melworks | Entries tagged with reviews

Welcome to the Outcasts Restaurant - Action/Comedy/Fantasy/Slice of Life Anime about a guy who kets kicked out of his adventuring party by the jealous leader. He goes off to follow his dream and open a restaurant. Along the way he buys a slave girl to save her from a pedo. - The first ep was pretty standard for this type of anime. Characters are super generic which is sort of soothing in a way. Will check out next episode.

Dan Da Dan, Season 2 - Action/Comedy/Drama/Romance/Sci-Fi/Shounen/Supernatural anime - Second season picks up where the first season ends. - I watched the first season of this and thought it was okay but still don't get why some people are just so into it. *shrug* It's watchable, and the character relationships are entertaining. Will watch again, but wouldn't be surprised if I just bing then when its all over instead of watching the weeklies.

Kamitsubaki City Under Construction - Action/Mystery/Supernatural anime - It opens with a disasterous event called the Blackout that kills off a large portion of humanity then jumps forward seven years. The protagonists have the ability to destroy monsters with their songs. - I didn't know what to expect when I sat down to watch this one and was pleasantly surprised. The first ep jumps around a bit much. The world is interesting, where a city runs on the literal power of an idea and people spontaneously turn into monsters because of negative feelings. Will watch second ep but don't know if this will keep me invested or not.

The Water Magician - Action/Adventure/Fantasy/Isekai - Starts off with a typical isekai hook, Ryou dies in an accident and is reincarnated, for some reason, in the magical world of Phi , where he begins to master water magic. What he doesn't realize is that he also has the Eternal Youth blessing. - Typical isekai. First ep is set up and intro to the protagonist, Ryou. Did like how he used his water magic in unconventional ways, and the appearance of the dulahan and the interactions with the dragon surprised me. Will watch more.

So, that's eleven new anime total in the first three days and more in the wings.

New summer season anime drops continue!

Be Stronger! New Saga - Adventure/Fantasy anime where the protagonist, Kyle, slays the Demon King, then gets trasnported back in time before the whole demon war started. - First ep was okay. I was just glad not to be watchiing something like Re Do of Healer (shudder). Thankfully, the time travel thing is the only aspect the two anime share.

Onmyo Kaiten Re: Birth Verse - An action, fatnasy, isekai anime where a guy gets transported to another world with magic and mecha and discovers that, when he dies here, he gets to respawn at an earlier point in time. - This anime has strong vibes of Re: Zero - Starting Life in Another World. The main character is kind of irritating, but the other world is interesting. I like how they combine magic and tech. May watch again.

Hell Teacher - An action/comedy/horror/school anime about 'Nube' the only psychic teacher in Japan who gets hired to teach at a high school plagued by yokai and ghosts. - This first ep was 40 minutes long, basically a two-parter. Don't know if I'll watch this one, as the first two eps felt super-rushed. Also, Japanese comedy isn't really my cup of tea. Mix it in with horror and it just leaves me cold.

Clevatess - Action/Drama/Fantasy anime where a group of heroes go to kill a Lord of Demon Beasts, only to have it backfire terribly. - Hmm. The animation in this was really good and the story got sort of interesting. There's going to be chicanery and politics in this, from the look of it, and a Demon Beast Lord learning what it is to be human. I'm intrigued and will watch more.

Reborn as a Vending Machine, Season 2 - An Adventure/Comedy/Fantasy/Isekai about a guy who dies and gets reincarnated in a fantasy world as a literal vendiing machine. - I'm biased. I binged the first season of this in two days. I really like the characters, the animation is good and the writers get creative with Boxxo's abilities. This is stupid fun. Definitely watching more. :)

New summer anime season has begun and I thought I'd just make some notes on stuff I'm watching.
Okay?
Okay!

Detectives These Days are Crazy! - mystery/comedy anime about a guy who was a detective prodigee in high school, but now he's an adult detective and his life is pretty much crap. Enter, a spunky high school girl looking for a job as a detective's assistant. Hijinkx ensue. - Yeah. Not my cup of tea. Pass.

Necronomico & The Cosmic Horror Show - a game/horror anime about a bunch of social media influencers who get invited to take part in a new virtual game. Turns out a bunch of Elder Gods are inhabiting this VR game and the influencers who survived the first round now have to try and beat them, to save the world. - The concept was interesting, but didn't care for the animation. The story might be a slow burn, but it just didn't grab me. Pass.

I went by My Local Gameshop this afternoon, not really expecting to find anything, so, of course, I did. There, sitting on the shelf, was a box set for Daggerheart, the new RPG from the folks at Critical Role. I was curious about it, so I picked it up. It cost me $63 for the box which included the core rule book and the cards.

I just finished reading through it, skimming some parts, and it's a pretty decent book. It definitely has Matthew Mercer's voice throughout, which can be good or bad. Your personal milage may very.

I'll be honest, I'm probably never going to play this game. It comes with cards, which are convenient for some people but distracting to me personally. They encourage the use of tokens. The Hope/Fear dice mechanic is a bit of a twist and, honestly, just another thing that I don't really want to have to keep track of.

