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Jubei-Chan - The Ninja Girl: The Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch


Magical girl anime can often breach into other genres but if your going to breach into another genre you have to put a little more effort into what your presenting because you run the risk of being mediocre because sometimes the tropes of most magical girl anime is not enough to save the story that your trying to present. Taking some aspects of a magical girl anime and placing it in a present day samurai settings sounds like a good idea on paper but unfortunately this anime really misses the mark with regards to making ... it entertaining.

The genesis of this anime focuses on a 300 year old ninja rivalry between Yagyu and Ryujoji clans and how the master of Yagyu clan (Yagyu Jubei) defeated the leader of the the Ryujoji clan (Taiko Daiyu). After the battle Yagyu Jubei has imbued his power and skill into an object known as the lovely eyepatch and he has instructed his assistant Koinosuke Odago to find a worthy successor to the power of the lovely eyepatch and it took him 300 years to find that successor which is a 14 year old girl by the name of Jiyu Nanohana.

Jiyu is incredibly relucant to accept the power of the lovely eyepatch, however the Ryujoji clan is seeking revenge for the defeat of their master. The current leader of the Ryujoji clan (Hajime) wants to obtain the power of the lovely eyepatch and discover all of its secrets because without it the Ryujoji clan will not be able to rule Japan as completely absurd as that sounds. Due to their ambition Jiyu is called into action in order to stop the Ryujoji clan from fulfilling their plans. She doesn't do this alone because she has the help of Koinosuke, Hajime's twin brother Shiro who is a trained high school samurai, her father Sai, her two female school friends. and a small gang of high school boys (The Ruffians). The majority of these characters serve as comic relief more than anything else without adding much depth with regards to the story that is being told in this anime. I think the characters that do contribute most to the overall story are definitely Shiro and Jiyu's dad Sai.

The strongest aspect of the entire anime from my personal opinion is definitely the relationship between Jiyu and Sai. It is established very early in the anime that Jiyu's mom died and that Jiyu's father has a serious mistrust of doctors due to a doctor's misdiagnosis that led to the death of his wife. When the anime decides to take a break from it's very painful and uneventful comedy, there are some incredibly touching one on one moments between Jiyu and her dad because he is incredibly protective of her since he lost his wife due to illness and he lives with a lifetime of regret because his job as a novelist kept him away from his family. There is an even an episode where Jiyu is injured and her does everything in his power to protect her and be there for her. The relationship between them is incredibly endearing and when things got serious you can count on Jiyu's dad to do the right thing for his daughter.

I think one of the worse aspects of the anime is some really god awful dialogue mixed in with humour that more often than not misses the mark rather than hit the mark. I think one of the things that personally irritated me is that every time a character introduced themselves, they would go into this long spiel about who they are or what their accomplishments were. For example Jiyu, would go into this brief spiel when someone would call her Jubei when she was in her teenage girl form and she had to correct them every time. It's necessary the first time you hear it, not necessary the 5th time you hear it. The same thing happens with the character Shiro. Shiro we don't need to hear your accomplishments in the world of swordfighting in high school competitions every time you introduce yourself. The humour in this anime has more misses than actual hits. There are moments where it does make me chuckle, but the majority of the moments completely fall flat. The humour goes from very obscure places without any significant build up such as characters being animated differently, random nonsensical verbal outbursts, and characters just doing stupidly outlandish things that don't make any sense. Personally I don't mind stupidly outlandish things but only if they're done right and they're actually outlandishly funny.

You figure with an anime with the Ninja girl in the title this anime would be rife with action but surprisingly it's not as action packed as you would like to think. Most of the episodes end with a battle of some sort but the battles are so quick and brief, lasting no longer than a minute it's hard to feel satisfied when the action does start to happen. I will admit though the final fight in this anime makes up for it because it is the best battle throughout the entire anime. While the main villain is not particularly engaging it does keep you invested by changing it up with regards to who the main villain really is. The first few episodes follow a standard monster of the week format, with each of the enemies that Jiyu has to face are actually here school-teachers who all end up being minions of the Ryujoji clan. Once they are defeated, the secret power of the lovely eyepatch unleashes itself which eliminates the ryujoji grudge from each member that gets defeated by Yagyu Jubei's sword so they can return to a relatively normal life. After the first few episodes it gets out of the monster of the week format and we get a little backstory into the history of the ryujoji/yagyu rivalry while Jiyu is trying to balance her mundane life as a high school girl to becoming a powerful ninja when the need arrives.

The anime also suffers from some pretty useless characters that are not needed throughout the storyline. The gang of Ruffians especially the leader Bentaro who acts as a love interest toward Jiyu. Apparently the love story is completely one sided with Jiyu not really caing one way or another despite all the attempts that Bentaro tries to perform in order to get her to pay attention to him, but it feels like such a wasted plot point in which another plot point could be better utilized. There are even a trio of very upscale girls that have a crush towards Shiro, but there is literally no background story to them and I think they're placed in the anime to act as comic relief and even that doesn't work.

The music throughout the anime is serviceable but not overly memorable. The anime does not really do much to really captivate the viewer since the opening of the anime is literally 30 seconds long with just one animated scene where Jiyu is riding her bicycle in front of the view while looking in multiple directions. That's pretty much it. It's probably the most boring uneventful anime intro I've ever seen out of all the anime I've watched over the last 30 years.

Ultimately Jubei-chan - The Ninja Girl: The Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch is an interesting premise that is barely above serviceable because it is bogged down with useless side characters, ineffective comedy, and a criminally low amount of action. There are a few good things about this anime with the father-daughter interactions being the strongest aspect of what this anime has to offer. The anime does an excellent of closing off the loose ends throughout the story with a fairly touching ending so despite all the problems that I have this anime, the good does barely outweigh the bad. I certainly hope the second season does a better job of what the first season did, but at the end of the day it's worth experiencing this anime just for the different approach to the magical girl formula.

Do you love cats. I certainly love cats. As a cat owner of two adorable kitties that mean the world to me - I've actually been fortunate enough to own as many 5 cats in my household between my wife and I so anytime I get to experience an anime that has kitty cats I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy it even if the kitty is living inside a banana.

