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Mar 13, 2024
There are a few movies/shows I watched when I was like eight/nine or younger that I have quite fond memories of despite hardly remembering them or even their names. There´s a show with some talking forest animals, or a movie I had on VHS about a green beast or dragon. Shows/Movies you have fleeting memories of but can´t fully grasp.
My Father´s Dragon belonged into the same category for me. I remember seeing it. There was Mandarine Island, the tigers that ate the chewing gum, some songs, and Boris the Dragon. It legit took me years to remember the name of the movie and when I
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figured it out I noticed that it's basically lost media. It never got a VHS or DVD release and I was lucky to have watched it on TV. This also explains why this movie only has 50 ratings here.
But to my surprise, a German version was uploaded a month ago on YouTube and so I was able to rewatch it. It´s kind of crazy how seeing it unlocked all these memories I had of it. I remembered most of the songs and how funny I found various scenes I didn´t even think about in around two decades. Is it an awe-inspiring kids' movie you need to have seen? Not really, but I think even without my nostalgia it is a good watch and I can see why it was so memorable to me. The animals are cool and the songs sounded quite nice. I´m mostly fascinated by how hard it was/is to watch this movie. I haven´t seen any English version online anywhere. There´s hardly any information about the 1997 version of the movie out there at all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 29, 2024
Naruto was one of the first anime I started watching. Coming home after elementary school, there first was Digimon followed by Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, and the afternoon ended with Naruto. It took me quite a while but I finished the anime around the time I started university. Nearly ten years later I decided to read the manga and I have to say it was quite a ride.
I genuinely loved part 1. Naruto seemed way less obnoxious than he was in the anime. I kinda liked that he didn´t say "Believe it" every few sentences and Sasuke was not as edgy as I remembered. The Zabuza
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arc is a great start to the series and the Chunin Exams are one of my favorite anime/manga arcs overall. Everything just fits here. There are so many interesting side characters, Orochimaru is a perfect main villain while Gaara plays a perfect villain for this arc. While knowing the outcome I was astonished at how well Kishimoto weaved different story strings together. There was the Orochimaru stuff, what is Kabuto´s deal, who is Itachi really, what is with 9 tails, and all while having the main focus of this arc be on the tournament this was just perfect in my eyes.
Part 1 gave me so many characters I wanted to see more of, Anko seemed cool, Rock Lee, how would the Hyuga stuff play out, Sasuke and Orochimaru, the Akatsuki. I´d even say the female characters in arc 1 were treated okayishly. Temari was strong, Tsunade became the Hokage and Sakura wasn´t just a third wheel. But then came part 2.
So Naruto part 2 is probably one of the worst downfalls I ever had to read. The Pain arc is good, it feels way less thought out than what came before, but it has some good to great moments. But cracks are slowly starting to show. Most of the side characters from Part 1 take a huge back seat. Rock Lee who had some of the most interesting moments, doesn´t get any development or even significant screen time anymore. The Sasuke plot is not the best to be charitable and I won´t mention how badly they butchered Orochimaru. But the Pain arc still had moments and I didn´t have to sigh or roll my eyes every few pages.
Then came the war arc and everything just breaks. Be it Naruto who basically is an incarnation of Jesus and his whole character boils down to "if you slap me, I´ll show you my other cheek." The power scaling which made every non-main character redundant. This really pissed me off as fights in part 1 weren´t just power checks, but revolved around tactics order different skills. The war arc feels like who can throw the bigger Kame-hame-ha. The Uchiha clan is one of the most edgy groups that suffers from ridiculous plot armor that I have ever encountered. The Sharingan was a cool idea when it copied stuff. Less when it summons mechs, has a super flame, and will get a new superpower every new fight (genuinely every new fight after the Gokage summit with a Sharingan gives it a new power).
Not to forget how badly Kishimoto writes women. There is legit no cool or strong female character in sight, and those who are there are insufferable. Sakura after getting nearly killed by Sasuke will still thirst after him and Kakashi tries to frame this as some sort of deep love. Karin annoyed me and was just there to get the hots for Sasuke, Konan deserved so much better but was just killed off because. I would be okay if Kishimoto created a patriarchal society or whatever, but we have seen that there are female ninjas who aren´t just healers, but for some reason, he seems unable to give them any form of development or intrigue. Anko for example was set up to do more, (just fucking swap her with Yamamoto for gods sake) but he never delivered on that.
I really wanted to like Naruto. I´d even give part 1 a good 8 or 9, but fucking hell is part 2, especially the war arc bad. Kishimoto keeps repeating some 101 philosophy bullshit which is a struggle to get through after the 10th time and most characters stop mattering at all. Sasuke is one of the most irredeemable characters ever, but hey Jesus (Naruto) is here to turn him Christian. Reading the last 10 volumes felt like a chore and I can´t emphasize enough how horrid the war arc is on every front.
