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Aw yeah! This is a proper sequel for fucking nazi zombies!
I have to admit that I did't dig the first one all that much but with the zombie battalion moving from the get go it's a lot more fun.
Content wise this gets a lot more absurd which allows for some interesting setups and a battle between German and the Reds. The story continues where the first movie ended but there is a flashback so you get at least the gist of what happened if you haven't seen it (and we all know there isn't a deep story here).
It seems like after having directed a movie in Hollywood that Wirkola's budget for this one was a lot bigger. The zombie fx are all consistently good and the gore is fucking everywhere.
They also went out of their way to break plenty of taboos with holding no restraints when it comes to the nazi decimating the villagers on their final mission. You better not be offended because there are some hilarious deaths thanks to that.
The biggest weakness are probably the members of the US zombie hunter squad whose characters are written a bit too comic-ey but thankfully their screen time is balanced enough. I take it they were added to appeal to a wider audience since whenever they're involved the whole cast is speaking in English.
I can only recommend checking this one out as its funnier, gorier and even has cuter zombies than the first one!

This movie tells your typical love story of two people meeting, falling in love, going through conflict and meeting again one day.
Yes, like you havn't seen that before.. - but there is a twist! It's told using footage of 450+ movies. It often doesn't take more than a couple seconds to jump to a different movie and thanks to the great editing job this flows pretty well and isn't as distracting as it sounds. The scene arrangements even allow for certain in-jokes depending where they have been taken from. The whole thing is also more involving since there is not only the story itself you're putting together but also the context of the scenes and the quiz that runs in your brain about where it's from, where it's at and if you know X, Y or Z. The entertainment value further raises by the amount of the movies used you have seen. It certainly makes for a boss level super-cut.
The director György Pálfi (Taxidermia) put this movie together with four editors over the course of three years. It is the result of the Hungarian state funding not giving new grants for projects for a year and his reshuffeling of post-production budget he got for previous movies.

Attack on Titan (aka Shingeki no Kyojin in romaji) has proven to be one of the rare shows that sparks the attention from people who don't regulary watch seasonal anime. I mean, just look at the numbers on trakt alone: Two of the other more popular shows that started at the same time, Maou-sama and Gargantia don't even come close (less than a 100 watchers on the last episode). But not only that - even in the anime community itself it gained immense popularity and currently is still in the Top 10 on Myanimelist (kind of the western Facebook of anime). What is to take away from this is certainly that it seems to make for a good entry-level show but it's not one without flaws and I can't frankly understand why it gets that much praise (oh hello SAO!).

I first came into contact with it's manga because it ranked extremly high on Mangaupdates with some of the genre tags I browse. After reading the first 15 or so chapters I deceided to put it on hold. It didn't impress me and the art was everything but pretty (given that it was the authors first series and he didn't draw much before this). So when the show came around I saw potential for improvement given that the art could only get better plus action never suffers from being animated. This also means I had certain expectations and some of the early tension had been lost on me due to knowing some twists.

Now the story itself has plenty of shortcomings but is still entertaining. It starts out like your grimdark show about the struggle of mankind (in this case versus the titans) but it falls into the usual shonen trappings further down the road. I also find most of it's characters kind of stagnant in terms of developments and it's everything but subtle. The source material is still being published and is probably not even at the midpoint of which thr first season maybe adapted half of. This also means there isn't an ending yet. There is plenty of padding going around in the show and they added some filler to end it before the start of a new arc. I don't think the filler was all that bad but the padding put it's toll on it. Some episodes are extremly tedious to the point that nothing at all happened.

One the shows biggest problem for me comes in terms of animation quality. There are good looking scenes and the 3D rendered high-speed slides through the city on their 3DMG always looked great... it's just that it was inconsistent to the max. Quite early you begin to notice copy pasta and the worst possible use of stillframes with narration or dialogue over it. This is done a lot in the industry and it isn't necessarily a bad thing but the way they do it in this is so in your face and frequent you just can't help it. There was some talk about them lacking animators and that they were apparently looking for more but that couldn't have been the only issue. Around the episodes that relied on it the most a new OP hit the show with plenty of quality animation so yeah... The level of detail also decreased towards the end whenever it wasn't a closeup or something in the focus.

I guess this sounds really negative but I still gave the show a 7... it is just frustrating to see this hyped to the heavens when it really is far from perfect. If you're looking for an action show, sure - give it a go. It's just nothing great. I'm sure there will be more coming down the road (there have been spin-off stories already) and I cannot wait to see the train-wreck the live action movie planned for 2014 will be.

R.I.P. Moe titan.