Bananya is a 13 episode series in which every episode is only 3 minutes long that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. It is a series that is mainly directed towards pre-schoolers ... but I assure you that if you love cats or if you love things that are obnoxiously cute you'll definitely get your enjoyment out of it.

You can't really expect the most in depth story especially when each episode is only 3 minutes long but the allure of this anime is you get to see Bananya and his friends get up to mischief in various ways. I guarantee by the end your going to have a favourite bananya character. Even though it's an anime directed towards a very young audience there are actually some pretty good laugh out moments throughout the entire anime. I do have a lot of fondness for the episode where Bananya gets to interact with a mouse, and where him and his friends get to interact with a balloon.

None of the Bananya characters actually talk, but each episode is explained by a narrator that gives a very detailed description of the mischief Bananya and the rest of his friends are up to in each episode. At the end of every episode the character gives us a quick and detailed description of each of Bananya's friends.

I assure you that each episode will make you smile ear to ear, and some will even give you pretty epic laugh out loud moments. It even has a really adorable ending song. The series is pretty much animated with adobe flash with very minimal effort. I don't necessarily think it's to the anime's detriment though. The main allure to this anime is that it's incredibly adorable and it can make you laugh.
I think one thing we can learn out of an anime like this is sometimes a minimal effort can be enjoyable if you focus on being funny and being adorable. Deep down it's a quick enjoyable watch that will be sure to cheer you up. It's a sure fire way to cure depression and add a bright side to an otherwise miserable day.

With every episode only being three episodes long, it never overstays it's welcome and gives you the perfect amount of cuteness and hilarity without being too overbearing. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it's still an enjoyable watch all the same. I'll be the first to admit, I even own a Bananya Coffee Mug.

Video games don't really have the best reputation when being adapted regardless if it's in the realm of animation or live action. There is often a silly misconception that if a video game is being adapted it's either going to be hilariously bad or fall into the category that it's so bad it's good. This was definitely true when many video games were adapted into live action films in the 1990's. The harsh reality is that it's true. Video game movies didn't have the best reputation. Many of these movies were hilariously bad and even the best out of the bunch were just barely above ... tolerable. The most common genre of gaming that were turned into films were specifically fighting games because it seemed like the easiest and cheapest movies to make since there were more than enough tournament fighting films in the 80's and 90's and when fighting games were sucking every last quarter out of our grubby little hands. With games such as Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat that was more than enough reason to spend our hard earned money in the arcades.

As fighting games were getting popular we seen a lot of these fighting games making the transition into the world of film and also in the world of animation. Tekken, King of Fighters, Street Fighter, Dead or Alive, and Mortal Kombat have had their adaptions not only in the world of live action film, but also in the realm of animation regardless if it's Japanese animation or Western animation. For the most part, a lot of these adaptations have struggled to capture the story and the magic of what makes these games so absolutely timeless but one animated film managed to capture the magic of the game that it's adapting while telling a fairly coherent story despite the large cast of characters. That film is Street Fighter II: The animated movie and my personal belief is that it's still best video game based anime ever released.

The street fighter II animated movie covers all the fighters that were released for the street fighter II license up to Super Street Fighter II that offered an additional 4 new characters to the core cast of Street Fighter II characters even though their involvement is very minimal at best even though they still have an opportunity to showcase their moves and their personalities.

When it comes to an animated film based on a fighting game property you can't really expect the most serious of storytelling. Thankfully I never expected the storytelling to be that serious because you are a film based on a fighting game franchise. I would of been perfectly satisfied as long as you accurately portrayed the fighting game characters while showing some of their special movies. The plot of the film focuses on Shadowloo who is run by the merciless M. Bison recruiting street fighters from all over the world by using mind control in order to perform terrorist activities to further Shadowloo's conquest toward world domination amidst their other criminal activities and their connections to the criminal underworld. M. Bison has also recruited three other fighters (Balrog, Vega, and Sagat) to help him achieve this objective.

The overall main plot focuses on M. Bison trying to find a skilled fighter named Ryu who is often regarded as the best fighter in the world especially when one of his surveillance robots observed his epic battle against Sagat at the very beginning of the film. Ryu is an incredibly hard man to find as he travels all over southeast Asia in order to perfect his craft by getting into street fights and observing other fighters around the world while his presence is constantly intertwined with the activities of Shadowloo. In the meantime back in the United States, his training partner Ken is wondering when he'll ever get to see his friend again as he is also looking to improve as a fighter in his own way while trying to maintain a relationship with his girlfriend. A good portion of the film focuses on flashbacks between Ken and Ryu as they train together and the timeless bond they have with each other. The other main sub-plot throughout this animated film focuses on Chun-Li who works for Interpol recruiting Guile into trying to stop Shadowloo once and for all, since both street fighters have a personal vendetta against Bison because he murdered Chun Li's father and he also murdered Guile's best friend as well. On top of that they're also warning other street fighters about these monitoring cyborgs that M. Bison have developed to obtain information about various street fighters across the world to make them prime targets towards M. Bison's army. That pretty much covers the overall plot of the entire animated film.

You can't have a street fighter animated film without having fights and this is one aspects this film really excels at. All the battles are incredibly well animated and there is tremendous amount of detail put into each of the battles. The main characters in the animated film have the much more intense and longer fight sequences while the minor characters have much shorter fights but as a film you have to understand where your priorities are and for a film that was a runtime for 1 hour and 41 minutes you need to know which characters you need to showcase the most especially when you have such a large cast of characters. Each of the fights are incredibly intense, and they're not afraid to get graphically violent especially when you want to put a specific amount of force and energy in the ferocity of each of these battles. The film is not afraid to show blood, and broken bones but it feels accurate to the battles that the characters actually partake in. I really have to give a lot of credit to the sound mixing in this film because the sounds that are brought together when every punch and kick makes an impact is incredibly epic. The film also takes a lot of pride in making just about each of the street fighter characters no matter how minor or major their role is minus the odd exception showcase at least one of their special moves that any person would be familiar with if they played any version of Super Street Fighter II. If you look at the film closely enough you'll even see a brief cameo of a secret street fighter character in the film as well. One fight that I have to bring to the viewers attention is the fight scene between Chun-lLi and Vega which from my personal opinion is the best fight scene in the entire film because the fight is incredibly hard hitting and incredibly back and forth with both fighters taking their share of damage throughout the entire battle. Even to this day I still think the Chun-Li vs Vega fight is still the best female led animated fight scene I ever seen in the world of anime. The final fight scene between Ryu and Ken versus M. Bison is pretty epic as well.