Also, Aliens, I ain´t going into the Kaguya stuff, as I was somewhat mentally checked out at the point, but fuck it´s such a shame how hard Naruto falls off after the time skip.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 16, 2024
It´s a shame that the last chapter came out nearly 5 years ago with no continuation in sight.
Gangsta was the first manga I consciously bought. I watched anime growing up and even had some volumes of Shaman King, but I never gave it much thought as a medium. But sometime in the early 2010s I really got into anime and wanted to read some of its source material. When I went to get some volumes, Gangsta kinda fell into my lap and since then it holds a dear place in my heart.
I still think Volume 1 is phenomenal. Gangsta looks stylish, the main
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characters seem interesting and it just has an edge to it. It doesn´t feel edgy but rather rough I´d say. Having a hooker, a deaf guy, and a gigolo as main characters also is something way out of the norm. And while I mostly enjoyed it till its hiatus I have to admit that the narrative kinda falls apart after the first 4 volumes.
It´s just too many characters pressed into little space. This feels especially egregious when you think about Marco Adriano becoming a full story while the main characters didn´t even have one full arc focused on them. Alex feels pushed far to the side after a short while and while Worick becomes more involved in the main plot during the ending, we will probably never see how that pans out. Also, the roughness switches more to edge and shonen tropes when the destroyers get introduced. This isn´t necessarily bad, but it wasn´t nearly as engaging as it had been before. Also the concept of twilights never made that much sense. Why do people hate them? Yes, they are stronger and dangerous but it is never shown how bad they are on a moral level. Also invoking Asimov´s three rules just seems out of place for them.
When I reread this now over a decade since I started it I have to admit that Gangsta isn´t this forgotten gem, but rather a roughly shaped one. There are great ideas, I love the vibe of Ergastulum and want to know how the story ends, but there are clear problems in many of the narrative aspects. Be it the clear lack of a focus for the story, too many characters, or the world-building. Despite that I still wish that Gangsta at least had gotten an ending and not just vanished into nothingness after a mere 8 volumes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 15, 2024
This is tough to rate and I probably have to rewatch it before I can settle on my feelings about this movie. So far it bounces between a 6/10 and an 8/10.
The entire concept of the first Slam Dunk is weird in my opinion. The anime rand from 93 to 96 and never adapted the final story arc. So now nearly 30 years later we get an "adaption". Instead of adapting the end of the manga normally the focus of the story shifts quite strongly to point guard Myagi. Probably the last character I´d have chosen for this as every other main guy had
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a bigger role in this last match. But the movie now is 50% Myagi backstory and 50% final game.
Imagine Lord of the Rings never got its third movie. And years later when we get it Merry suddenly is the main guy. Doesn´t necessarily mean it´s bad just a super weird choice. There also were a few hiccups here and there. I found it quite hilarious how the movie never mentions that this game is just the round of 8 not the final, it also skips over the aftermath of Sakuragi. Instead, we get a short scene with Myagi playing Basketball in the US.
As I said I am not sure how I feel about all these changes and the focus shift, but I quite liked the rest.
The Artstyle which looked a bit off in the trailer worked surprisingly well. There were some gorgeous shots and the final 2 minutes of the match were fucking awesome. This was the first anime I had seen in cinema and it was worth it just for the soundscape of the ending. The soundtrack overall is a banger.
On one hand, I´d say I wish they´d remake the entire manga this way, but I ain´t even the biggest Slam Dunk fan. On the other hand, just having witnessed the end I am itching to give it a read again.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 14, 2024
I really wanted to like the second season of JJK. To my dismay so far JJK feels like the spiritual successor of Bleach. Hella stylish and cool-looking fights but lacking soul. This already was a problem but became way more obvious in the Shibuya arc, which reminded me of the Arrancar arc from Bleach, allas way better handled.
While the beginning of the Shibuya incident was very intriguing, offering a bunch of characters fighting in different locations it boiled down to fight after fight without much room to breathe. This became a bigger problem when I noticed I hardly cared for the characters. Making death
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which should feel important became just a blip on the radar between fights. Also, some story aspects just were brushed over where I would have liked to see more. Megumi not having a real conversation with his dad, the Zennen family stuff only being side content, and most side characters nearly only being defined by the way they fight.
Despite my problems, JJK still looks amazing and the fights are fun. Nearly binging the entire season in two sittings wasn´t the right way to watch this. The Shibuya arc also admittedly starts really well. Reminding me of the London invasion from Hellsing and the Auction Operation from Tokyo Ghoul.
