Tag Archives: anime

Agents of Shield S7 E9

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“As I Have Always Been”

Phlebotinum!

Absolute genius of an episode.

I wanted to give this episode its own post since my memory of it was that it was a great episode. I am underestimating it, because this is, by far, my favorite episode of Agents of Shield from the entire seven season run.

Season seven has been using some overall themes for the previous episodes. Their first trip into the past was played like an old school b-movie type sci-fi. We got the black and white noir episode. There was the 1970s action show (which had to have an influence on WandaVision) and the 1980s sci-fi type film including max Headroom (which Coulson hilariously namedrops in this episode).

This one was Groundhogs Day mixed with Doctor Who. The thing was, it was so much more than just re-using the trope of repeating the day over and again.

It took the situation and gave us remarkable humor, much of it coming from the exquisite Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, the LMD. It gave us a fantastic mystery about who was preventing the implant from being removed from Jemma Simmons’s head. It forwards the relationship between Daisy and Sousa. And it provided the most selfless self-sacrifice I have seen in ages with Enoch’s removal of a part from his own Chronicom body, leading to his death.

The episode is featured around Daisy, who was inside a healing pod at the beginning. She goes about the process of discovering that the Zephyr was trapped in a timestorm and was in danger of being wiped out of existence. The episode was wild, and then took another major step when she went to activate Couslon, who was recharging. He filled her in that this was not the first time that she had come to activate him and that she had died.

The frustration and annoyance of Coulson was extremely funny and delivered so perfectly by Gregg. It played right into the feelings that Coulson was having last episode where his predicament as an LMD was starting to get to him. The show added the character growth of Coulson into a list of amazing stuff this episode addressed.

Enoch was another standout of the episode. We discovered that he was the one killing the crew members to prevent the implant from being removed from Simmons’s head, and there were some of the best scenes of the episode as the team confronted Enoch and he fought back in the most amazing and hilarious ways. We did not see much, if any, of the actual fight, just the aftermath with the team scattered across the floor. They added the line “Deke’s dead” in one of them and it was such a gas.

Each time loop brought the Zephyr closer to the center of the timestorm, providing real jeopardy for the team and not just the trial and error until they figured it out. They did not have unlimited time. Time was ticking away.

There were two outstanding monologues during the episode. The first was Daniel Sousa’s explanation of why he stayed with Daisy as she slept. His explanation of wanting to be near “…people like Diasy” was such an awesome character moment and made allusions back to his time with Agent Carter, who he was clearly referencing. The second monologue was Enoch’s dying words, spoken to Coulson and Daisy, after he had pulled his electrochron displacement mechanism from out of his chest. I had tears during this moment. Who knew that I would have become so connected to this robot who was introduced in season five as a Chronicom sent to retrieve the team? Watching Enoch slowly succumb was heartbreaking and painful, while providing important healing for Coulson and Daisy. Joel Stoffer brought his amazing character to life here and you couldn’t have asked for a better heroic send off for Enoch than what he got.

Elizabeth Henstridge, who played Simmons, was the first time director of this episode, which was just a remarkable feat. She provided an exciting and energetic show despite many scenes needing to be repetitive because of the episode’s hook. Every time we got a repeat scene, something new was added. I have to shout out the entire cast as well as they had to repeat lines and adjust to the situation and they all did it wonderfully well.

I love this episode and I would put it at the top of the MCU TV show episodes along with Agatha All Along’s “Death’s Hand in Mine,” Moon Knight’s “Asylum,” WandaVision’s “We Interrupt This Program” and “Previously On,” and Loki’s “Journey Into Mystery” and “Glorious Purpose.”

The Bear S5 E1, E2

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“Soda”

“Lamb”

The fifth and final season of The Bear dropped the other day on FX, Hulu and Disney +. I have been a fan of the show over the previous four seasons, though I do think it is time for the show to wrap up.

Kicking off, the show immediately tosses aside the shocking conclusion to the special “Gary” where Ebon Moss-Bachrach was shown as being in an automobile accident. We see it again in the first episode and it was such an after thought that I couldn’t believe it. When it happened in “Gary” I thought it was going to be a major storyline leading into the final season of The Bear, but it feels as if it was nothing important.