Another thing I absolutely love about the film is the quality of animation. You would never believe that this film was made in 1994 because the animation is so incredibly smooth and so much detail is put into the characters and their move set. This film is the very definition is being absolutely timeless from an animation point of view and despite the film being 30 years old - you could easily assume that the film could of been made in 2024 because the quality of the animation is really that good. You literally get to see and feel first hand how hard some of the action comes at you. Just out of badness - the film also decides to give something the gamers have been clamoring for ever since street fighter II got released for arcades for the very first time which is a Chun-Li shower scene.

This is actually one of the few anime films and this does not happen very often where the English dub actually exceeds the original Japanese dialogue due to the American soundtrack that is incorporated into the film. This film used some really excellent songs from some grunge and metal bands from the 1990's such as Alive in Chains, Silverchair, and KMFDM among many others. All of the songs fit incredibly well throughout the entire film with the track Ultra performed by KMFDM during the fight scene between Chun Li and Vega being the very best of incorporating western music into an anime film. The overall musical score of the film is incredibly solid as well with some of the best instrumental music used during the flash back scenes between Ken and Ryu. The English voice cast is surprisingly solid with chun li's voice actress being performed by Lia Sargent who is a mainstay of voicing very popular anime in the 1990's and even Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad fame even lends his voice to playing the character Fei Long in a very short but very beautifully animated fight scene.


At the end of the day, this film should serve as a shining example on how to do a video game licensed movie. You have to stay loyal to the source material, make the film that the gamers want to see first, and then build from that. Most importantly - it isn't important to tell a really compelling story or really heavy handed with regards to trying to push a message - no gamer that I know of wants a video game film to be an Oscar winning film. We just want a film that's entertaining and honours the source material that the game is based on. From all the video game movies regardless if they're animated or not - this anime film does the best out of all the video game films out there by willing to be entertaining while not taking itself too seriously. This film will always remain a timeless watch and the very best out of what video game to anime adaptations have to offer. It's just too bad that every other anime based on the street fighter license never lived up to how good and how beautiful this anime film looked.

The first thing I want to iterate is that I do fully understand how popular My Hero Academia is to young anime fans and my first exposure to this series is not starting from episode one of the mainline series but to start with a side story that offers a great introduction to the world and characters of my hero acamedia without giving you a feeling of being lost with regards to how big and massive the series is.

This story is a special two-part episode and 4th OVA for the My Hero Academia series. The plot of the episode is that it takes place ... before the provisional hero license exam and it looks at the the team being put through survival training in order to perfect their abilities as hero's. Their survival training focuses on rescuing a practice dummy that was left in the remains of the 6 floor shopping center that was evacuated due to a fire.

Don't expect anything too detailed in this review because it is a two episode OVA, but one thing I do appreciate about this OVA is that it covers enough information to get you interested in the world of my hero academia. The start of this two part OVA gives me a great introduction into the world of my hero academia and the main character Izuku. I feel with this OVA we get to see enough of the characters personality and each character has an opportunity to showcase their power/ability. Even in this two episode OVA, it gave me enough information to know who which characters I liked and which characters I disliked. There really aren't any villains in this episode since it is a practice rescue mission. However, the danger is incredibly real because due to the fire in the shopping mall the building is on the verge of collapsing and to make matters worse the bottom levels of the shopping mall start to flood as several areas of the shopping mall to collapse which adds a continued level of danger to this survival training.

During this survival training exercise, the heroes need to learn to operate as a team even though many of them split up in order to cover more ground with regards to finding the training dummy. Unfortunately there is one stubborn character that feels like he doesn't need the rest of the team in order to complete the task. However, the more times the characters use their powers it actually contributes to the buildings continued deterioration. It also doesn't help the fact that many of the characters can't use their powers because it puts them in a more precarious position.

During the time we get to see the characters use their powers. It is animated quite beautifully. I don't have tany issues with the animation quality and the soundtrack throughout this 2 part ova. There is not much in the realm of humor and some of the personalities for some of the characters can be a little irritating. Since it's only a two episode OVA it's not really that much of a detriment. There are definitely far more positive/uplifting characters then annoying characters and tt actually gets me excited to start watching the full series when I find the free time to start it.

By the end of the 2 part OVA, the team managed to succeed with their survival training but not without a few injuries and a few bruised ego's. It's still a nice little appetizer regardless if it's your first adventure in the world of my hero academia or you want a nice little break from the main series. I certainly got my enjoyment out of it.

7/10

We are finally at the end of Uta No Prince Sama series and even though I've never been a fan of pop idol anime and watching all four seasons of this anime hasn't turned me into a fan either but even I have to admit that this season offers a fitting and entertaining conclusion to the Uta no Prince Sama television series which in my personal opinion has been the best offering of the what this anime has had to offer with some really excellent character development, a proper antagonist, and definitely some of the best music that the entire series has had to offer. ...

The 4th season starts off where the 3rd season ended after the completely unecessary and stupid cliffhanger where the band Heavens crashed the Super Star Sports concert after their defeat in Season 2 for the Uta-Pri award. After the invasion by Heavens, Quartet Night is declared the initial winner. However Shining Satome and Raging Otori decide it would be best if another competition was issued with regards to who will open the Super Star Sports Competition and all three musical groups will be involved with this competition (Heavens, Starish, and Quartet Night). In order to ensure fairness Haruka will compose and write the songs for all the pop idol groups and this stipulation into this contest I had a big issue with from the very beginning. If your putting the lead female character in charge of writing and composing songs for all three pop idol groups, but she already has a long lasting friendship and repertoire with Starish - isn't it possible that she would give that group her best compositions and song writing talents compared to the rest of the pop idol groups even if she didn't realize it. That was a lingering thought I had throughout the entire series.

