an important part of their culture, as the dead man is not veiled, showing he had no murderous intent because his veil would be up if he did, proving the man meant no harm when he was murdered.

Thom again serves as a good use for exposition, teaching Mat and us about the Aeil.

Thom then allows Mat to take the jewel and a stone dog from the Aeil before the two bury him and exchange names.
While this is all happening, Rand and Dana are talking and Rand has an introspective moment where he says, “I don’t know shit.”
As a book reader, this and other moments with such words struck me as odd.
It’s not a spoiler to say that in The Wheel of Time the characters have their own swear words, like “Light” and “Blood and bloody ashes,” so it is a bit weird to hear common swear words used instead of the ones from the books.
Not a big thing but it does feel a bit weird to me.
The scene quickly turns deadly seriously, however, when Dana tries to kiss Rand, only to lock him inside the room when he rebuffs her, revealing that she knows about Egwene.
Dana is a Darkfriend who serves the Dark One and her job is to capture Rand and Mat.
When Dana was first introduced, I thought she was just going to be an innocent person who would die when minions of the Dark One showed up to kill Rand and Mat, so the reveal that she herself was one of those minions was a pleasant surprise.
Rand tries to break down the door but Dana assures him that he will not be able to because it is made of ironwood and it would take more than three men his size to break down.
Well, unfortunately, Dana may need to take up some issues with whoever told her this because Rand is able to break the door down after a few more shoves, running outside to grab Mat.
The two flee from Dana, who has Rand’s sword, but she knows this town better than them so is easily able to cut them off.
She says she has seen all five of them in her dreams, which makes a lot of sense, since she called out to Rand and Mat when they first walked into her tavern, but only one of them can be the Dragon Reborn.
Mat takes note of the five, though, meaning it probably will not be long until they learn Nynaeve is alive.
Dana says she’s going to be like Ishamael, someone who brought the Dragon to the Dark One 3,000 years ago, while claiming the Dark One does not want to kill Rand and Mat, he only wants to break the Wheel which is what she wants.

Dana relatably shows why someone may side with the Dark One.

When Rand insists on leaving, she prepares to hold them off, saying she has already called a Fade to come and kidnap them.
But, before she can do anything, Thom kills her by throwing a knife into her neck, then insisting the two boys come with him to stay safe.
Rand is reluctant but eventually agrees, along with Mat, and retrieves his sword.
As the shot pans across Dana’s blood, it fades into a fantastic transition to the landscape Lan and Nynaeve are travelling on with a still sick Moiraine.
They meet up with a group of Aes Sedai, lead by Liandrin, who reveals they have caught someone claiming to be the Dragon Reborn, a man named Logain (Alvaro Morte), whose reveal serves as the cliffhanger for episode three.

I was quite excited to see Logain since his arc is fantastic in the books.

Overall, “A Place of Saftey” was another good episode.
It has the best storyline of the first three, with Rand and Mat’s story, even if it is weakened slightly by the problems of the Perrin and Egwene scenes.

Book Spoilers:
You know, I really should have seen Dana being a Dark Friend coming.
After all, Rand and Mat are attacked by many of them after fleeing Shadar Logoth in the first book.
I guess these events just happened so quickly in the who compared to “The Eye of the World” that I just forgot it would happen.
Although, this did make its eventual reveal nicer.
Another great thing about this storyline was the many instances of foreshadowing for Rand being the Dragon Reborn.
The shot focuses on him at one point when Thom is singing about the Dragon, Thom points out the Aeil hair colour, which is the same is Rand’s, and, most obviously, Rand knocks down a door down that is strong enough to trap three men his size.
That last one is probably the first instance of Rand channeling.

This being Rand’s first instance chanelling was a good idea because for show only fans it raises questions, while not being too obvious that he is the Dragon Reborn.

Then there’s Rand’s reaction to Thom killing Dana, which I also found to be interesting because of how it connects to Rand from the books.
Book Rand hated hurting women and this came back to bite him a couple of times when he underestimated some of the female Foresaken, like Semirhage, and I think Rand’s angry reaction to Dana’s death was a representation of that.
It’s also clear how the cursed dagger is starting to corrupt Mat, with him being a jerk compared to the previous episode where he comforted Perrin.
Another thing I liked was how the Lan and Nynaeve scenes were handled.
In “The Eye of the World,” their relationship was merely hinted at before its reveal.
I did pick up these hints but I understand some did not so it’s good that they’re being more obvious with its build up here.
Back to the Perrin and Egwene storyline, I was a bit sad to see that Elyas did not show up.
There has been no news about his casting, so I did not expect him to appear but it was still unfortunate.
I wonder how Perrin is going to even learn about his ability since he does not have someone to teach him, like in the books.
Then, there’s Perrin’s nightmare about Laila, which is interesting because the wolves are on the side of the Light in the Wheel of Time, so it does not make much sense for them to be eating someone in the Wolf Dream… unless Laila was a Dark Friend.
This could be potential evidence for that theory but if it is true it is just a matter of how it will be revealed.
Maybe Padan Fain could reveal it to Perrin whenever he shows up again?