Episode 1 and 2 were both fairly short, with the first episode being around 22 minutes and episode two just over 25. Both episodes had large sections of them with a driving soundtrack that was keeping the tone extremely tense and unsettling.

The restaurant, which ran out of time to make the money they needed, was having some major issues because of a terrible storm that was raging across Chicago. The plumbing fought back against the storm by bursting some pipes. The first time the pipe burst was very funny, reminding us all that The Bear is classified as a comedy (even though it is anything but…)

Our cast are struggling with their own lives, connected to the failing restaurant. Cicero indicated that he lost a bunch of money and is trying to sell the restaurant., but no one was buying and the building was in terrible condition.

You can definitely tell that they are working toward a finale for the show and I am not sure where this is heading. The Bear dropped all of their episodes at once so I plan on working through these over the next week or so.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc

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June 26

Movie 26

I was able to pick up Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc on Amazon yesterday during Prime Days, I had to do a quick Wikipedia search which told me that this was a sequel to Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man, a season of manga from Japan.

According to IMDB, “Denji became ‘Chainsaw Man’, a boy with a devil’s heart, and is now part of Special Division 4’s devil hunters. After a date with Makima, the woman of his dreams, Denji takes shelter from the rain. There he meets Reze, a girl who works in a café.”

I will say that I was confused by this for a good chunk of the runtime. It makes sense since I never watched the manga series Chainsaw Man that preceded this. I am sure that if I had watched that series, I would be considerably more up to date with what was going on in this movie.

However, despite the fact that a lot of the details were confusing, I enjoyed this animated film. There were a bunch of positives. I did love the character of Denji as himself. He was very relatable and I liked spending time in the movie with him. The character designs on all of these manga characters were savage and very eye-popping. The animation was beautiful, as one would expect in this format.

The violence was brutal, bloody and barbaric. The last twenty minutes of the film was as violent as any film from last year.

But the violence was not the reason this film stood out. It was the relationship between Denji and Reze, which took several turns during the film, but it absolutely shined through the story.

I watched the English dubbing with a series of voice actors who did a solid job. Some of the main voice actors included Ryan Colt Levy, Alexis Tipton, Suzie Yeung, Derick Snow, Sarah Wiedenheft, and Josh Bangle.

I have a feeling that a fan of the show would have been even more enthusiastic over this movie. I thought it was pretty good as is.

Invincible S4 E1

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“Making the World A Better Place”

I have had a interesting relationship with the show Invincible. Where as a lot of people love the show and swear that it is one of the best shows on television, I am not as enamored with it. While I have enjoyed most of the seasons, I have found that the blood becomes excessive and is unnecessary in many cases. There are too many scenes where the blood feels like it is just there to say that it is there. It feels like professional wrestling in a lot of cases. When blood is used sparingly, it can create a compelling piece of the story, but when it is overused, it loses a lot of its impact.

After watching the first episode of season four of Invincible, I did not think they over did the blood and that it was fairly well used as a whole.

I was unaware that Invincible had already debuted on Amazon Prime last week with a three episode drop. Episode four was also released before I knew it so I am officially a bit behind. However, I do have a long list of shows currently on the watchlist, so I will be spreading out the next three episodes over the next several days to a week.

I did find the character work in this episode to be very solid. I enjoyed Mark’s progression from the end of last season to now where he is fighting himself over his use of deadly force. Of course, the end of the episode placed Mark in a situation where he had to kill a person. It was very much a Man of Steel- Superman snapping the neck of Zod moment.

I like how the show with as much violence as it has is not afraid to make that internal struggle with its main character.

With Eve’s powers glitching badly, we get another, albeit well used, superhero trope to deal with. I do think Eve’s father needs a punch in the face.

The Guardians… their timing can’t be any worse. They showed up right at the end of the fight with the dinosaur guy and seemed to be standing behind Mark as he is struggling to decide if he needed to kill the guy to save the world from the Sequids. Get there sooner guys.

I hope the woman who attacked the power plant’s story is not just over. It sounded as if there was a reason behind her trying to steal the energy and I expect that story to get picked up somewhere down the line.

