The episode is about a naive protag with a strong sense of justice and an unusually strong power/genetic/etc capability found only in X hundred years. His day went like normal until an incident happened and a more senior person in the field appears. Fight ensues, protag finds his heroism, and finally joins forces and kickstarts the series.
The typical shonen trope. The curse concept also doesn't look that interesting. We'll see why this anime is popular.
Not sure how I feel about this episode. It's been a fun ride but this episode 5 is kinda weak.
It started out as John Wick-y flick with all bounty hunters chasing over the Monkey. Which would've been cool - but most of the fights happened off screen. Most villains in this episode are just meatbags; a shame since I actually enjoyed their presentation. There's also an appearance of some ghost called Yuki out of nowhere, that reminds me this is still a Marvel cartoon - which is fine, really, but the way she was introduced and put out is very jarring. No reason. She could've killed the Monkey and Bryce but decided not to due to plot armor.
The scene with the police duo is also kinda shoehorned if only to justify the death of the police-yakuza guy and put the duo back on track. So yeah, not their strongest episode.
Bad episode. Every time Walking Dead has its lead character planning the next big thing, other major characters are always there to ruin it. Daryl has been guilty of this multiple times and I wonder why Rick never kicked him out of the community. Michonne does this too, but always with the "I have to see it myself for some reasons" reasoning. Even Rick himself seems to ruin his big plan by running towards The Scavenger hideout all by himself, only to get him tied up nude in a container.
Also let's not mention the part where Rosita uses that RPG... the scene is very horrible. Is that how rocket launcher actually work?
This is a big let down after two decent episodes prior. It's like Walking Dead is never able to maintain its pace. This seems to be especially true with Season 8, with a lot of ups and downs - but more downs.
I understand that this episode tries to portray the crews being lost in dreams/illusions, but a whole episode for such event seems rather forcing it. There are a number of subplots that seem to bear little significance too (what's with Walter chasing down Kerry, and Melanie's depression on his husband), making this feels a lot more like a filler episode. The edits are stylish though, with Lenny (Aubrey Plaza) dancing to that music, if we disregard it (and a couple of other scenes) coming up from out of nowhere.
Another attempt at playing with "god is boredd" trope. Nothing really new here. Just a good set design.
This is TRIGGER's usual Gurren Lagann nonsense that borrows Star Wars props - not even the concepts, just the props because lightsaber crystals and hyperspace don't work like that. Story is the usual TRIGGER's "believe in me that believe in you" thing as well, with nothing novel to enjoy. Which is fine to be honest, but they should've stick with the things they usually do best: the fight animation, which we don't get that much.
I like that they throw some references to Sequel Trilogy (The Last Jedi) with the Star Destroyer being torn in half. But the climax doesn't stand on a strong enough ground to warrant that extravaganza. For that matter I'd rather watch Gurren Lagann than this. Art style is kinda unique though, I give them that.
Not sure what was wrong with the episode, but the science vs religion contrast feels a bit tacked on, and the conflict as well as the resolution feels really hurried. The citizen seems to be too foolishly gullible to believe the antagonist with no strong reason except 'muh miracles'. The antagonist seems pretty dumb to reveal his grand plan just like that for the plot to keep on going. And, the worst is, Ed sounds like an edgy Reddit atheist with his haughty "god doesn't exist" speech.
Weak pilot. Too many characters introduced, mixed with some out of place humor. Worst is that this episode shows both the state alchemists as unorganized, reckless institution (no plan at all to anticipate attack on central) and the Ice Alchemist as incompetent offender (with all that spectacle he really doesn't seem to plan anything in advance, as he gets beaten by Elric bros).
This review is for the episode "The Hood Maker". Trakt wrongly named the episode.
Not the strongest one to start the series with. It had some good ideas and a curious setting to develop with, but the world-building and the characters are unconvincing. Dialogues feel a bit artificial and the plot feels rushed to fit the one hour length.
The ending was beautiful, with Rick reflecting on his memories with Carl and the kind of society they wanted to live in together. However such sweet ending was not built on top of strong father-and-son relationship that would have made the ending more cathartic. It was instead built on the on-going pretext of tense, violence, and betrayal.
Which, on one hand, resulted in climactic "mercy triumphs" theme that this season has been playing around (while still not completely fulfilling its potential). On the other hand, such weak development, overshadowed by other subplots, yearns me for more--for a more personal development between Rick, Negan, and Carl that could have been. The fast-and-loose resolution to the conflict that the season has been building instead downplayed all the hate and grudge between characters (minor and major) to forcefully pull that sweet ending in one episode.