I kind of wish that Haruka actually had a rival composer throughout all 4 season of this anime, because it would of put more pressure on her to make the best music she could for any task she was put through even though she had a massive workload throughout this entire season, but sadly the final season of this anime is probably where we seen the least amount of her compared to all 4 season of this anime which is a massive disappointment.

Even though in this season we have many more characters since Heavens added 4 new members to their group, this wasn't really much of a problem throughout this entire season because for the most part, any storyline involving Quartet Night was pushed to the side minus one episode (episode 2) which focused on them and some of the characters in that group appeared as brief cameos in some of the episodes. For the majority of the season, Quartet Night was performing a tour across all of Japan and to be honest we got to learn enough about each member of Quartet Knight in Season 3. However, it was in this episode where this season decided how to fill out it's story for the majority of the thirteen episodes. During episode 2, both Heavens and Starish are shocked when they are going to be a part of a duet project in order to prepare them for the upcoming contest on who will be the opening act for the Super Star Sports competition. We have 7 members of each group, so each team up is going to get their own episode and I literally groaned so hard because it seems like such a cheap way to build up to a conclusion for an other-wisely epic concert. As much as Heavens and Starish aren't initially keen on the idea and you would see them as intense rivals, many of these episodes contribute to some really great character development not only towards the new members of Heavens that we haven't been properly introduced yet but we also get some proper closure towards some of the defining characteristics of certain members of Starish such as dark side to Otoya's unwavering optimistic attitude, the real reason of Satsuki's split personality, and Masato's relationship with his father and the prospect of him taking over his father's business. There is some deep reflective moments from many members of Starish thinking of quitting the band after certain situations happen which gives some characters much needed character development.

As much as you would think that Heavens would be abrasive towards working with Starish, alot of their interactions when it comes to their duet projects come along as incredibly heartfelt because both pop idol groups use this as an opportunity to improve their ability to sing and perform. Even though Raging Otori thought that this project would give his pop idol group Heavens the perfect opportunity to sabotage Starish. Much to his disapproval, Heavens decided to take the high road and rebel against their promoter/creator which resulted in him taking Heavens out of the concert competition to play the opening concert of Super Star Sports event. It's actually nice to have a villain this season, instead of just a friendly rival group competing against Starish because this season we finally discover Raging Otori's motivation is not to make the best pop idol group out there. He is strictly focused on beating his rival Shining Satome by any means necessary which puts his group in a very difficult position. Heavens, does somehow someway manage to perform at the concluding concert with one hell of a performance.

When it comes to the final concluding concert and even throughout many of the episodes of this season of Uta no Prince Sama, the music is definitely the strongest it's ever been with the final songs being some of the best music I've heard throughout all four seasons. The way the final concert is animated is absolutely beautiful and breathtaking to look at with it showcasing some of the best animation moments throughout the entire series.

I will find time to get around to watching the films eventually, and who know if they end up being better or worse than the actual series.

Overall, it's a great conclusion to the Uta no Prince Sama series with a lot of loose ends being tied up when it comes to many of the characters. Throughout all four seasons of this anime it hasn't really turned me into a fan of Japanese male pop idol groups and their music, but I'm actually amazed that it wasn't a painful experience. I took more positives out of this, then negatives and if I was actually into pop idol culture I would certainly score this anime much higher. I still have to be honest to myself, the anime throughout it's entirety had its moments of boredom and sometimes it was hard to be engaged with it. It was nowhere near as bad as what I expected it to be or wanted it to be. However, I am happy that the anime ended on a really stellar/high energy and mostly fulfilling ending which many anime can often struggle with. I would certainly say the final season makes getting through the first three season absolutely worth it if your willing to take the plunge into this four season adventure.

Even though I've been aware of Lupin the III since watching Lupin: Tales Of The Wolf which was a two episode vhs tape that was released by Streamline Pictures in the 1990's I haven't had much experience with Lupin the III as a whole. As of the writing of this review the only other time I've watched any additional works of Lupin III is the Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro film.

I decided to look at Lupin III's first adventure into the world of television with the original tv series released in 1971. This series despite being over 50 years old holds up incredibly well ... with some really excellent capers and some laugh out loud humour scattered throughout the majority of the episodes.

In this series we also get to see the beginnings of Goemon and how he actually becomes a part of Lupin's gang because from his first appearance he is actually a villain to Lupin and his gang before he eventually joins them.

The format of each episode is roughly the same for the most part. Lupin and his gang plan a heist. Multiple obstacles are placed in his way and with Inspector Zenigata hot on his heels, Lupin and his gang have to be on top of their game and their crafty shenanigans have to be top tier in order to pull off some of these heists. The majority of the episodes in the series are very self contained because there isn't really an overarching story minus the episodes showing goemon's evolution as a character from villain to eventually being a part of Lupin's gang. So besides these episodes you can truly watch many of the episodes out of order without feeling lost because there isn't really much of an overall story throughout this very first season.

I often find the strongest episodes of the series are either the episodes that focus on a character's past or break away from the mold of trying to plan the perfect heist or steal a coveted treasure. There is a really great episode that focuses on Fujiko's past that is probably the most detail you'll get with regards to character development throughout the entire season. If you expect to see much character development with regards to Lupin, Jigen, Goemon, and Zenigata then your going to be sadly disappointed. We do get a few tiny scraps of Lupin talking about his father and grandfather but they're incredibly minuscule at best. There also some really great episodes where Lupin has to escape prison and even there are episodes where he has to stop a terrorist plot and he has to rescue a kidnapped girl which is actually nice to see becuase the typical trope of planning the perfect heist can get a little repetitive to the point of it being annoying when you pretty much see it in just about every episode. It's not to say that the majority of the heist episodes are bad, but they can come off pretty generic. Sometimes the best heist episodes are the episodes where Fujiko gets the last laugh, or at least she thinks she does until Lupin gets the upper hand which can often lead to some pretty hilarious outcomes.