Either Dana is a Darkfriend or the wolf eating her is a plot hole.

As for Logain, the ending made me quite excited for his show storyline, especially after seeing how he achieved his glory in “A Memory of Light.”
I wish he got more POV chapters in the books so the show could really do a good job of making him standout if they focus on him.

Attack on Titan Season Four, Episode Three, The Door of Hope Review: A Doorway to Misery.

Being Reiner sucks.
I’m sure that’s a thought that passed through many viewers’ minds upon watching the third episode of Attack on Titan‘s final season, “The Door of Hope.”
Directed by Kōki Aoshima and Hiromi Nishiyama, the episode details the many, many, many times that life has kicked Reiner to the ground and then spat on him for good measure.
If you hated Reiner in prior seasons for his actions, then you may find it rather difficult to hate him after what we see him go through, as “The Door of Hope” is primarily a flashback episode to Reiner’ time as a Warrior on Paradis.
Before the episode gets to that point though, it starts off with Reiner’s humble beginnings, as his mother revealed to him as a child that his father was a Marleyan and the only way they could all be together was if they became honorary Marleyans.
This motivates Reiner to become a hero to the world by slaughtering the “island devils” so that both his parents will be proud of him.
However, this is easier said than done because Reiner is by far the weakest out of all the Warrior candidates, as pointed out by Porco.
This causes Reiner to go full brainwashed indoctrination mode, accusing Porco of being a Restorationist sympathiser, which results in him getting punched to the ground, not the last time this will happen in the episode.
Unfortunately, it is also here that I have to state one of my criticisms of “The Door of Hope”, which is the soundtrack used for this scene.
The music itself is great but it doesn’t suit the scene at all, being more fitting for an action scene than a dialogue driven one and this drew me out of the moment.
Still, the scene makes up for it with its showcases of Annie and Bertholdt, and the symbolism.
Bertholdt helps Reiner to his feet, showing his good nature that would later be corrupted by what he does on their mission in Paradis as the fearsome Colossal Titan.
This is contrasted by Annie, who seems well suited for the Female Titan already, crushing a bug under her feet, just like she would go on to crush the numerous Scouts who got in her way when she tried to capture Eren both times.
With this characterization done, the scene then transitions into some fantastic symbolism when, while Reiner looks up at the Wall separating the Liberio Eldians from the Marleyans, on Paradis, presumably at the same time, Eren looks up at the walls separating him from freedom.
Both are trapped by walls and both are now given the opportunity to move forward past them. Reiner now has the motivation to become a Warrior so he can achieve his goal of becoming an Honorary Marleyan, and Eren is being approached by Armin with the book that will create his motivation to strive for freedom, no matter how far he will have to go to achieve it.
Following this great piece of symbolism, showing how similar Eren and Reiner are, we then get the first of many scenes that are improvements from the manga.
The first of these is the recap of six of Marley’s Titans, as we see them destroy an enemy nation’s military with a display of each of their powers and a description of their users.
The way this scene is edited with the files of each Warrior, followed by their power being shown, and this all ending with the portrayal of the Colossal Titan’s nuke attack as a “god of destruction” is way more intense than it was in the manga.
Another step up comes when Marcel is eaten by Ymir, which is framed like a scene from a horror film.
This moment came after Marcel revealed to Reiner that the only reason he became a Warrior was because he spoke up for him while criticizing Porco to the military, which he did to save his brother from shortening his lifespan by inheriting a Titan.
Marcel revealing this before he dies saving Reiner is just another in a long list of Reiner being kicked while he’s down, both figuratively and literally.
Figuratively, when he first meets his father only for him to call him and his mother a devil and run away from him, and literally, when Annie almost kicks Reiner to death after they lose Marcel.
The latter scene is particularly brutal, with some fantastic work from Annie’s voice actress, Yū Shimamura, in a scene that tells us so much about Annie’s mental state, being the least brainwashed of the trio, recognizing that both Marleyans and Eldians are liars, and only wanting to get back to her father.
However, it is following this great scene that again tops the manga, that we get a scene where the manga is clearly better, this time because of cuts.
The moment where Reiner, Annie and Bertholdt destroy the walls is almost completely cut, with old footage from season one primarily being used.
Annie’s involvement in destroying the wall, Bertholdt looking up at it upon arriving, and Reiner’s desperate fight to protect them in the chaos, is all cut for the sake of time.
Yet, while it is disappointing to see that these scenes have been left out, they are not essential to understanding the story so it is not a massive loss.
Thankfully, other, more important scenes are not cut, like the one with the villager who kills himself in the settlement after telling the Warriors his backstory.
This moment with the villager is important because it is his backstory that Bertholdt uses as their cover when he and Reiner are first introduced in season one, creating another rewarding find for viewers upon rewatches.
Another cool moment comes with Kenny making a brief cameo, as Annie tracks him to try and find the Founding Titan, only to realize this was a big mistake because of how dangerous Kenny is.
With some quick thinking and some good old kicking, Annie manages to evade the Ripper and report back to Reiner and Bertholdt, causing Reiner to decide they need to breach Wall Rose, leading to the attack in Trost.
Before cutting back to the traumatic present, we get one more symbolic scene between Eren and Reiner, as Reiner, after realizing he sees himself in Erne, encourages him to keep moving forward, a piece of advice he will sincerely regret giving later on.
Then we get another improvement on the manga, in the most gruesome of ways, with Reiner’s suicide attempt in the present.
Coming into “The Door of Hope”, I was concerned that this scene would be censored based off the trailer.
Nope!
They showed the whole thing in disturbing detail and even add things, like Reiner’s gasping after he thankfully decides not to go through with it because of a miraculous unintended interruption from Falco.
And Falco’s reward for unintentionally saving Reiner’s life?
Well, running into the most dangerous person in the world of course!
The reveal of Eren in the final moments of this episode is fantastic, with some stellar voice acting from Yuki Kaiji and great added symbolism with the tree behind him.
The build up to this scene was also great, with the previous episode hyping up his appearance in a subtle way that some anime only viewers picked up on and others didn’t.
It is in his conversation with Falco that Eren lays out the very themes of the episode, as he speaks of those who push themselves into hell for hope or just for another hell, and that the only ones who know what lies beyond are those who keep moving forward.
Well, Reiner has been trying to push the door open on hope for a while now and got nothing but misery, yet Eren seems determined to find hope, even if he has to go through hell and drag everyone with him to get there.
Overall, “The Door of Hope” is a great Attack on Titan episode that does a fantastic job of showing the suffering of Reiner and what comes of it.
It looks like we have only one more episode before we get to the adaptation of the amazing Chapter 100 and I, honestly, cannot wait.
Hope you all have a merry Christmas.