Disappointing it maybe, hopefully this finale is a sign that Walking Dead finally put to rest the "conflict between communities" that they have played for several seasons, and start a new, different arc in the next.
Everyone might not know how Balsa looks like but come on. A woman with spear dragging a boy around shouldn't be that common, right?
A Rick-Michonne bonding episode with throwback to previous elements used in TWD ("dumpster", "on top of tank while surrounded by zombies", etc) that goes off for too long. Should've spent half of the time instead of a whole episode. The throwback also makes the tense caused by such situation seem much more trivial.
This episode kinda shows up abruptly. I even forgot that Tara and Heath were going outside.
Tara is an underdeveloped character; while it might be a nice idea to give her some spotlight, giving a whole episode to her seems a bit too much. I get the impression that this episode tries to do two things: 1) playing the allegory on what is necessary and what is evil (as seen through the Heath and Tara dialogue at the beginning of the eps and Cyndie and Tara later) on WD's apparently moral dilemmas; 2) setting up new community for a backup army against Negan later. However I feel like it doesn't get it right.
The former, to me, is presented in a rather in-your-face way, as if the audience isn't smart enough to realize it. Even more, this problem is brought up to the screen without the necessary buildup. It seems like something's lingering in the character's head but not in audience's. As for the latter, while I think showing this up sooner is better than jotting them up randomly in the heat, I'm not sure how would the series handle it with the already too many communities present at the same time. Each we have seen only the surfaces, with its superficial character (Kingdom being feudalistic and Hilltop being gullible). The challenge would be how to present those as a real, thriving community, not just bunch of people who gather in one spot for the sake of plot progression. This episode itself seems to be already showing this superficiality: look at how the conflict is managed about Tara's coming to the community. People were getting along together so quickly (offering her a place just because she spared someone's life there? While still being deeply suspicious?), conflict is resolved only by a handful of people so quickly.
With only two episodes left for this season, I'm not sure where it's going, but I hope it would still be enough before we go to the main event in Season 8.
This episode only makes much more sense if you've read the manga. It cuts a lot of things and compressed a number of subplots into shallow scenes. You know this happened and that happened, but you can't really understand why it happened and what is its relevance.
I don't really have problems with CGI, but it seems off here and there (especially when Guts throw the knife to kill a rabbit). The face also looks pretty jarring somehow.
As for the story itself, I think Isidro's presence is a bit distracting there, cutting off the interaction Guts should've had with Puck. Also why the heck they skip to the Iron Chain Knights right after this episode?
Terrible pacing. It starts really slow, boring the audience with too many character introduction and flimsy animation.
This episode reminds us that The Mandalorian is a Disney product.
The Mandalorian for no reason became soft and sentimental. The only reason possible for this change is the "cute factor" shown more to the audience than the character, just like a Disney show would do. For someone who is supposed to be on this sort of job for a while, breaking a guild code just for some random child is a stupid thing to do - especially for someone who is supposed to uphold honor. The hostiles - supposedly trained soldiers and mercenaries - are nothing but incompetent mooks. Other Mandalorians show up as deus ex machina, almost feels like they are there just so Disney can sell more toys.
There is no build up. Everything in this episode is self-contained. From the appearances of other Mandalorian to the whistling bird, it's all used vulgarly in this episode.
This episode is such a huge let down. And we're still on the third episode.
Dammit Morgan, why did you turn from everyone's favorite to peace-loving hippie who can't read situation?
This must be the most cliche moment in TWD this season: stupid teen getting too emotional and messing up (Ron), dumb kid being scared and making loud noise (Ron's brother), and some idealist (Morgan) insisting on his ideals--all of them risking the lives of other survivors.
This first half of season 6 seems to miss the opportunity to build upon the group dynamics to a more interesting twist. In the start of this season, on one hand we have the hot-blooded Rick, leader of the survivors who have went through hell and back, dare to risk anything for the safety of his group. On the another hand we have the de jure leader of peaceful community Deanna, who have never seen the horrors of TWD's world. And on the another additional hand we also have Morgan, the guy who have survived insanity, traveled alone with his newly-founded unorthodox ideal.
We have a hard-boiled survivor vis-a-vis naive unexperienced leader, with a fellow survivor--who has a very different outlook on life--in between. The season did a good job in the first four episodes portraying this.