When the Hellsing TV version was initially released I was really into the show's edginess. At that time we didn't even have a broadband connection and so for most episodes I was left with checking sequences from the already downloaded packets and waiting for it to complete (funny how times have changed). Despite all this I never actually watched the whole thing. So to check this off I decided to watch the OVAs instead since they have been released for some time now.
Most people with the intention of watching "Hellsing" already know this but I'm saying it again; there is little reason to check out the TV version with the existence of the Ultimate OVAs. They are not only superior in production values but also true to the manga source material. So instead of fighting ghouls and vampires created by computer chips this builds to a showdown between religious factions and an army of vampire Nazis in the middle of London.
The thing is obviously not perfect. The comedy feels a bit misplaced and the pacing towards the end a bit uneven (with a lot of focus on shots of impaled people, blood streams, crosses or ruins) and the chief Nazi was quite anti-climatic.
Still, if you're up for a ride with one of the most overpowered protagonists ever and are not put off by a rain of blood and body parts this will suffice and is probably the only show of it's kind to receive this deluxe treatment.

Higurashi is an adaptation of an independently released horror/mystery visual novel series. While those kind of games usually work in the way that you have multiple paths you can choose (and often have a "definitive" true end after you played through all of them) this one actually has an overarching mystery behind them. So instead of getting a "mixed" adaptation or only one of them you get them all.
The basic setup for the different arcs is always the same: Our protagnonists goof around in the town of Hinamizawa in your typical 'Slice-of-Life' manner until shit hits the fan on the night of the local Cotton Drifting Festival. By no later than then someone has lost all their marbles thanks to the curse of Oyashiro, smashing all their friends to a squishy red mass.
To keep the mystery flowing each of the arcs features variations within including who will be covered in blood at the end and in each of them you learn some new hints to what is happening. Most of the arcs also get an "answer arc" to them in which you see things from a different character's viewpoint covering more ground (although only two of them are present in the first season).
If you want to know the truth behind it all you will have to watch season 1 and 2 which leaves you at 50 episodes. From that point on everything is optional. Season 3 is 2/5th fanservice and 3/5th a new arc and season 4 is just an hour long action/gore fest that isn't really in the spirit of the first two seasons.

Now the reason why I watched the show is simply because I love horror and if you see recommendations within the genre it does not take long for Higurashi to pop up. It is however not exactly what I hoped for. Due to the repetitive nature it can sometimes be tedious, especially so the "The Disaster Awakening Chapter" arc in the second season. The early parts of every arc are also often really silly.
What it really does do well is building the mystery and changing the tone from cutsey to sinister.
The art itself hasn't really aged well and isn't detailed but the expressions of the maniacs are always great and I loved how the crazies sddenly et demon eyes. The sound design is OK and I guess has many taken from the game and no one can hate on an OST composed by Kenji Kawai.
The whole thing is flawed in my book but it is an interesting ride.

PS: I called the show just "Higurashi" but the full romaji name would be "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" for the first season and the official english title is "When They Cry". If you were to translate it directly from the Japanese you would get something like "The Moment the Cicadas Cry" which sounds just as shit so yeeah, it's easier that way :)...

There was an Interview with Tow Ubukata on ANN a while back where he talked about the limitations he had when working on Psycho-Pass 2 given that it was squeezed in front of the movie... as it turns out that isn't a good excuse as to why it was so lackluster then the movie works really well as a standalone entry. The existing characters besides Akane and Kougami get very little screentime so they had plenty of freedom.
Anyways, the plot isn't all that movie worthy but the export of Sibyl-"Lite" adds some needed world building as to there the system stands in the world. Since this all plays out abroad in a tropical setting it feels different from the show and the action focus is a lot bigger. It is sort-off filler (depending on Kougami's future role) given that there isn't much lasting impact to the general "universe" from these events.
The animation and action is done well and an upgrade compared to the show plus the dominators wreck a lot more havoc with extra focus on the guts.
All-in-all it's a solid action flick for me but not much more.

(If you haven't seen the show you could watch the movie anyways as the gist of it gets explained in the OP but I can see some head-scratching without any previous knowledge of the show).

Figures I never wrote something about YowaPeda so what better moment for that than the start of it's second season (and 4th cour).

Bike racing is not exactly the usual theme for a show but Japan is capable of doing manga about just anything (it's also not the first anime of the sport). To make it's appeal a bit wider the main character of the show is well... an otaku. Because he fails to form an anime club at his school he ends up joining the bicycle club. By appearance he certainly does not look like he would be any good at that though. The twist however is that because his parents didn't want him to ride too far away they not only gave him a granny bike but also manipulated his crank so that he has a harder time to speed up. Being the otaku he is he regularly rides to Akihabara down a steep hill and then back up again (while singing his favorite anime theme song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrshPMtH0CY). So without even knowing he had quite the harsh training which translates quite well to an actual racing bike.
While I just made it sound like the otaku stuff is strongly present in the show, it's actually not at all. It hardly ever comes up or is just used in the omake. The core of the show is the bike racing and it's huge cast of characters.
Now what about the story? There isn't really all that much here except for the races which brings me to one of the show's issues: The pacing. It is all over the place! I guess it started with the training camp arc where some episodes would cover just a small piece of the route and push cliff hangers. Despite being enjoyable it is a bit tedious when watched on a weekly basis. The first big race is the Inter-High race whose whole first day and parts of day two (of 3) are covered by about 16 episodes - that are ending season 1. That's right! A race that is still ongoing when the seasonal break comes. One could argue that they fucked up rather badly OR they knew all along that another season was coming (which isn't typical).
Another issue is the formula of the show. Race -> focus on a character in the race -> flashback episode. The cast is big and it's an efficient way to go about it but you can see it coming from miles away.
Unlike other sports show the power ups here are not that frequent or at least not too fantastical. The cadence gets insanely high and the convenient catch up is there but it would be boring other wise.
Presentation wise it's not the prettiest show but it looks good enough. They make heavy use of 3D models for the races though which might not be everyone's cup of tea. The score is good and I found myself enjoying the upbeat OPs and EDs.