Then, Cecil’s stupidest decision at the end of the third season, keeping Conquest alive and buried in an underground vault. There was no way that wasn’t coming back to haunt him. I wonder if he will tell Mark now that Conquest has escaped and left butt-naked into space. Or will this be just another secret that Cecil will hide?

Good start to the season. I hope it continues to value story over spectacle, especially when it comes to blood.

One Piece S2 E8

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“Worst in the East”

Monkey D. Luffy might be one of the best characters in all of fiction.

I don’t know how you can watch Luffy and not love him. He is such a honorable, heroic, kind-hearted, awesome hero. He is always smiling and laughing and so child-like. He is unlike any character that I can think of.

The battle for Drum Island was the backdrop for the finale of season two. The people of Drum Island against King Wapol and his monsters was an awesome battle. Wapol fighting Luffy was epic. I do not think there was a better representation of the way Luffy is than when he threw himself in front of the pirate flag, taking the whole blast of Wapol’s canon, and, when the smoke cleared, he was there ready to monologue to the King. I found this remarkably inspiring.

Of course, Chopper is joining the crew as the ship’s doctor. The way this crew bonds with each other is such fun and you can see how much they mean to each other.

But again, the magic of the Straw Hats is Luffy. He is the center of this crew and I love how the others look at Luffy.

The episode continued to build the lore as we meet Mr. Zero, aka Sir Crocodile.

I speculated that the trip to Alabaster would be next season, and that is exactly what has happened. I love how the show has taken its time to introduce the character of Chopper and Vivi, and because of that, we love them.

Season two was sensational. It is every bit as great as season one, if not better. I could watch more than just 8 episodes per season. One Piece is such an amazing show and I can’t wait for the third season.

One Piece S2 E6, E7

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“Nami Deerest”

“Reindeer Shames”

The next two episodes of season two gives us the debut and the origin of a character that I had heard about, but knew very little about him.

Chopper is a character that I heard some people wonder how they were going to adapt him. Apparently, Chopper is a reindeer who had eaten a Devil’s Fruit and turned into a being that walked on two legs and could talk. Moreso, we discover that Chopper is able to change between forms.

Katey Segal joined the list of guest stars this season as Doctor Kureha, who they took Nami to see after she fainted last episode.

The path to Dr. Kureha was one of the most tense moments of the series as Luffy and Sanji literally climbed a mountain side to reach a castle. They were told that the castle held a witch, but it is just Dr. Kureha and Chopper.

On the way up the mountain, Sanji slipped and fell. Luffy caught him by stretching his neck and catching him with his teeth. While that was all kind of bad ass, it had a weird CGI about it. Stretching can be a tough thing because it does not look natural. Still, Luffy using his teeth to save Sanji… great.

The story of Chopper’s origin is heartbreaking and is told to Luffy, Sanji and Nami by Dr. Kureha. It was after Luffy found a pirate flag in a crate and Chopper yelled at Luffy to not touch it.

The seventh episode was almost the entire story of Chopper and it goes to show you how important of a character he is.

We are introduced to the King of Drum Island, Wapol, who is just a horrendous character. Wapol also got a Devil’s Fruit at the beginning of episode 6 and he is one who really needs his comeuppance in the finale.

It really looks like there are a bunch of storylines that are not going to be wrapped up this season. The whole bit with Smokey and the Marines are not going to catch up yet. I am not even sure that Vivi is ever going to get back to Alabasta this season. Maybe as the cliffhanger. That is fine with me.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S2 E1

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“Cause and Effect”

When Monarch: Legacy of Monsters debuted on Apple TV + a few years back, the show was definitely hit and miss. Most of the misses came from the human characters in the present day.

It’s clear that those characters in the present day have not learned anything since season one.

Cate Randa showed off her selfishness and her stubbornness in the last half of this episode and wound up getting Natalia Verdugo, the Deputy Director of Monarch, killed by a new monstrous Titan that also escaped into the world when she opened a rift to retrieve Lee (Kurt Russell), who was stranded in the other world last season.

She would not listen to anyone else. She was going to do things her own way and to hell with any consequences. Well, Cate, you got an innocent woman killed. A woman who was just trying to get you and your foolish group to safety. She may be a bureaucrat, she may have different viewpoints, but she did not deserve to be swept away by some giant tentacle.