Still, JJK doesn´t feel like a successor of the big 3 which I expected before I started it. But it seems that neither Black Clover, My Hero Academia nor JJK are ready to take on such a position.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 13, 2024
Jujutsu Kaisen is a weird case for me. The story, world-building and characters are all shonen-anime standard. It probably will be impressive if you haven´t seen much else of it before, but if you have seen more than Naruto or One Piece this feels way too base.
On the other hand, Mappa really made an awesome-looking show. 9 or even 10/10 when it comes to the animation. Kinda to be expected as they treat their workers as slaves but let´s not divulge into that.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 tells the prequel story of a character who hasn´t appeared in the first season. This movie doesn´t improve much on
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the other problems I have with the show but it still looks damn good. Despite its problems, it still had some moments I found neat. Similarly how the Todo part in the show convinced me that it´s at least not just good-looking animations the endfight was somewhat emotional.
Yuta and Rika team up to fight the bad guy felt great and there were some one-liners I enjoyed. It also was nice to some of the side characters in Kyoto.
But the first half of the movie felt way too slow and, to be honest relatively uninteresting. Probably still a decent watch just for the animations but I don´t feel like it added that much to the overall narrative nor was it a grand experience on its own.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 12, 2023
Dr. Stone feels like watching somebody play a city builder or however, the genre is called. It took me two tries to get into it but this time around I had more fun than I expected.
The start is very slow and I have to admit it took me until Senkuu met the village to enjoy it. But at that point, everything just clicked. The idea of presenting modern technology to "cavemen", the humor, and the slow but steady build-up of technology. Most of the characters aren´t that much to write home about and mostly rely on one basic trait, but connected to the kind of
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humor Dr. Stone uses this works.
Despite that, the pacing isn´t the best. As I said, the beginning wasn´t that great and the same can be said about the ending of this season. While I enjoy the slow build-up there was no real climax to it, I guess the next arc Stone Wars will provide that.
A very unique take on a shonen and I kind of liked how it didn´t rely at all on battles. But I hope to get some more stakes or world-building, as it isn´t as "relaxed" as Frieren or Mushishi to just get by on vibe for multiple seasons.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 11, 2023
Rating the first half is as hard as rating the first half of Lost. It really depends on how well the second half delivers on what was set up. But it´s a great read with some inconsistencies for what we have so far.
I enjoyed the horror aspect of the first volumes quite a bit. But after Kanke´s transformation, it feels like the series drifted more into battle-shonen territory. That isn´t bad per se as I like Shonen but it distinctly feels different. The art still is incredible and I don´t think I have seen other mangaka depict despair as well as Ishida but the
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horror gets overshadowed after the first Aogirir arc.
My only other criticism is one hardly anybody else will have and for most people will be irrelevant. I started reading Tokyo Ghoul in German, but the translation felt very old guy trying to talk like young people. It was so bad that I got out of my way to purchase the English volumes. While they sound better the pages are bigger and somehow the art looks less refined. Also, there were some German translation ideas I liked more. Kagune were called Claws and the Anteiku was called the Antik, it just felt more immersive instead of dumping normal Japanese terms into English without translating them.
But besides that Tokyo Ghoul is a great read. I like the character´s and the plot has me extremely interested in seeing what is going to happen in Tokyo Ghoul: re. The strongest part for sure was the art, there were some panels I couldn´t stop looking at. For example, Juuzou's scream at the end of the Antiik fight looked heartbreaking. The mysteries are well set up so far, I´m really intrigued by what the role of the CLowns is going to be going forward. But as I said in the beginning it is hard rating something so strongly connected to mystery without knowing who they´ll conclude. There´s a chance Re fucks up most of what was established in that weakening the first half. For example, having Ken/Haise as an Investigator seems like a questionable choice for me, but I´ll let it play out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 10, 2023
Firstly I didn´t enjoy the original Bleach anime much. There were an enormous amount of ideas and decisions I just didn´t like. But damn Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen does it´s bad to make look more fondly at it.
I genuinely didn´t expect to enjoy it. But the first 6 episodes fully won me over. The invasion of Soul Society reminded me of the invasion of London from Hellsing Ultimate which is quite high praise. Then we had Yamamoto´s last stand, the Kenpachi duel, and Squad 0. Using the Sternritter as a new threat also felt connected to the previous story, as Quincys existed before, and you
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had some lore to their conflict with the Soulreapers.
Having the last few episodes be focused on training and Ichigo's backstory wasn´t that much to my liking, but it also didn´t drag it down too far. Admittedly the stuff with his sword was intriguing.