I doubt that anyone is going out of their way to catch up on the 40 episodes released so far (there is a compliation movie out) but if biking is your thing (which isn't for me) or just like sports anime it's worth it. The fujoshi will keep the show strong and I'm certain we will get more of these weird stage plays too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTrKr-iWyWs.

This show is a beautiful lie...
I don't think there was a show recently that sported it's insanity like a badge of honor. The easiest way to describe the story initially would be that it's Kick-Ass for Toku shows (those live action rubber suit shows like Power Rangers).
Masayoshi (our main) grew up loving these kind of shows but keeps his passion under wraps in favor of his modeling carrier. At one point he decides to follow his dream and becomes a "hero" himself. His ideals of justice include the tiniest things like littering or moving the trash out in the middle of the night. It's all rather trivial with the public adjusting to their new found hero, an idol group forming a squad of side-kick heroines and the general mystery of Samurai Flamenco's identity for everyone. Then after a couple episodes, Flamenco cooperates with the police and something known as the "Guillotine Gorilla-incident" happened and with it the arrival of his first nemesis. From here on out the show was never the same again. It's like the safety barriers on a roller coaster closed down and the breaks cut loose and you go down the ride full speed. What first appears to be a drug-infused hallucination turns out to be reality and nothing is off limits. There are aliens (From Beyond), a secret base below Japan for Flamenco, a full on Flamengers squad with the usual colors and transforming robots, heroes becoming real, plenty of twist reveals, a battle in space and a talk with god of the universe.
I can understand that the direction for the show wasn't all that fun for everyone and there is a reckless disregard for logic (and drops in animation quality) but it's great to have something this unpredictable to sit through. The only way to top the whole thing would have been a live-action finale at the end.

Gnaahh~ here we wait again.. the third movie should be fun with the Eclipse finally happening. I even went back to see if there have been some more manga chapters released since I last read up only to realise that in the last 5 months only three new ones came out. I sure hope we don't have to wait another 20 years for it to complete >_>.

As for the movie itself: While I still enjoyed it overall there are plenty of issues. The CGI is still present but it feels like they amped up the use. While sometimes this works, there are many scenes where it looks choppy and ugly as hell. This is rather unfortunate since Berserk is known for Miura's awesome visuals. The other major drawback is the pacing/adaptation. The movie is too short given that the 25-episode anime for the same arc wasn't enough.. how are three movies supposed to work? They skip a lot but still have some scenes running longer which results in a weird pace. The biggest drawback because of that is the lack of character development. Their connection to the Band of the Hawk isn't really there as they hardly get any screentime (which lessens the impact the Eclipse will have), Griffith's determination is played down and Gut's just the muscle. For people new to the franchise it'll just be a medieval action story without much depth...

It would be great if it actually sold well in Japan but that doesn't seem to be the case. It would have been awesome to get the other arcs animated aswell although they would have to make improvement's to their CGI (I don't dare to imagine how the battle versus Ganishka would look).

Space☆Dandy is an unique project within the anime industry. Japanese licensors have never been too eager about getting their shows distributed globally and the ones that got the rights had to work their connections only to have them for a limited time-frame with strict rules enforced about how to release it (including translations). Due to this the medium has probably one of the most active communities of translators and fansubbers investing their free-time to get shows localized in an alternate way (same goes for scanlating in manga). The right-holders seem to have realized the massive loss of revenue over the recent years and now supply simulcast services like Crunchyroll, Funimation, Daisuki, etc. with the new episodes (and scripts) to allow for a timely online release after airing in Japan. So along comes Dandy, licensed in multiple countries but also airing on Adult Swim, dubbed in English and premiering a couple hours before Japan - that is a surprising leap! This could pave the future for other shows being tailored at a wider audience outside of Japan. So far it is doing alright and I'm curious for a rating comparison once the last episode aired.

I haven't said anything about the show yet heh? Well, one of the reasons why the project was chosen for this kind of release is the involvement of Shinichiro Watanabe who directed Cowboy Bebop which did exceptionally well in the US. When looking at the individual credits though his involvement isn't that big technically. I don't really know that details of how it got produced but the setting bears a strong influence of American culture, intentionally or not. The obvious one is of course Dandy's style and his obsession with BooBies (a fictional Hooters) but also the references within show (Planet of the Apes, George A. Romero, etc.).
The story plays out episodic and even introduces different time lines. Due to different people being involved each episode, they all have a different feel to them (and sometimes even a new artstyle). It can range from goofy to some with actual drama. I enjoyed most of those but there were also some bad ones in there.
Space Dandy will continue it's run in the summer which will probably advance the overarching story of the show and if not... well it doesn't matter. I can't say how it's mainstream appeal is but I'm not sure if the Bebop fans for example would enjoy it (they take place in the same universe though). With proper expectation of a comedy I'd say most people will find something here just not something substantial.