Watchmen Episode Three, She Was Killed by Space Junk Review: Everybody Goes to Hell!

Watchmen‘s third episode, “She Was Killed By Space Junk” is the best episode of the series so far with the role of main character temporarily switching from Angela Abar to Jean Smart’s Laurie Blake.
Directed by Stephen Williams, the story of the episode centers on Laurie being brought into the Seventh Calvary Case while flashing forward to her sending a message to Dr Manhattan through a phone to mars.
This message is a joke about three heroes, Dr Manhattan, Ozymandius and Night Owl, who appear before god to receive judgement.
All three go to hell until god sees a woman standing behind them who identifies herself as the girl who a threw a brick from the joke Laurie appeared to screw up earlier.
The brick falls from the sky and kills god, sending him straight to hell.
The flash forwards to Laurie’s joke are the best part of the episode because I was very intrigued by what the joke ended up being.
Personally, I think it has great thematic purpose with the girl who threw the brick clearly being representative of Laurie, and the joke itself being similar to Rorschach’s Pagliacci joke from the original graphic novel.
Dr Manhattan also seems to appreciate the gag because Angela’s car, which Will escaped in last episode, descends from the heavens, nearly crushing Laurie like god’s head got crushed by the brick.
In all likelihood, though, the car was most likely dropped by the people who rescued Will who want Laurie to become a part of the case for as an unknown reason.
But, for the moment at least, Laurie seems to believe it is Dr Manhattan, bursting out into laughter, being very reminiscent of her father The Comedian.

Laurie’s phone booth scenes are the best of the episode with Jean Smart delivering a great performance.