The humour in introductory season of Lupin the III is still as timeless as its even been but it's mostly at Inspector Zenigata's expense to the point that every once in a while you have to feel sorry for the guy because he constantly falls victim to Lupin's scheme even when he thinks he can come out on top. Definitely some of the best hilarious moments of the entire anime is trying to figure out how and when Fujiko is going screw over Lupin and his gang. I often ask the question why Lupin even trusts this broad to begin with but since she has the reputation of being one of the original anime waifu's it is perfectly understandable since Lupin often wants to hook up with Fujiko Mine despite there is literally a 90% chance she is going to take advantage of him one way or another.

One of the nice things about this anime is that it can be mature when it wants to be. There are times throughout the anime where you think that children of any age can watch it, but throughout the entire series people do get killed (despite there being no blood or very little blood) and there are some very brief scenes of nudity scattered throughout the entire first season, but thankfully it never distracts you from what makes the first season of Lupin's adventure so enjoyable. It would definitely be more suitable for a teenage audience.

I think one of the weakest aspects of the very first season of Lupin the III is the lack of compelling villains. None of the villains are truly that memorable for the most part. Some of them do make a minor appearance in other episodes but they're incredibly cookie cutter and incredibly basic, lacking any semblance of an individual and definable personality. I understand that Zenigata will always be the number one antagonist against Lupin the III, but if a little more work was put into some of the secondary villains then many of the heist episodes wouldn't feel so lacklustre.

With regards to the animation it is pretty much what you would expect out of something made in the 1970's. It's not really polished all that well, and it comes across as incredibly jagged animation wise from time to time but you have to respect and understand the time it was made in. There are a few noticeable animation errors but it's nothing that distracting, and the series does suffer from unexpected and random time jumps when certain plot points happen throughout an episode such as when one of the character gets hurt and then the next scene your in the hospital room with that character with no inclination of what happened in between those moments and sometimes it can be pretty noticeable in a few of the episodes.

The music is more than serviceable because it's an excellent time capsule into the type of music you would hear in the 1970's. As a huge James Bond fan it instantly reminds me into a lot of the background music you would often hear in the Sean Connery and the early Roger Moore era of Bond films.

This first season of Lupin only had it's first English Dub fairly recently in 2021 and they got some really great old school voice acting talent from it. They took a few alumni from Robotech (Macross) with both Tony Oliver (Rick Hunter) and Richard Epcar (Ben Dixon) voicing Lupin and Jigen respectively. I will admit, that the voice they got for Fujiko Mine (Michelle Ruff) was absolutely perfect casting for her. Cute yet manipulative.

Overall, the first season of Lupin the III is a great way to start getting yourself into the world of Lupin the III and even though his first outing isn't his best outing with a lack of character development for many of the characters and many of the episodes being completely generic - it is still a great time capsule into the world of anime in the 1970's and it pretty much helped cement Lupin the III as one of those timeless anime characters and all the great films that await him in the future especially his magnum opus of a story which is Lupin the III: Castle of Cagliostro directed by none other than Hayao Miyazaki.

In the realm of science fiction, sometimes the simplest approach to storytelling can often yield fruitful results.

This is pretty much the case for a film called Venus Wars which is personally one of my favourite anime films from the 1980's because from my perspective it is strictly focused on being entertaining even if the story and the character development is somewhat lacking.

Venus wars is pretty much the story of a war on Venus between two of the continents on Venus with the Northern continent of Ishtar led by General Donner invading the Southern continent of Aphrodia (more specifically IO City). Venus has become ... habitable due to ice comet colliding with the planet which has dispersed the atmosphere and made the planet ripe for terraforming.

The very beginning of the film revolves around a single female character by the name of Susan Sommers, a reporter from Earth that has travelled to Venus in order to get a scoop on the escalating tensions between the two continents and she manages to arrive on Venus just as the war is ready to begin. However, once we get a few minutes into the film we discover that the main plot of the film focuses around a sports biker team (Killer Commandos) who play this rollerball style of game led by the hot headed Hiro. In the middle of a competition against another biker team, all hell breaks loose as war is unleashed across the city and the Killer Commandos try to get out of the crossfire and find a safe haven and in the middle of the chaos they pick up the Reporter (Susan Sommers) in the war torn streets and bring her with them back to their garage.

As Hiro and the team start to adjust to their new reality as the police, government and other forces bend to the will of Ishtar they realize that this is no way to live they decide to take it upon themselves to fight against the forces of Ishtar with a few plot twists thrown in for good measure since a simple sports bike gang cannot take on the army of an entire continent, not without a little bit of help at the very least.

The biggest strength of this entire film is the action and the animation quality. I absolutely love how action packed this anime is - the action stays relatively consistent throughout the entire film and never focuses too much time on boring plot points before it gets right back into the action again. There are times where the film has to slow down in order to build the world that the film takes place in or provide adequate input from the characters with regards to the current situation that they're put in. I do appreciate the fact that the action set pieces are very long and detailed especially when the Killer Commandos take on their first tank at the stadium where they perform their usual competitions and it turns out to be an incredibly tough battle and the film is not afraid to sugar coat things because some members of the Killer Commandos actually get killed during their first conflict against the Ishtarian Army and death still follows their team even after they're recruited by the Aphrodian Freedom Force.

There is a great amount of detail put into the designs of the tanks, motorcycles, and the wide array of weapons put into this anime with some really great back and forth combat between the sports biker team against the Ishtarian Army before and after they are recruited by the Aphrodian Freedom Force. I really have to give credit to a lot of background art throughout this entire anime. The animators did a wonderful job making the world of Venus look livable despite the absence of any vegetation throughout the entire planet but there is so much detail put into a rocky barren world that you can't help but be completely enthralled with how beautiful it looks especially with the deep mixtures of black, brown, red, orange, and gray colour throughout the entire film.