As for the age old question of dub versus sub: They're actually both good. The most obvious difference is their robot companion QT which sounds a lot more feminine in the Japanese dub. A small thing is also the OP which in the Japanese version packs a lot more punch (but I think they used it later episodes for the dub too).

Battleships that take the form of girls in a time where Kancolle is popular in Japan... what happens? It sells like hotcakes. The local fanbase is sometimes realllllly weird.

While my initial expectations were quite low the show didn't turn out that bad. The basic gist of the story goes like this:
Global warming caused large areas of land to get flooded and shortly after, a mysterious fleet of ships called "The Fog" appeared on earth and claimed the waterspace for themselves and pushed the humans away. Serval years later our protagonist gets visited by one of the Fog, taking form of a little girl asking him to be "her captain". In the process, he and his crew become fugitives and get on the task of transporting the weapon that is key on fighting back against them to the US for mass production.

I take it they departed quite far from the source material by leaving the politics of the various nations and "The Fog" aside and focusing instead on the interactions between them and the main sub and crew, I-401 then somehow that seems to mess up their reason of existance as weapons and causing them to develop more human traits.
What is most noteable about the show is it's visuals. While there has been a constant increase of 3D blended with regular 2D animation they went a step further here and made the 3D the core. The result of this is sometimes weird to look at but works generally well enough and even more so for the action-sequences.
I would not straight up recommend the show but if loli-subs and shipbattles are your thing give it a go.

Thanks to some wonderful poster artwork and being billed by Noé the movie already earned itself the "artporn" joke. While this isn't true for most of the movie there are indeed some pointless sex scenes to be found.
The story is told from the perspective of Murphy who isn't happy with his current relationship, partially forced on him by an unwanted pregnancy. As he gets a call from his Exes mom worried that she'd done something to herself he starts to reminisce about their old relationship... while doing the opium he got from her "for when he's down". Those segments sometimes carry a Before Sunrise vibe to them but mainly depict what went wrong for the two and sex.
It was sort of nice getting the personal views from the main character (which fit his persona really well while being sort of misogynistic) and Noé adds his directorial flair to many scenes. The music is also really diverse from classic pieces to doing drugs to Salem or a lengthy guitar improv song over a threesome.
While I enjoyed myself in the first half it got rather tedious later on. I don't think we really got into their " love" and some parts of their characteristics were missing; Murphy for instance studies filmmaking (he is an exchange student and came to Paris for this) but this never plays into the plot except for countless movie posters in his room and some dialogue calling 2001 a must-see! Noé also references himself a lot in the movie from naming the MC after his mom, the couples son Gaspar and casting himself as a character called Noé into the movie while calling himself a pedophile...
As for the sex scenes, they're not a big deal mostly and shot well. As the couple gets into their experimental phase however this escalated quite bit with a visit to a swinger club or inviting over a trans only to handle that immaturely. The money shot is obviously also in this in 3D.
The movie had potential but it just doesn't deliver what's needed.

Ajin is the second time Polygon Pictures got Netflix on it's production committee but just like Sidonia it's all CG again which already kills off some interested parties which is weird seeing as the manga is rather popular. This series as it is now is pretty much a cross promotion: the first half of the series, with a little less content, ran in cinemas as a limited release (https://trakt.tv/movies/ajin-demi-human-compel-2015) with the content of the second half of the TV series premiering in May as Part 2 (https://trakt.tv/movies/ajin-demi-human-collision-2016). The final arc of the anime will stay exclusive to it's cinema release only. If you're wondering what route you should pick I'd say watch this and then the final movie. They're not that self contained that you need the "movie" experience.
As previously mentioned this is all CG and that is fine by me. There are still issues but I actually enjoyed watching it a lot more than reading. The story isn't really a standout and has enough violence in it to sell the seinen but it's still worth pointing out that just after a single volume the original writer left for another series of his and left the work to his artist who then took over both roles and that isn't a bad thing as it only improved. As of now we're pretty much at a Death Note-esque duel between the protagonist and the antagonist which is sort of enjoyable considering they're both immortal and can utilize some interesting strategies.

You can't call out the ABCs of Death for not being an ambitious horror anthology! Featuring shorts for every letter in the alphabet made by directors from all over the world with a budget of 5000$ each. This might be a bit much so it work's best on the small screen, giving you the chance to think about them or just taking a short break (it's clocking at a bit more than two hours). There is bound to be difference in the quality of the segments when it comes to anthologies but overall I found it to be an enjoyable project. Some shorts failed the mood a bit and "M" was a major disappointment (no idea what he used the 5000 bucks for). If you're a horror fan, nothing should stop you from watching it. I would not recommend it for casual viewers.