I feel like giving Ichigo Quincy ancestry was a bit overkill, but it´s not like Bleach power scaling wasn´t through the roof already in the Arrancar arc.
But yes to my surprise I would even recommend this to people who did not like Bleach or haven´t seen the original series. The episodes focussed on the invasion were so damn good.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 8, 2023
So I just finished Bleach and I have some thoughts on it. I mainly watched it as I recently got into the One Piece Netflix adaption and craved some old-school long-running shonen. As I had already watched Naruto and debated reading One Piece I decided to give Bleach a shot. I remember trying it out a decade ago but never got past the Soul Society arc, but this time I saw it through.
Let´s start with the positive as you already found this under Not Recommended. Firstly Bleach has magnificent sound design. Not just the great OST, but the little sound pieces they use here
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and there. The sound feels original and unique. The character design has some hits and misses, but for the most part, I enjoy it. Especially the captains of the 13th guard spot look amazing. I dislike how Naruto in the War Arc made everybody wear the same uniform, but the Bleach captains each added something unique to their outfits.
There were 2 arcs that I would argue are decent to good. Firstly the Soul Society Arc, praised by everybody to be magnificent. It´s an okayish 7/10 for me. I enjoyed the way they used mystery and had multiple running plot threads. The Aizen plot twist was genuinely surprising and all the characters felt interesting (something we will come back to in the Arrancar arc). My main concern here was with the power scaling and the world-building. Ichigo defeating Byakuya and Kenpachi that early felt a tad cheap to me, especially as the Captains still are the A+ players at the end of the show. Then there is the world of Bleach which feels unimaginative for me. So we are in the afterlife but everything is Japanese and we don´t even discuss how other cultures or people from different periods integrate. What happens when they die here where do they go?
Then there is the Fullbringer Arc. I was quite surprised at how decent it was as it was running an uphill battle as I despise what came before it. The animation takes a huge step up, the mystery is interesting, Ginjo is a decent villain and it somehow manages to feel like an ending. I still think they should have stopped after the AIzen battle, but they somehow salvaged it a bit. But there also are some glaring problems. Giving us a training arc with new powers, just for them to become irrelevant as the Arc ends feels cheap. Still, I think this could have been a nice filler arc between two bigger ones, which it was in the manga to my knowledge.
Now comes the bad stuff. Firstly Jesus Christ did the Arrancar Arc drag. I don´t remember another anime numbing me out more and more each episode. Aizen was interesting in the Soul Society, but his main goal of just becoming super strong was meh. His subordinates (I have forgotten how they were called) felt like a cheap rip-off from the Captains. The Captains worked as they had their own stories and their storyline going on simultaneously with Ichigo´s stuff. The Espada (looked it up) are basic punching bags which all loose to the Captains Ichigo has bested in the Arc before. The Arrancar Arc isn´t only long but also filled with fights. It would be okay if I cared for the characters (the anime never gave me a reason to), they had an interesting choreography, or were interesting on a tactical level. Most Bleach fights boil own to power up vs power up until one wins, or Ichigo gets a training session mid-fight to become stronger. There just is nothing to keep you interested in whats going.
But next to the horrendous Arrancar Arc is the worldbuilding of Bleach. There hardly is anything moving the story forward besides Aizen. Aizen betraying the Soul Society was the only reason anything else happened. Ichigo has no drive to do anything after he is defeated, no other character seems to have some goal laid out in front of them. Urihu for example should have reason to avenge his grandfather but this is just forgotten after the Soul Society Arc, the story just follows Aizen´s wacky adventures and Ichigo´s lame attempts to stop him. Where One Piece and Naruto to some degree feel like big lived-in worlds, I hardly can say the same for Bleach. We have a bunch of greyish-looking places for hollows (Wakumondo I think that was the name), the Soul Society we hardly give any depth, and the town Ichigo lives in. The world just is a backdrop for a very mediocre story.
I wanted to like Bleach and even thought I did to some degree after the Soul Society Arc, but funilly enoughit just feels like it´s lacking Soul. The pacing is horrendous (even when you skip fillers) and there is hardly more story besides Aizen trying to overthrow the Soul Society. The characters are weak as nobody gets to go on their journey of growth. Naruto had storylines for Shikamaru, Lee, Kakashi or Jiraja. Bleach didn´t give Urihu more after showing us how killed his mentor. Chad, Orihime, or Rukia don´t even do anything besides existing to help Ichigo. There is potential here, as I quite like the art style, and some characters have a foundation to be more than mere sidekicks. But as it goes I have to admit I am quite disappointed how bad Bleach is despite belonging to the big three Shonen anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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