The race descriptions (Dwarf, Elf, etc) are concise and to the point, and they include some nice sketches with additional info. They are, conceptually, heavily influenced by the last few seasons of Critical Role.

The class choices and descriptions are equally as concise. Honestly, though? I found the classes to be kind of flat. Most are just reskins of already existing D&D classes. Each class gets a number of Hit Poiints, an Evasian number(which functions like Armor Class), a unique Class ability and then you choose from two subclasses for additional benefits.

Backgrounds, I think, are where they get a bit weak. Backgrounds are meant to reflect a PC's upbringing, and the writers are a bit schizo with their choices. They go from purely geographic locals (Ridgeborne = Mountain Dwellers) to social status (Highborne = Rich/Nobles).

The game has cards and tokens, which I've never cared for in a TTRPG. Just another thing to track. Also, there's this Domain thing tied to Classes affecting things like abilities, spells, etc. you can choose.

It's all just a bit fiddly to me, with way too many moving parts. Give me simple and straightforward.

So, I'll probably take it out to the Store soon and resell it.

Ah, April. When the new seasons of anime drop. Here's some thoughts on the new shows that have dropped that I've watched so far.

Rock Is a Lady's Modesty - hmm. The premise is unusual. The adopted daughter of a rich guy gets sent to a posh school for the upper class and has to work hard to fit in, which means denying her true, more common, nature. She meets another girl, who is secretly a hardcore rock drummer. They have a jam session in the old abandoned school and Rich Girl 2 accuses Rich Girl 1 of being a lame-ass guitarist. Then leaves. As far as setup and character work goes, this was pretty good. I'll give the next ep a shot.

The Brilliant Healer's New Life in the Shadows - First ep was sort of meh. MC is an underground healer with an in-place harem. They spend more time with the harem girls than with the MC. It's sort of meh. Am curious about the ghost living in the MC's house though.

Your Forma - I get definite 'Ghost in the Shell' vibes off of this one. MC is a police detective who dives into people's brains to investigate their memories. Her partner is a genteelly snarky android. I honestly don't know if this one has legs. We'll have to wait and see.

The Too Perfect Saint - The MC is the latest in a long line of saints and supposed to be the most powerful one of her bloodline. But because she doesn't smile, people are freaked out by her. She's engaged to a Prince, who's a typical dick, who breaks off the engagement and makes arrangements with the saint's dick social-climbing parents to sell her to a neighborhing country. Nice character work in this one, especially regarding the MC's motivations. Will watch more.

Once Upon a Witch's Death - The MC is Meg, a witch's apprentice who gets told she's been cursed to die in a year, when she turns 18. The only way she can save herself is to collect tears of joy from people. MC seems like a likeable enough character, and the animation in this one is quite good. Will probably watch again.

Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho - in the past two children flee their abusive father and find sanctuary in another village where sentinal guard a holy princess. time passes. the brother grows up and becomes a sentineal to the princess. his little sister, who appears to be a demon, does not grow up but remains young and innocent. Until she thinks the princess is betraying her brother and she loses it, transforming into an adult form, and killing the princess. Her brother, now also a demon, loses his shit and swears revenge on his one-time sister. Time jump ahead to the modern era, where the brother is returning to the village, to complete his revenge quest on his sister. First ep was 50+ minutes long. Good story. Good animation. Will check out the next issue.

The Unaware Atelier Master - The MC, Kurt, gets kicked out of the hero's party because he sucks at combat. But it turns out he's got the highest rank possible in noncombat/crafting skills. He is completely oblivious to this, thinking its totally normal to build a log cabin house alone in a single night. This was very meh, and I hate the English dub, so if I watch more I'll watch with subs.

The Beginning After the End - MC is a king from another world who dies and gets reincarnated in a fantastical world. First ep is all about him being a baby and trying to understand what's happened to him. The MC is a clueless, unlikeable dolt who just kills it for me. Utter trash. May try ep 2 to see if things get better, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire - MC was a good person who got screwed by his wife and boss, then died and got reincarnated as the son of wealthy nobles in a sci-fantasy world. The humor in this segues into adult territory, which was sort of surprising, and the story got a bit darker than I expected, but this felt like a typical isekai. Very meh.

Between bouts of writing false starts and dubious porn, I've continued to watch anime. Just wrapped up 'Shangri-La Fronteir' season one and about to dive into season 2. The show is genuinely interesting and has moments that are funny as hell. The main character, Sunraku, is a VR player whose avatar is a shirtless dude wearing a bird mask. Events happen in the game that prevent him from wearing any kind of armor, so he's basically stuck wearing the bird mask and relying on his game stats to survive. This isn't really as big a problem as you'd think, since Sunraku has spent years playing trash VR games and learning to compensate and exploit bugs in those games to win, which makes him a brilliant strategic gamer.

I suppose the show falls into the isekai genre, since it involves a different, albeing digital world. But the brightness of the dialogue and the character iinterractions make it a nice change of pace from most of that genre, which, I must admit, gets really repetative, really fast.

Possibly the Greatest Alchemist of All Time - guy gets reincarnted into a standard Japanese fantasy world, and just wants to live a simple life, so he chooses an Alchemist career and introduces toilets and refrigerators. Things start to get complicated.