Standouts: D is for Dogfight (Marcel Sarmiento) / L is for Libido (Timo Tjahjanto) / N is for Nuptials (Banjong Pisanthanakun) / P is for Pressure (Simon Rumley) / T is for Toilet (Lee Hardcastle) / U is for Unearthed (Ben Wheatley) / X is for XXL (Xavier Gens) / Y is for Young Buck (Jason Eisener)
Bads: G is for Gravity (Andrew Traucki) / J is for Jidai-geki (Yûdai Yamaguchi) / M is for Miscarriage (Ti West)

I belive "Wake Up, Girls!" was intended to be the first full series made by Yutaka Yamamoto's Ordet Studio to put them on the map or at least make some revenue? They certainly were ambitious with forming their own idol group to base their series on and open with a movie premiere a day before the show start... maybe a little too much.
The story follows a newly formed idol group from Sendai which isn't as lively as Tokyo and thus isn't used to something like an idol group. The format is the usual underdog story that ends early enough for them not having their breakthrough, leaving space to whatever they want to follow up with.
Initially we see a certain degree of criticism of the idol industry like the rival idol group being presented as an army under a draconian leadership, a girl being kicked-out of the group for a romantic relationship or the WUGs being pimped out to a concert in skimpy outfits (no shaved heads though). To really be the anti-idol show though it would have needed more of that because as the show progresses it doesn't concern itself with that anymore. (Let's just hope the AKB48 director does not book his own group for the Olympics in 2020 at this point.)
The biggest issue I had with the show is the Studio itself. They're only about 10 guys or so and they do not manage to keep the visual standards they set themselves in the movie. Every episode has plenty of animation outsourced and gradually increases the QUALITY. The dances look absolute shit at times to the point where you often don't recognize certain characters or only by hairstyle and color (ex. http://i.imgur.com/nhAy9jN.gif). The CG effects are also not pretty nor well integrated (ex. http://i.imgur.com/ctqlB8h.jpg). Certainly does not speak for your "animation" studio.
Overlooking all that, the characters were diverse enough and not just a "product" and the drama worked well enough. It's not something I'd recommend though unless you want a little insight on the idol industry and not the girls being super heros like in AKB0048 (http://trakt.tv/show/akb0048) or your typical worship/moe-blobb show like iDOLM@STER (http://trakt.tv/show/the-idolmster) and it's various spin-offs.

I'm always a bit weary when it comes to movies from my country as they tend to be lackluster or made for TV productions (especially when it's sci-fi)! Luckily this wasn't the horror I imagined.
Being a cross media project there is an augmented reality game this movie builds on but not relies on (I haven't played it as it's city based). That is also the main theme the story builds on: an engineer built machine that allows you to blur the line of what is real and virtual. He disappeared as he realized the danger of his invention leaving it up to his wife to stop said release to the public.
The movie has a strong weabonism to it (I made that word up). The opening shot is what looks like a field in the alps with Mt. Fuji in the background and two people in a kimonos walking down the hill. He met his wife in Japan who was cosplaying as "Tokyo Heidi" and she frequently speaks Japanese with their son. The evil lady in the game is also a western rendition of the slith-mouthed woman (an urban myth), and so on. Apparently this is because Japan is already doing more of these kinds of media projects and had thematic influences given.
The film looks good for it's budget and the story was ok. The first half feels rather exposition heavy though and the dialogue is "overwritten" giving it a bit of a theater feel.
By Swiss standards this certainly is a good sci-fi movie it's just something I've personally seen done before better.

There are things you can only find in Japan and I would count Puzzle to them.
Surprisingly this whole affair is based on a book by Yûsuke Yamada who also sees a different novel adaptation of his this year by Noboru Iguchi (which I sadly missed) and already had some in the past like "When I Kill Myself" which apparently no one watched... Speaking of things no one watched, the director Eisuke Naitô's previous film with the eye-catching title "Let's-Make-the-Teacher-Have-a-Miscarriage Club"! You bet your ass that this is going to be relevant here.
The movie can be put into the "death game" genre as some students wearing super cute sunflower masks terrorize their school with morbid games. The scenarios are all darkly comic ranging from snatching puzzle pieces from RC cars to collecting bicycle bells to extend the timer on a ticking bomb. The one device on the poster is an obvious spoof of the first Saw but does have it's use despite looking cheesy.
As mentioned before it is rather dark sometimes and even a bit misogynistic but it's playful and weird side help to make it lighter. Before anyone thinks "sick Japanese", the American representative of the genre - Saw - is in the same boat but tries to play everything straight.
It should be really easy to judge from the trailer if it's for you. I certainly got my money's worth. I wasn't a big fan of the ending though but you can attribute some of that to crazies. Since the lead actress is also an idol you also get some odd free dance scene at the end with a confrontation to an iguana (or some reptile) which is about a fitting closing scene...