But by the end of the mid-season, Deanna's leadership simply returns to Rick and Morgan has become nothing more than eccentric guy who seem to give more trouble than counter-balancing Rick's brash and heavy risk-taking leadership. And in the process a lot of people died... died too clichely to give way for Rick to his leadership. And as Rick take the leader role once again, we're presented with another opportunist hostile stranger groups (The Wolves) who always have no purpose than raiding the groups--just another trouble to make the groups life more difficult. Not much characterization, not much to have sympathy for.
And I like the throwback to Season 1's zombie disguise (and other throwback in previous episodes), but in this episode it just seems off. It seems to lack the tense, the breath-taking risk that it had back in Season 1. It feels like it's guaranteed the plan must fail to certain extent--and that failure is caused by none other than Alexandrians naivities.
The characters talk too much. This is very notable in the battle: instead of trying to kill each other, there were about a minute the episode trying to portray the antagonist's background by a lot of talking. And Guts there just stand still (while being wounded!) and listen to his mumbling.
The episode still has this terrible pacing where every characters machine gun every line without any pause. From one talking to another one talking. It makes some supposedly important scenes to be off and forgettable because the episode just glances it over with the pacing.
A lot of stuff is crammed in this episode, and instead focusing on the available scenes, it dedicates a lot of time with a build up for the next episode. Making this one feels like a filler episode.
Is this episode written by 16 years old?
This episode wanted to be Seven Samurai but ended up as that terrible The Walking Dead episode where everyone gets slaughtered (they're not though in Mandalorian, since this is a Disney series).
There is no development and no build up at all in this episode. Like the previous episode, everything is self-contained. All are introduced and resolved in this same episode. A lot of things happened in this episode but nothing actually contributes to the plot - except for exposition dump.
The bandit raid is a terribly weak, villain of the week setup. They just show up as some evil nuisances - no motives, no goals at all. The Mando teams up with an ex-rebel, which debunks a tired cliche, but at this point this feels like a try-hard attempt to make The Mando as a morally righteous hero. There is a half-assed attempts at romance here, but it feels forced as it happens so sudden. Despite being self-contained (or maybe because it is) the episode lacks closure by the end, and the nifty little scene regarding one stray bounty hunter seems like something that appears just because they still have several episodes to go.
The dialogues are terrible: it's a tonne of exposition dumps. I don't have any idea why the writers think it makes sense for the characters to suddenly ask a stranger, "when was your last time you open your helmet?" and, in return, open up a heart-to-heart "hey I got a tragic story" past to a stranger. The banters with Gina Carano's character is okay, but it feels like they have to slip backstory every now and then. As if they're not having a real, human conversation. Every dialogue feels so forced and hurried as if they have to make it fit into this episode.
Also, it seems like they have no idea what an AT-ST is. It's a vehicle, not a droid.
A very American-like internet humor that takes the most mundane object in our life and turns it into a tired cliche of Cartoon Network villain: smart and in a quest of power. It's juvenile and boring, even Maurice LaMarche's narration can't save it.
The episode shows a story of people who can't communicate better. Walt Jr. who doesn't have good parental figures and unsure what to do. Skyler a toxic wife who can only think revenge/get Walt to taste his own medicine. And finally Walt with all his lies and ego that started it reaping what he sow, and using Jesse only for his own benefit. Anna Gunn performs really well as Skyler that I really hate her toxic attitude in this episode.
"It seems like... something's missing?"
"What about the soul?"
"There's nothing but chemistry here."
Great episode that shows the start of Walter's descent to Heisenberg.
Teenage drama in a world of The Boys. This episode emphasizes that in a sense Gen V is still that teenage drama focusing on youngsters involved in a bigger problem that they can handle. But as a part of The Boys world those youngsters, as supes with impunity, come with their own selfishness, indifference, and cruelty - as shown with the scene of exploding dick (and the attempted assault that preceded it).
I think it's quite an interesting angle. Albeit the episode moves a little bit slowly with the teenage drama sequences, it still delivers The Boys typical uncertainty, anxiety, and... strange sex fetish. The ending is a very abrupt cliffhanger/jumphanger(?) though.
Good episode. Kickstarted the season and made me curious of what's coming. Fares much better than the Brotherhood version here. The episode shows the consequence of Ed and Al's action to the city rather than just showing them wreaking havoc. It also shows Al as a more empathetic side compared to Ed.