With this, and the fact that she has taken on his last name, it is apparent that Laurie has started to feel some kinship with her destructive father over the years.
As for the rest of the episode, it is also great with Laurie being revealed as part of a vigilante capture task force of the FBI.
Night Owl is also revealed to be in prison.
Laurie actually drives quite a few comedic interactions as well, like with Looking Glass, Red Scare (Andrew Howard), and Pirate Jenny (Jessica Camacho).
Then there is her Dr Manhattan dildo, which is a real “wait, what!?” moment.
Laurie also has a few action moments as well, shooting the Seventh Calvary member with the suicide vest who tries to kidnap Senator Joe Keene JR (James Wolk).
Speaking of him, I think it is pretty apparent that he will most likely be involved somehow in the conspiracy Will mentioned.
The fact that he was at Judd’s house where Angela found the Ku Klux Klan robe last episode also supports this.
Aside from these individual moments, however, one of my favourite things about the episode is its soundtrack with Laurie having a killer theme.
This soundtrack accompanies her pretty much through the entire episode, apart from the Ozymandias scenes and, unfortunately, it is these ones that keep the episode from being perfect.
While the scenes are great I do have a few flaws with them, like the CGI Buffalo, which look completely fake.
Then there is the official reveal that Ozymandias is… well, Ozymandias.
This was presented as some kind of shocking twist but I am pretty sure we all knew it was him going in so they did not need to act like it was some big moment.

Ozymandias outift.jpg — While I did like Ozymandias’ scenes, there are things about them that hold the episode back, like his obvious identity reveal.

Other than this, though, Ozymandias’ scenes are still intriguing, with us learning he is the captive of “the game warden.”
There are multiple theories about who this game warden could be but the most likely seems to be Dr Manhattan.
We will just have to wait and see as Ozymandias’ escape plan slowly comes to fruition.
Overall, “She Was Killed by Space Junk” is the best episode of Watchmen so far with just a few scenes holding it back from being a truly fantastic episode.

My Hero Academia, Season Four, Episode Three, Boy Meets… Review: The Two Meetings.

“Boy Meets…” is the perfect title for My Hero Academia season four’s third episode because it is all about Deku meeting and interacting with multiple characters for the first time.
Sir Nighteye is the the most obvious meeting, with more than half the episode focusing on him and Deku’s interactions.
Their conversation and later game did a great job of emphasizing the parallels between them, with multiple similarities and differences.
Despite Nighteye not liking Deku because of how he views him as usurping Miro’s chance of inheriting One For All, they are still similar with the both of them being massive All Might fans with their own ways of showing that.
Nighteye looks past these similarities, though, still not believing Deku to be worthy of One For All and tests him by having Deku try to defeat his quirk foresight, which allows him to accurately predict his decisions for an hour.
Deku both fails and succeeds in the test, failing to grab the stamp Nighteye is holding but succeeding in making sure he does not damage all of Nighteye’s All Might merchandise.
This shows that Deku is able to multitask in his fighting, proving himself to Nighteye, even if he was planning to accept him no matter what.
However, Nighteye’s intentions in accepting Deku are not entirely pure because he hopes to convince him to give up One For All to Mirio.
This meeting sets up both Deku and Nighteye very well for their arcs in this storyline.
What is by far the most exciting scene, though, is Deku’s second meeting of the episode with Eri and Overhaul in the after credits scene.
I am overjoyed to see Eri make her appearance in the series because she is one of my favourite characters and the centerpiece of the season.
Deku’s meeting with her and Overhaul also gets the ball rolling for the big story of the arc so I cannot wait to see this first meeting truly play out next episode.
Aside from these two well done first meetings, the rest of “Boy Meets…” is more decent setup that is actually anime original.
The scene of Aizawa informing Uraraka and Tsuyu that Nejire wants to talk to them, and telling Kirishima that Amajiki wants to meet with him, is probably added to provide a starting point for where we will see these characters in subsequent episodes.
Most interesting, though, is the moment Aizawa tells Tokoyami that the Number Three Pro Hero, Hawks, has offered him an internship.
For those of you expecting to see the two working together, I would not get your hopes up.
This is because Hawks does not have a role in the arcs season four will be covering and will not get a big part in the story until the fifth season.
As a result, this mention of Hawks is most likely just fan service to hype up his future appearance.
Although, who knows?
Maybe we could get an anime only scene of Hawks and Tokoyami’s internship this season.
That would be interesting.
Overall, “Boy Meets…” is a good setup episode for My Hero Academia that both builds up Nighteye’s character arc and gets the ball rolling with Overhaul and Eri’s role in the story through them meeting Deku.
It will be great to see the first interaction Deku and Mirio have with Overhaul and Eri in the next episode.