I guess I'm contrarian when I look at all these high ratings but what ever.
The plus side is that there is more time with the 'characters' this time around as they're already "assembled" and the action scenes and CG is well done but that is all it's going to get.
The movie is long, really long - despite there being a gaping editing hole already. You still could cut an hour off this without loosing anything important though. It's depressing how something this shallow has been blown up like this.
How great is that we're getting superheroes instead of some other generic action movie. Let's just do all the standard stuff with CG anyways. Some yadadada in some slave country, a trip to Manhattan, South Africa and lets not forget a derailing train action scene in Korea. It's also quite dumb how random the powerlevels are in this (not that the group makes any sense like this anyways).
The big bad? The more he opened his mouth the worse it got. No one said anything about a degenerating A.I. His plan was shite and so was the execution but otherwise someone had to actually write a compelling story that is more than action sequences (or beepbeep to quote Black Widow). You better not be poking for holes in this as it's littered with them.
Too make matters worse the ending was actually the worst part. I don't think we need 20 scenes of them saving a family from the 10th floor or a lady out of her car when countless other people get fucking crushed. A sleazy guy like Stark is already the most popular one of the assemble anyways so why would anyone need confirmation that the guys are not evil? The fighting goes from one-shotting robots en masse, punching them a lot and even drop-kicking a single one - these guys sure are effective (it's amazing how much attention those copy paste robots get). I'm really glad tho that Captain America's spidey senses can feel the "waves" they're attacking in so he can do more drops.
Too bad the Marvel's circle-jerk isn't going to stop anytime soon (with Disney joining in). I rather have the other ones back because they do not get hyped like these movies so I can ignore them more easily. I wonder how many directors more they're going to burn down the road.

I give this show one thing, it's ambitious in it's production but content wise it's terribly lackluster. Feels like Watanabe is on it's way to joining the ranks of eccentric elderly Japanese directors :rolling_eyes:...
Set in the future one of it's early themes is the idea of AI song production VS that of humans but really it doesn't do much besides raising that question. Even more so the duo of "Carole & Tuesday" felt inhuman as even towards the end they felt like blank slates which magically create new songs over night... I mean it's not like they already overproduce popular music without AI and here they champion a duo which exist as singer/songwriter in the thousands today...
After you get through what is basically the anime equivalent of a real world talent show it branches out to immigration topics (people of Mars vs. Earth) but everything t here feels forced and superficial (even stupid at times).
And really that superficiality can be found everywhere, be it an unrequited love interest (which has 0 impact on the character) or a guy basically saying he is doing his last performance for them and that they carry his hopes only to not ever come up again (???) (heck - we have TWO stalkers)...
Recommended if you like talent shows I guess..?

Oh Pupa, such a weird little thing. I doubt there was a show that pissed off more people this season (following into Aku no Hana's footsteps)! The key factor to the problem is the episode runtime - just four minutes (with about two of those being taken up by the OP and ED). With this little time Studio DEEN deceided it would be a good idea to adapt a vore-themed story about a brother and a sister that was originally told in a three volume manga. Helmed by a not unexpirienced director (Tomomi Mochizuki) it leaves many questions about their true intentions. The art is not pretty, the episodes rather disconnected, the voice acting not very good and even the SFX sound rather low quality. Then there is also it's content; with cannibalism being a core theme airing them anyways but censoring the shit out of them with shadow/light-overlays... what is the point? They should have released these as OVAs but with a longer runtime or something like that. Nothing is resolved and the last episode is a flashback to when they were little kids and being all cute... It was never a good story anyways but certainly more coherent than this. Maybe they just wanted to take the piss out of some of the more energic fans obssession over little sisters or something (which 1x06 Encroach seems to hint at). If you want to watch it I'd suggest waiting for an uncensored release, it only takes you half an hour anyways.

For those looking for anything deep behind sibling relationships I'd suggest to take a look at this behind the scenes to see that Sayaka Mogi didn't have much in mind when thinking this thing up: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/tv/imagine/flv20140213_archive.html

That's a strange one but since it's for the 4th of July it's not the worst idea to take on political hot topics. These days most of the media produced with a message is usually a left leaning and this one could also just have been that too but despite some easy jabs at Trump it actually also questions the idealization of the "American Dream" of those looking to cross (&the "nice people"). Now don't get me wrong; this is far off from being grounded in reality which also makes it hard for me to accept this as anything relevant to the discussion but it's worth pointing out that it isn't just a "you have to think" lesson.
From a fictional movie standpoint it was a weird mix of previous ideas (ie. "The Stepford Wives" or "Sleep Dealer") which were decently executed but also not without it's heavy "horror" label. I'm sort off glad it didn't go the "Undocumented" route which was sort-off implied from the intro (and given her previous works not unexpected).
It's OK to pass the time but anything else concerned with the morality of the topic was not really coherent to me thus only a 5 (no idea how we are supposed to read Shawn Ashmore's character or them getting really violent to get out of an "assimilation" facility and her killing her rapist and their baby being the reinforcement needed to go back DESPITE all of this happening BECAUSE she wanted to get away from that)...