Cate really should be held accountable for Verdugo’s death. It was her fault.

The new Titan is going to be called Titan X and it sure looked as if Kong wasn’t happy Titan X was here.

Of course, Kong is supposed to be guarding the island, but he is too busy sleeping away in the middle of the afternoon.

Kong looked great in this episode. He was massive and the effects were movie-like. My memory of the first season was that everything did always look great, but the humans in the present day were just insufferable.

However, any time we spent time back in the 1950s, this show was so much better and it seemed as if that trend is going to continue. Wyatt Russell, Anders Holm and Mari Yamamoto appeared in the flashbacks and they were always smarter, more engaging and less likely to do something deftly stupid. This season looks to be the same way.

I was up and down with the first season. At least this year, the action was top notch. The question will be… can I stand the stupidity of Cate and her friends in the present? Will there be enough positives in the rest of the show to keep me from hating her?

The Pitt S2 E8

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“2:00 PM”

The Pitt dropped its latest episode this past Thursday, entitled “2:00 PM.” Our group of ER responders are facing yet another new threat.

At the end of last week’s episode, they were informed that they were shutting down their online presence because of another hospital that had suffered a cyberattack. Much like last season when the team prepped for the mass shooting victims they expected, everyone gathered around the hub and got their instructions on what they had to do now that so many of the items they were used to having would be unavailable.

Coming in clutch immediately was Dr. Joy Kwon, who admitted to having photographic memory and she was able to recreate the board when Whitaker’s pictures turned out too blurry.

Another MVP of the hour was Princess, who had to take over as floor nurse during the chaos because Dana was still tied up with the sexual assault case. Princess was never confident during the time, but she still did her job.

A new patient struck a chord with me as they wheeled in a man who was well over 450 pounds and the discussions of his weight hit close to home. Once again, I wanted to throttle Ogilvie for his insensitivity. The actor who played the overweight man was great though, funny, self-deprecating, and kind-hearted.

The anger shown by Dana when she had finished the new rape kit only to find one that she had done two weeks before still in the pick up location. He phone call to the police was a great moment of the episode.

We got some foreshadowing this episode as Robbie’s friend Duke was late showing up. That was apparently unlike him and makes me wonder if Duke is the motorcycle accident that the show has been hinting at all season long.

The Kyoto Hunters

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The Kyoto Yokai Hunters

By Naoyuki Sato

It was a normal day when I saw a yokai. I was walking home from a long day at school. It was a new school in Kyoto. My family moved to Japan for my Dads job. I moved a lot because of my dads job. This time he said that this would be the last move, I hoped it would. I had always wanted to live in Japan. I was thinking about my first day at school when something moved in the trees next to me. When I turned to see what it was I saw a humanoid shape but it was moving too fast to see it fully, “Maybe it was a deer.” I said to myself.

When I got home my mom was in the living room. “How was school today, Honey.” she asked me, looking up from her japanese language app. “It was fine.” I told her. My mom knows the moves are hard so she doesn’t pry and goes back to her app.  I go to my room and on the bed is a box. There’s a note on the box from my dad that says “I know the moves are hard and you handle them so well, since this is it, here’s a present for putting up with it.” Filled with curiosity, I opened the box. It’s a katana and there’s another note, not from Dad, from the manufacturer, “大正時代以前に魔を祓うために使われていた希少な日輪刀を手に入れました。この刀を誇りを持って振るい、成功をお祈りします。 – 田中慎介。” I grab my phone and go to my translator app which tells me what it says, “You have acquired a rare Sun Sword, originally used to exorcise demons and yokai in the taisho era and earlier. Wield this sword with pride and I pray for success. – Shinsuke Tanaka.” The note was cool but mostly looked at the user manual to figure out how to not break this thing or ruin it. 