Even though the characters are really one-dimensional and there aren't a lot of scenes that help significantly build the characters personality they put enough there to make them serviceable. The film does have some great one liners and some pretty awesome comical moments between the bikers because for the most part they're a bunch of hard headed teenagers/young adults trying to make sense of the situation they're put in which often gives them the feeling that they're invincible. I think one little fault with the film is the characters that seem interesting at first never really have enough time to develop such as Miranda and Gary, and then Susan disappears after 60% of the film with minor scenes afterwards when she confronts the Istarian General and a very brief exchange with Hiro as he is trying to find his love interest Maggie after the war is over. I will praise the film with the reluctance to show blatant fan-service in order to make it enjoyable because it certainly doesn't need it. There are scenes of one of the female characters changing clothes and another female character getting harassed at the spaceport but it never needs to go completely all the way to show any semblance of nudity.

There are some odd animation styles especially when they show a battle scene in the latter half of the film where they overlay animation over a live action landscape, it's actually incredibly jarring and it doesn't really suit the film if you ask me. Live action landscapes are used again during the very end of the film when Hiro is on a journey to look for Maggie in a refugee camp. Personally, I don't think it's needed but it certainly gives the film it's own sense of style. The main style of animation throughout the film is incredibly beautiful especially for a late 1980's anime film.

The film has an incredible score and some really beautiful songs throughout the final conclusion of the film, so along with some really great action you get to enjoy some really enjoyable music as well. It's actually a film in which both English dubs are surprisingly competent. The film originally had one english dub for the longest time from central park media which is a little cheesy and some of the acting is a little wooden but they had some good voice talent behind the voices of Gary, Miranda, and Susan. It was only recently that sentai filmworks issued their own English dub which is much more professional and well acted for a lot of the characters but I still have a lot of fondness for the original English dub of this film.

Overall this is an anime film that uses a recycled plot point in a lot of films (foreign and domestic) in which a group of stubborn ill-equipped teenagers/young adults takes on a force regardless if it's the military, terrorists or something else that disrupts their way of life and they take matters into their own hands when nobody else won't do anything. We've seen this plot in live action films such as Red Dawn and Toy Soldiers but one of the reasons why a plot like this has many different iterations of it is because it's a plot point that works no matter what kind of setting you put it in. This film proves that it can work in anime and it can also work on a completely different planet. It is truly a wonderful timeless watch and it still holds the test of time because if you focus on your film on being action packed and entertaining then any faults when it comes to one dimensional character development and razor thin plot can be completely forgiven,

I am a kid of the 80's and I truly take a lot of pride in that. One of the biggest and most positive things I take out of my childhood as an 80's kid is having the opportunity to watch a lot of ultra-violent r rated action movies and experiencing these movies at such a young age really helped me define what I love about action films even to this very day and I have an incredibly strong opinion that action movies tend to exceed their expectations when they're allowed hit the r rating as a bare minimum because they have the creative freedom ... that when you want a enjoyable action story you can't shy away from the graphic nature that comes with showcasing violence. However, when you find the perfect balance of showcasing violence and the many things that gives an r rated film it's reputation (nudity, profanity, and drugs/alcohol) with a very engaging story then it is the very pinnacle of action storytelling because you give the viewer what they want with regards to the shallow aspects of what r rated action cinema provides but you also keep them engaged with a very compelling story that can leave nothing but a positive viewing experience which is what happened to me. This is why The Professional - Golgo 13 is such an important anime film to me and why even to this day it's one of my favourite anime films of all time.

Despite the fact that Golgo 13 is the longest manga currently in production and there have been quite a few films (live action/anime) and a few anime series that have been made of this character, this film is my only experience with Golgo 13 thus far.

The character of Golgo 13 is a professional hit-man that is hired to perform assassinations all around the world and has earned the reputation of being the most dangerous assassin in the world and there is no assignment too dangerous that he will take on as long as the price is right.

The story of The Professional - Golgo 13 focuses on how the assassination of a oil billionaire's son brings the wrath of a power hungry father and how he is willing to use the American government (CIA, Pentagon, and the FBI) and all of the weapons at its disposal towards Golgo 13 in order to avenge the death of his son while slowly losing his sanity in the process.

One thing you do have to take into consideration with regards to this film is that while it may be easy to determine who the heroes and the villains are in this movie. Golgo 13 himself is not portrayed as a hero in this film and rightly so - he is more portrayed as an anti-hero in this film. He is not a character to be respected or admired, but yet he is a victim of pure circumstance for just doing his job. He is an incredibly cold, calculated, and unfeeling person and has no interest in pursuing close personal relationships with people despite the fact that he has many sexual relationships with many women throughout this film. Even though he is the main character in this film he actually speaks very little dialog throughout the film. One of the most interesting aspects of the film is the film does a really fine job of in the very beginning of making you feel sad about the Oil Tycoon (Leonard Dawson) mourning the loss of his son (Richard Dawson) with some incredibly beautiful emotionally driven dialog but as you get to know the character more and more and see the disgusting length's he is willing to go to kill the assassin (such as using members of his own family to help fulfill his mission), you start to lose respect for the oil tycoon through his disgusting behavior. However, the film does something incredibly powerful that by the time film reaches its proper conclusion and the chaos ends in Golgo 13's life you almost feel a sense of understandable pity towards Leonard Dawson once you find out why the assassination against his son occurred and it's one of the most surprising and effective moments in the entire film.

There are several things why this film is so incredibly powerful and so incredibly timeless. First of all, the animation in this film is absolutely beautiful because every detail of animation is painstakingly drawn with an incredibly amount of detail but yet retains this very rustic and old fashioned feel to it. All the weapons, cars, and the characters are drawn with such professionalism and so much emotion is put into many of character's eyes and faces. There are many scenes throughout this anime film where the animation stops for a moment and transitions into a palette of really detailed hand-drawn art that adds an incredible amount of depth into this film especially when it hits a specific musical cue. The music in this film is incredibly beautiful because it uses a lot of beautiful jazzy tracks through the majority of the film, but it ramps up the music when some of the beautiful tense action set pieces are present but every piece of music throughout this film is expertly placed and fits each scene perfectly. This is film is also revolutionary for it's time because as far as I know it's the first animated Japanese film to use CGI. It was used when attack helicopters were used to attack Golgo 13 during the conclusion of the film in Leonard Dawson's tower. The CGI is incredibly crude if you try to watch the film now, but back then it was quite revolutionary. Some people may fault the film for this because it does take away for a few moments the beautiful hand drawn animation this film exemplifies but for me personally it was an excellent piece of nostalgia and it never really hampered my love for the film overall, but I will agree that it's definitely not needed and it can be off-putting to some people.