Swallowed Star - a Chinese CGI crapfest. Didn't even make it through the first episode.

Flower and Asura - a slice of life anime about a shy high school student who joins her school's broadcasting club. It's a nice palate cleanser and an interesting look at high school broadcast clubs which apparently are a real thing in Japan.

Bogus Skill - watched the first ep of this before but forgot so rewatched it again. I'll watch a couple more episodes, but I'm getting a very generic vibe off this so far.

I"m a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, etc. - guy gets reincarnated as the third son of a desperate nobleman in a fantasy world and gets the usual overpowered magic powers; but how he uses them is sort of interesting.

Promise of Wizard - a 'reverse harem' series with some very pretty animation, but the main character just fades into the background. Don't think I'll continue with it.

My Happy Marriage - this one surprised me. I didn't think a Netflix anime could be so engaging. Main character gets treated like crap by her family, but she endures, and eventually gets kind of sold off to a guy with a cruel reputation. It's a romance/supernatural anime, which would normally turn me off, but I really like the characters and the story development. Also, I'm rooting for Miyu.

Toilet-bound Hanako-kun - I've seen the manga and am familiar with the Japanese concept of toilet ghosts, so I gave this anime a shot. After the first ep, I don't think it's for me. Should probably give it a couple more eps before I decide, but I'm leaning toward a big 'No.'

Shangri-La Frontier - This got a lot of buzz, but I wasn't expecting much so was pleasantly surprised by not only the quality of the animation but the interestint character and intertwined plots. Currently watching season 1 and enjoying it quite a bit. The MC being thought of a weird fetish freak or a meme character by the other players he meets in game is pretty funny.

I've been watching the new Doctor Who, or, as I am starting to think of it, Disney Who. And my overall reaction to this latest season is 'Meh.'
I thought Ncuti Gatwa would be a much more interesting Doctor, but despite a great smile, he doesn't really bring any charm or pathos to the role. He looks good, he delivers his lines but that's all. He feels a bit plastic.
Millie Gibson's 'Ruby Sunday' character was a big red flag in the first episode. She's a 'special' companion, with some kind of weird destiny that may be connected to extrauniversal entities like the Celestial Toymaker and the Maestro. She's Rose Tyler and Clara Oswald, although I think Gibson's character is more likeable than either of them.
The stories this season have been utter shit, IMHO. We can definitely see the Disney money evident in the production values, but not in the writing. Who the fuck thought 'Space Babies' was a good idea? Or having two episodes where your new Doctor is mostly absent? I feel like I'm watching a show ghostwritten by Chris Chibnall, not Russel T. Davies.
We're six episodes in on an 8-episode season and I am not impressed. During last night's episode, 'Rogue', I got so bored I started chatting with people online and only half paying attention to the show. I don't really feel like I missed anything.
I'll watch the rest of this season, but, honestly? I think this might be my last season watching these new Doctor Who episodes. :(

I went and saw the Barbie movie today.
I thought Margot Robbie was excellent.
I was surprised that Rhea Perlman was still alive.
I thought Will Farrell was completely superfluous (a living manifestation of Ken, if you will).
And, ultimately, I did not think the movie was very good.
This movie is definitely female-oriented (It's Barbie. Big shock.), but they tried to address far too many serious topics, and it was NOT very funny.
If you go into this movie expecting comedy, you aren't going to get it. And the poignant scenes are handled so heavy-handed, telegraphed from so far away, they don't have any real punch.
Also, the ending joke just made me shake my head and sigh.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I would have to give Barbie a one. It's just not worth seeing in the theater or paying for it on-stream.
Your mileage may vary.

Rob Zombie's version of The Munsters is awful. Weirdly enough the casting and cinematography aren't bad, but the writing! Oh. My. God. The movie is about 1 hour 45 minutes long and I managed to make it through about an hour before I could feel my will to live draining away.
People say Rob Zombie can't do horror.
Well, he can't do comedy either.
My God that movie was BAD.

Today has been, by turns, good and bad.

I woke up to texts from a friend inviting me to come out to his place to play D&D,but I had a hellish headache and declined.

The headache lasted for a little while. I'm not sure what caused it. But when it went away I felt fine.

So I drove out to my Mom's and spent a couple of hours with her. And got really annoyed when she kept interrupting me to say something and I sort of blew up and called her on it. She looked completely gobsmacked, but I'm so tired of people talking over me. :/

After that, I came home and had supper.

I had:

2 cans of sliced white potatoes
1 can of whole kernel golden corn
1 small can of diced tomatoes with chillis and lime
1 honey cured ham steak
1 can of green beans.

I tossed the potatoes and ham in the microwave and nuked them for about 4 minutes, while cooking the corn & tomatoes on the stovetop. When the potatoes were done, I nuked the green beans then covered them with low-fat mozarella cheese.

I have three bananas waiting in the wings for later, but I'm very full and don't know if I'll get to them tonight.

After eating, I washed the dishes in the sink and then came downstairs to listen to some music. I finished watching Netflix's 'Dracula' last night and remain somewhat underwhelmed by the liberties they took with the story. That said, the actors' performances were brilliant.