After reading the user manual, I unsheathed the sword. The blade looked liquid, with a mix of blue, white, and green. The hilt was metal squares that made a spiral pattern with circle gems inlaid between them. The sheath itself was black, the handle green and black. It was light in my hand when I swung the sword, almost like it was made for me. “Will, come down here.” I hear my mom yell. “Coming.” I yell back. I put the sword back in the sheath,laid it on my bed, and went to my mom. She was at the door, with a girl from my school, Emi Watanabe. Why was she here? “Hi, what brings you here?” I asked her, and she replied, in perfect English, “Hi, I was walking home from school, and I wondered if you were invited to the festival or knew when it was.” “No, I didn’t know there was a festival. When is it?” I replied. “It’s in three weeks on Thursday.” she said “thanks.” I say, then she left.

After Emi left, I went for a walk around town. I needed to think, and a walk in Kyoto was just what I needed. After 30 minutes of walking I was at the spot where I saw that humanoid shape in the forest when I was walking home from school. I don’t know why but I brought my katana along. When I recalled what happened after school with the humanoid thing, I saw a path to a small temple or shrine. I decided to check it out. When I got there something seemed off about this place, then I saw a hand, a severed hand. There was blood trailing away from the hand to the back of the temple. Grabbing my sword’s hilt, I followed the trail of blood. 

When I got to the back I saw who’s hand it was. I saw Emi Watanabe’s cold body, her blood everywhere. She was the only person in class who helped me with problems in Japanese, she was even nice enough to wonder if I knew when the festival was or if anyone told me about it. Now she was dead, brutally murdered. I almost threw up from the sight of it, but I stopped myself and looked around to find any clues of where the murderer went. Bloody footprints led to the back door to the temple, I followed them. I unsheathed my sword, and went into the temple. Nothing was in here, or at least I couldn’t see them, but they were here. “Show yourself!” I called out into the dark. “Have you come to join her?” Someone replied in the dark. “Well, I am still hungry. You will be very filling.” The voice said. I was disgusted by what they just said, they killed Emi and then ate her. “Why did you do it? Why did you kill her, she did nothing to you.” I called back, my anger filling the room. “Show yourself.” Then something moved in the dark, the killer. He was a little shorter than me, he was lean, but something wasn’t right. There was a flashlight on a shelf next to me, I grabbed it and shined the light at the murderer. I wish I hadn’t. His face was deformed with veins popping out of his forehead that looked like they were covering his skin. His teeth looked like shark’s teeth. “Are you scared?” He said barring his teeth. “No.” I spat out the lie. Finding my last bit of courage I jumped at the murderer. Unsheathing my sword I went for his head, but he blocked it with his arm. The sword went right through it like hot butter. I kept up with the attacks, driving him toward the main door. When I got him to the wall, I went for his head again, this time my sword met its mark. When I did he went up in flames, screaming and cursing. 

After he was just a pile of ash, went back outside where someone seemed to be waiting for me. He was my age, maybe a little older, and he also had a sword. Eyeing  my sword he asked “Do I know you?” Confused, I replied “No, are you from Horikawa High School?” “No, I am not,” He replied “But how did you kill that thing?” He had seen me fight the murderer. Grabbing my sword’s hilt, I asked him, “What do you mean?” “I know you fought the yokai that killed that girl. How did you do it? Killing a yokai is impossible without a Sun sword, so how did you do it?” He replied. I was confused so I told him what had happened.

…….Later…….

I learned the kids name was Kengo Takemoto, and he was a Yokai Hunter, which are people who protect others from yokai. They are a special agency that is unidentified by the government. Kengo invited me to join, I accepted his offer, I wanted to protect others from the same fate as Emi. “There is a selection test to join in a week.” Kengo told me and he gave me a training regiment to get ready for it. 

The training was hard, I had to go up to the top of a mountain, then I had to do 100 push-ups, 200 sit-ups, 200 jumping squats, and 100 pull-ups. The thin air made it harder to do, but pushed through. After the work-out I had to run down the mountain, through the woods ducking trees and rocks. It was tiring, but I was doing this to help people and to avenge Emi’s death. 

The day of the selection test arrived. There were at least 30 people there, most were around high school age, but a few looked to be in middle school and a few were adults. Everyone was wearing traditional kimonos, which was how the officials knew that you were participating in the test, not running it. The test was held on a mountain with walls surrounding it, so yokai couldn’t escape. “Welcome to the Yokai Hunter Selection Test.” boomed a voice from a microphone. “My name is Shinsuke Tanaka, and I am the president of the Yokai Hunter Corp. Today you will be taking part in the test to join this corp, and protect humanity from the yokai.” 