You can't really talk about this film without really addressing one of the things that this film is known for which is the amount of violence and nudity that this film has because it literally has a metric ton of it but it's one of those films that I personally feel that it's absolutely needed to keep things visceral and entertaining. This film has a very sleazy feel to it, but it is a product of it's time - it's a true testament of how brutal and unapologetic things are in the life of an assassin and you can't really sugarcoat it. If you want your film to be memorable, if you want your film to be visceral you can't be afraid to show the sleaziness of the criminal underbelly and how incredibly violent the life of a hired gun can be. Just about every death in the film is graphically violent regardless if it comes from Golgo 13 himself or the many villains that are dispatched in order to kill Golgo 13. You get to see bullets pierce through human skulls in very detailed fashion and even when it comes to some of the more hand to hand kills you get to see sharp bladed weapons cut through human flesh with an incredible amount of precision and detail and these deaths tend to be some of the most incredibly detailed throughout the entire film. You can almost feel it through your very bones on how many painful some of these deaths are. The film is certainly not afraid to show blood and in some cases it really goes out of it's way to show you way too much blood but it's almost needed for a film of this nature. Despite no matter how many enemies Golgo 13 dispatches, Golgo 13 suffers his share of losses as well with some of his friends and informants suffering very gruesome deaths from the many assassins that Leonard Dawson sends to dispatch Golgo 13. One thing I do appreciate with regards to the anti-hero of this film is that despite his skill level - he is never truly invincible and he suffers a lot of wounds and damage throughout this entire endeavor. He needs time to recover which it does show him recovering in the film and you often wonder how he is still able to fight after having all this damage done to him.

The film does take a long time to establish it's overarching plot point. It doesn't really start to develop the overall plot until roughly halfway through the film with little hints dropped through the first half that something more sinister is happening behind the scenes. The first half of the film focuses on Golgo 13 performing assassination jobs that have no relation towards the overall plot of the anime such as taking on a high ranking leader to a mafia crime family to performing a seemingly impossible shot in order to assassinate a high ranking nazi officer. Even though these assassinations have nothing to do with the overall plot of this film's story they offer some of the most entertaining action set pieces of the entire film and they're incredibly fun to watch especially when your trying to figure out how Golgo 13 is going to perform these assassinations through insurmountable odds.

I really have to praise the film for putting a lot of detail into the many villains that this film has because for the most part many of the villains have excellent individualistic characteristics that make for excellent adversaries against Golgo 13 and some of these villains don't even speak one sentence of dialogue and it is because of that; their allure and presence are enough to make them incredibly memorable. You have villains such as the American Special Forces, Bragan, Dr. Z, Snake, Gold & Silver, and of course Leonard Dawson. The funny thing is each of this villains have a way of doing damage of Golgo 13 - whether by emotionally manipulating him or hurting him physically in some way. When it comes with comic book films I often have a problem when a movie tries to interject as many villains as humanly possibly - but one thing this film does right is many of the villains have the right amount of screen time and they never overstay their welcome throughout the entire film. They establish their presence and they have their moments to show how truly dangerous they are and in a film such as this, that is all that is needed in order for their presence to be felt throughout this entire film.

As a lifelong fan of English dubbing, this film has one of my top 5 favorite English dubs of all time. There are a lot of English voice acting pioneers in this film with a lot of them putting an insane amount of effort into the roles they were put in. I really have to give credit to Michael McConnohie as being the voice of Leonard Dawson for giving an incredibly layered acting performance by making the audience feel both pity and disgust for him throughout the entire film. There is not one weak English performance throughout the entire film and you can tell a lot of effort was put into each and every role. Leonard Dawson by far has some of the most powerful dialogue in the entire film - I especially have a lot of fondness for his monologue when he talks about asking for the release of Gold & Silver in order for him to do his bidding with regards to killing Golgo 13.

In conclusion I love this film because it ticks all the boxes on what I want out of a gory unapologetic action film, but this film is not for everybody and I can say that with extreme confidence because it does have a lot of uncomfortable scenes such as rape and extreme acts of violence. If your willing to look past the gratuitous amounts of violence you will actually see a very compelling, very beautifully animated and well acted piece of action cinema that has an important place in my violent action packed film heart.

We're back with our third season of Japanese boy band idol shenanigans.

Unfortunately the third season is a tad weaker than the first two seasons of this anime but there are a few things to like about this entry but unfortunately it suffers the curse of one step forward and two steps back.

Fresh after the defeat of Heavens at the Uta Pri awards, Haruka gets together with Starish yet again as Shining Saotome announces that Quartet Night who has acted as the upper classman and mentors towards Starish has been announced as the group that will perform at the SSS (Super Star Sports) Competition ... which is an international event that will be broadcasted to millions of fans. Starish disappointed with this news pleads to Shining Saotome to see if there is any way they can be considered as a potential candidate for the SSS competition and in order to prove their worth and their evolution as a group Shining Saotome issues the Cross Unit challenge where members of Starish break up into groups of two/three members and set out to accomplish the projects that Shining Saotome has set out for them. So 3 of the 13 episodes focuses on Starish completing the tasks that Shining Saotome has set out for them which increases their popularity as a band and strengthens their case for being a part of the SSS event.

I think ultimately one of the biggest faults of this season is there are simply too many characters and there is not enough time to properly address many of the characters throughout the entire anime. Even though Uta No Prince-Sama has always focused on the characters of STARISH many of the episodes are focused on developing each of the members of the band Quartet Night because they had such a minor presence in the second season but every episode where a member of Quartet Night is the primary focus is ultimately taking away from why people enjoy this series to begin with. I would like to think that people who want to watch this series would like to see their focus placed on Starish and not the bands that Starish often comes into conflict with. Every time an episode focuses on a member Quartet Night, the members of Starish are more often than not used as side characters and to add insult to injury Haruka's composition talents are used for every song a member of Quartet Night sings in this season when for the first two seasons she has always been the composer for Starish and I often feel like the further we get into the story of Uta No Prince Sama, Haruka's presence and character development is getting weaker with each passing season. There is even an episode where Starish is worried that Haruka may be spending too much time with Quartet Night and how they'll always fight to keep her as their composer since she has been a part of their lives since the very beginning.