That's a strange one but since it's for the 4th of July it's not the worst idea to take on political hot topics. These days most of the media produced with a message is usually a left leaning and this one could also just have been that too but despite some easy jabs at Trump it actually also questions the idealization of the "American Dream" of those looking to cross (&the "nice people"). Now don't get me wrong; this is far off from being grounded in reality which also makes it hard for me to accept this as anything relevant to the discussion but it's worth pointing out that it isn't just a "you have to think" lesson.
From a fictional movie standpoint it was a weird mix of previous ideas (ie. "The Stepford Wives" or "Sleep Dealer") which were decently executed but also not without it's heavy "horror" label. I'm sort off glad it didn't go the "Undocumented" route which was sort-off implied from the intro (and given her previous works not unexpected).
It's OK to pass the time but anything else concerned with the morality of the topic was not really coherent to me thus only a 5 (no idea how we are supposed to read Shawn Ashmore's character or them getting really violent to get out of an "assimilation" facility and her killing her rapist and their baby being the reinforcement needed to go back DESPITE all of this happening BECAUSE she wanted to get away from that)...

As apparent by it's trailer, Danger Dolls does not set out for high art. This was also reinstated by the directors video announcement before the screening, stating he wanted to make a movie with "kawaii" girls who are fighting with swords (before he went on to rant about Japan's nuclear energy politics). Unfortunately it's not a very good movie.
The setup goes like this: The Reagan Administration stops the global use of nuclear energy (and weapons). The ever so popular President George Bush manages to dispose of guns world wide. Come present day, guns might be gone but there is still criminal activity with swords being the weapon of choice these days. Enter the bad guys from an alternate reality, looking to rule the world that does not have nuclear weapons... It's obviously the job of the Danger Dolls to put an end to this.
My main issue with the movie is easily the fighting. There are plenty of (repetitive) battles but they're not particularly exciting and despite the sword action there is no blood at all except for the one time a "normal" human got hurt. Despite it's ridiculous setup (and FX) it's all played straight but some more humor would have been welcome.
The idol part of the movie was really clunky and seems to be for milking only as the inserts to the alternate reality Danger Dolls "idol group" were distracting and the whole undercover operation as idols was really dumb.
Given that the director Shusuke Kaneko did his fair share of movies I was bound to expect more (I enjoyed his "God's Left Hand, Devil's Right Hand").
There is already an english dubbed trailer for the movie which suggest they want to market it. So if you are going to watch it I can only recommend to keep your expectations in check.

Looking past the early attempts for brownie points I did not really find something to grasp onto.
I have very little memories of the previous TV adaptation but it's certainly sad to see an iconic character like Salem was be pretty much non-existent in this. This version of Sabrina not shying away from the darker implications of witchcraft is certainly one of the better aspects of the show but it was still weird to watch as it's those elements that bite with the more YA topics of it (which shouldn't be when it has a demographic of 18+ tbh).
At some point I feel like Netflix took the "we don't have to limit episode run times" moto as an excuse to just stretch out content to better fit their business model... you can watch a 10 hours long season only to get superficial storylines. Many aspects of the show are only just starting to develop (her "mortal" friends in particular) and a lot of what went on felt very contrieved. It's so inconsistent that it feels like someone forced them to do it that way. But remember, she is a bad ass witch yo..! How this comes to be does not matter. Morality jumps all over the place unlike Sabrina's powerlevel which is Mary Sue tier. Her relationship with her boyfriend is awkward to watch and must have been though for the actors as well, her friends are just background noise to randomly insert when needed... and so is a lot of the stuff (including the past of her parents)... At this point I feel like I could rant on for quite a while so I'm just going to go ahead and lower the rating further. Yes, you can watch it... but I'm not sure who really should.

Myriad Colors of Phantom World is the most recent in-house Light Novel adaptation from KyoAni. Unlike the ones before they didn't even award it their own grand prize (after which they publish submitted works). For whatever is written in the original work not much seemed to have made it on screen besides the core concept of the phantoms (I have however little proof for this except the back blurbs google translations). The episodes are all episodic and varying greatly in quality, most of them are however bland setups for fan service and action scenes. Don't get me wrong, they can be creative... it's just that the whole cast and the battles they're put in are not engaging at all.
The characters have the depth of whatever waifu generator that is cool right now. Needles to say they don't need much of a personality. This also fits in with whatever (little) logic this world carries; each and everyone of them feels redundant as it's mostly a gamble as to whose power is able to defeat what phantom.
I have the feeling this wasn't anyone's passion project and the intended audience is probably quite young given the lengthy exposition intros every episode (or maybe that is related to them opening up an English website).

I went to see Eden mainly as a time slot filler but I honestly expected more out of it. Loosely based on the experiences of the director's brother as a DJ (who also co-wrote it) and spanning 20 years this could have been interesting and personal. Unfortunately it's over two hour run time is mainly due to the time frame of the story and not because it has any depth (I was a little scared when the "part two" card appeared). It's hard to care for a guy who can't give up on his garage music and coke for 20 years, burning through his little money he has and stacking up debts. There is also no apparent consistency in his relationships... his "true love" goes back to the USA, his then immediate next in line becomes a thing once again when she already has two kids all while he has another GF anyways with whom he seems to be happy and another one exploits him financially for three years (while he fails to get in her pants)? The actor playing the main character also wasn't very good and his crying and DJing scenes cringe worthy. Really... nothing is fleshed out or has a point. At least the characters should have been written properly if you don't have any plot. Since I'm ranting I might also mention the "Daft Punk" thing. They started out the same time as the brother whom this is based on and they shared the same circles but the early focus on them was really unneeded. Seems like a way to boost it's main stream appeal I guess. Too bad they queue their (imho) horrible music over the protagonist's "important" concert he had in NYC.

It seems really odd that Contracted has gotten a "sequel". The ratings on trakt and on IMDB are not exactly high (and I didn't dig it much either http://trakt.tv/comments/7163) but according to the Producer IFC basically handed them money and let them do what ever they wanted (the original writer and director probably had little to do with this movie).
Being titled " Phase II" one would expect a large scale infection following what happened to Patient 0 in the first one but this isn't the case (yet). The story follows Riley who had the pleasure of poking some worms in the first one and the investigation into the multiple deaths surrounding him. Let's just say this one isn't surpassing the first one in any way.
The investigation is boring, not done proper and conducted by a Canadian cop who doesn't even try to put on a different accent. Parallel to this Riley also tries to find the culprit known as BJ on his own (played by a Barrett look-a-like as he didn't return for the role) because of the changes to his body and the fact that he received threats from him for giving away his license plate number to the cops.
Unfortunately the outbreak is reserved for a different movie along with a conspiracy as they decided to let BJ behave stupidly for no good reason making him the worst person to spread "hate".
We learn nothing really new except that it isn't a STD as spit is already enough to transfer the disease. There is little consistency to the rules: Riley gets well over a week where as another girl he kissed barely makes it a day (his sister who drank a chunk of his blood also lives longer). They also can just infuse the disease with a needle so this sort of ruins the main aspect of the first movie.
As with the one before this, the body horror is the main enjoyment factor for this and there are a few cool scenes for that. It is however very obvious that they were heavily reliant on makeup when it wasn't a closeup.
If you watched the first and didn't hate it it doesn't hurt to see this one too. For those who are torn there isn't much to see here.

Despite Oshii bring a somewhat renowned director it helps to be careful when it comes to his live-action works. There is Avalon which is great but then there's also something like Assault Girls which is just plain horrible. Coming from a series of Live-Action Patlabor films he is back to something less known. I was under the impression that this was actually based on a manga but I'm not sure where I read that. Screenplay and story are not done by him though.
The story follows an art student who was once hailed to be a genious. For reasons unknown she suffers from PSTD and gets quite the special treatment from the school staff, much to the anger of her classmates. She of course gets bullied with no one doing much about it. As she slowly gets her body healthier she also gets her mind back (to quote her doctor)...
The first two thirds of the movie are really slowly paced with slow camera movements and little revelation about the main characters trauma. It isn't until the last third that shit goes wrong and she does exactly what you expected her to.
With the scenario and clues dropped I didn't quite understand the ending, leaving me more questions than answers.
While this isn't as bad as AG it is still a clunky mess.

Uugh... that didn't turn out as expected.
I guess this it is partly my fault as I usually avoid details about a movie before I watch it but due to boredom hit up a review from Fangoria via IMDB anyways. I'm once again reminded that the bigger horror sites nowdays seem to be very prone to shilling... This certainly wasn't the contemporary horror masterpiece they promised:

But for many, there remained a glimmer of hope that the subgenre would find an original, engrossing story that would act as an adrenaline shot to the dying heart of the slasher. And now, that film has been found with Adam Egypt Mortimer’s SOME KIND OF HATE, which, under the right circumstances, could hit contemporary audiences with a brutal, cringe-inducing and legitimately frightening rush in the same way Freddy Krueger did over 30 years ago.

The movie makes bullying it's central theme which is totally new and contemporary... the really misscast emo metalhead gets sent to a reform school for fighting back against his bully - disregarding the fact that this shit was recorded and that his blood is on the ground too. Rest assured that the esoteric school lead by a guru, a weird nobody and the "hot" gym teacher in the middle of the dessert isn't free of that either.
Instead of doing something about the new bully the MC deceides to wish everyone dead in an abadoned cellar where that gets heard by the ghost of a girl who cut open her veins. Bla bla bla, revenge on everyone up to "I DON'T NEED YOU ANYMORE" x2...
The movie unfortunatly isn't blessed with tension and you would be hard pressed to give a damn about anyone. You're left with the money shot only. The killing mechanics for this are actually not that bad but it never follows up a certain angle shown early on leaving the ghost to be a major annoyance only.
I might be rather harsh on this but the social commentary is merly a plot device and the same movie wants to get empathy for a guy who dreams of crushing everyone's skull with a tank when he listens to metal (did anyone ever do that really?) and steals back his phone to impress his crush with his playlist for her of doom and death metal (she might have black hair but she was a cheerleader..).