The writing for this season feels incredibly lazy because every episode almost feels the same regardless if deals with a story element from Starish or Quartet Night. A task/challenge/event is planned for a specific character or group of characters, they struggle initially with how to overcome the plot point, Haruka gives them some encouraging words, she writes a song, and by some miracle that specified character or characters find a way to get through their endeavor and they sing Haruka's song at the very end of the episode for the most part. Rinse and Repeat. Haruka even writes and composes songs for both bands during their epic conclusion to win the right to have their song as the entry song for the Super Star Sports Competition.

This season just doesn't have the same gravity as the major motivator unlike the other seasons. The earlier seasons seems to have a much more compelling plot point such as trying to find success as a band, and fighting for their lives at an idol competition to prevent themselves from being disbanded because if they fail at both then that literally spells the end of their career as a Japanese Pop Idol band but I don't feel this sense or urgency with regards to finding the motivation to succeed. Starish is gaining more popularity with each task they accomplish so even if they don't win the right to have their song chosen as the entry song of the Super Star Sports Competition then they still carry on as a successful group all the same which makes the overall plot point feel incredibly weak and nowhere near as powerful as the overall plot point of the previous two seasons. To make matters worse, the final episode almost redeemed the entire season itself by having a surprise twist with another idol band jumping into the fray but despite all this, a clear winner has not been establish for SSS competition and it ends on a stupid and unneeded cliffhanger which I absolutely hate.

Even the songs are nowhere near as memorable as what they have been in earlier seasons but there are still some good tracks scattered throughout this entire season. Probably the best song is the ending song of the anime and it is also the song that Starish submitted and played during the SSS competition.

The art is still colourful and wonderful as ever. Despite all the problems I have with this season - It is not completely unbearable. It is actually nice to see a little more depth to the members of Quartet Night ever since their debut in the second season where they've always been incredibly cold, rude, and distant and in this season we get to see a little more information into their character as a whole and their motivations for becoming an idol singer. Each member of Quartet Night has some very complex layers to them and it's nice to see this season expose the many layers that each member of Quartet Night has. The episodes that focus of members of Starish still have some great lessons about finding common ground to achieve your goals especially when difficulties arise. They arise at every challenge that is presented to them, they always achieve success and become stronger as a group.

Hopefully they can build from an unnecessary cliffhanger and finish with a bang in the 4th season since the 3rd season ended on such a whimper.

I often have a troubled history with slice of life anime. It is often my least favorite genre of anime but I'm always willing to give the genre a chance just on the off chance I find a slice of life anime that I actually like which can happen albeit not very often. Slice of life anime can often delve into many subcategories such as romance, school life, or the daunting tasks that perpetuate our daily lives. However this anime abandons many of the typical tropes of slice of life anime and focuses on complete and utter zaniness in order to be entertaining. Unfortunately it ... doesn't really work although the anime has given me it's share of laugh out loud moments just based on the most randomized craziness when you least expect it. Sometimes finding something to laugh at with each and every episode isn't enough to make this anime completely enjoyable because it's often bombarded by it's nonsensical approach to trying to tell a story if you can really call it that.

The story of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei focuses on a teacher by the name Nozomu Itoshiki who is constantly depressed and is fixated on despair because he's goes out of his way to find the negative out of each and every situation he is put in and to make matters worse he is responsible for teaching a class with students who the most part exhibit incredibly weird personality quirks that contribute to the randomized craziness that this anime exemplifies. These quirks can range anywhere from a girl who has a sickeningly sweet positive attitude over any scenario, a girl who writes sends toxic demeaning messages to her friends through her phone, a to a girl that lives in isolation such as closets and other lonely spaces. The majority of this anime focuses on his interactions with many of the female students in his class and for the first half of the series we have plot-lines if you can really call it that focuses on each of the girl's weird personality quirks often times two of the female characters in one episode.

The anime in itself doesn't really have a plot per se. It often feels like a grab bag of mixing as many asinine anime tropes and parodies as you can possible fit into a twelve episode anime. I would like to think that if you wanted to be entertaining, a concept like this could work but often times a lot of the jokes fall flat but I don't really blame the anime in of itself on that - I often blame my interpretation of it because often times I kept saying to myself I don't get it. The moments of pure hilarity were pretty much based on random unexpected visual comedic cues rather than funny and sharp witted dialogue. Besides the quirks from many of the female characters in the series, many of the episodes look at aspects of japanese culture from cultural school events, doujinshi, and summer festivals while taking silly aspects and amplifying it to an absurd degree.

The anime has too many cut away gags and I don't find them entertaining but often times I find it aggravating. It seems like there are hidden jokes scattered throughout the entire anime but they blow by so quickly it's hard to even gravitate towards what is being presented to you. We even have scenes where we have pictures of a bald headed gentlemen that randomly show up which I can only assume is the creator of the series or a possible animator but I feel like it's one of those anime where if you don't have any knowledge of the source material then it can be very hard to enjoy.

All the episodes feel incredibly self contained without any natural progression of an overall story and for the most part none of the characters are particularly enjoyable or relatable. The animation is adequate, but the opening and ending songs are not very memorable. I think one of the biggest problems I have with it is that the anime opening and some scenes have a very awkward and unwelcoming perversion to it that comes across as incredibly off putting but thankfully the scenes are incredibly brief and it gets into the zany comedic antics pretty quickly with each episode.

There are some episodes that tend to be enjoyable such as the main character trying to avoid an arranged marriage in which he has to marry the girl that he makes eye to eye contact with and there is an episode where the main male character has to deal with a school girl stalker that won't leave him alone which often leads to hilarious results.

Overall, it's an anime that probably has a much better appeal to teenagers and young adults but to me it's a tired exercise in mediocrity by trying too many random things in order to extract a laugh from the viewer which often leads to mixed results.