President Tanaka told us the rules of the test, you had to make it to the other side of the mountain, which is infested with yokai, by sunrise. You could forfeit if you wanted to by shooting a flare up and some hunters would take you to the start. The test would start at sunset, which was in twenty minutes, and I was getting nervous. “You got this.” I said to myself, as some reassurance. I looked at my sword and remembered the first time I held it, I remembered when Emi came to ask me about the festival, I remembered her death, and I remembered Kengo, who took his time to make a training regiment for me. These memories eased my nerves and helped me focus. “Now,” boomed the President’s voice, “let the test begin.” 

I didn’t see a yokai until an hour into the test, which I killed when it pounced at me. After a little while, I heard someone cry out in pain, instinctively I ran to help where I saw a giant yokai lunge at a kid who looked like he was in middle school. I ran to help, and severed the yokai’s outstretched arm, “Run.” I told the kid, who followed my order. The yokai seemed to be calculating his newly severed arm and then, faster than I could see his arm was back. But I didn’t hesitate and decapitated the yokai. It seemed to take an eternity before I saw anyone else. When I did see someone they were running away from me, and then I saw why the finish line was right there so I sprinted toward it. Then out of nowhere a yokai pounced on me, I had no time to react and was thrown into a tree, unsheathing my sword I went on the attack. This yokai had four arms which made it harder to lay a hit on it, but I had a plan. I went for his legs, knocking it over, creating an opening for a decapitating move, which I took. After  the yokai was ashes I ran to the finish line, passing the test.

When the sunrise came and the search party combed the forest on the mountain for any participants who had died taking the test, it was time for the selection ceremony. Only seven of the participants passed out of the thirty.  “Congratulations on passing the test.” The president said, “You seven are the next generation, stand proud, and may your blades serve you well in your new life as a Yokai Hunter.”

The End

Gen V S1 E1-E4

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I am finally getting caught up with most of the TV shows and that meant that I got to Amazon Prime’s Gen V.

The spin-off of The Boys had a surprisingly good season one and this new season leads right into some of the major events going on in that series.

First of all, we had to deal with the real life loss of actor Chance Perdomo, who played Andre in season one, was killed in a motorcycle accident in 2024. Andre was a major character among the ensemble of Gen V so decisions had to be made. The show decided against recasting the role and decided instead to kill the character off-screen. While it was an uncomfortable idea, the death of Andre provided motivation for several of the characters to move forward.

We have a new Dean of Godolkin University and he is the new big bad of season two. Cypher is very mysterious and manipulative.

I do love how the group is kind of getting back together, even after the horrible things that they have done to each other. It sure looked like, after episode one, that Jordan had killed Cate. I am glad Cate survived as the entire event has led to a tentative reunion between Cate, Marie, Jordan, and Emma.

Gen V continues to have the same kind of shocking moments that are typical on The Boys, and the characters from The Boys are referenced constantly Starlight even made a cameo in one of the episodes, trying to recruit Marie to help her out. She mentioned one of the mysteries of the season, which was Odessa. It appeared as if Odessa was Marie, but that has all been questionable.

Episodes will release every Wednesday, so I will be watching them when I can. This kick off has been very enjoyable so far and I am deeply invested in the mysteries of the show. I am curious to see how this show will eventually play into the final season of The Boys.

Ne Zha II

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If you were not someone who followed box office results, you would not have any idea the answer to the question, “What is the biggest worldwide box office film of 2025?” The answer is the Chinese film Ne Zha II. It has nearly reached $2 billion worldwide, with not much of that total coming from domestic.

Ne Zha II is receiving a wide release in the US, which could push the film to join the $2 billion club.

According to IMDB, “After a great catastrophe, the souls of Nezha and Aobing are saved, but their bodies face ruin. To give them new life, Taiyi Zhenren turns to the mystical seven-colored lotus in a daring bid to rebuild them and change their fate.“

I am going to start off with the strength of this movie. It is, perhaps, the most spectacularly animated movie I have ever seen. Everything about the imagery on the screen was absolutely stunning. The images, the character design, the backgrounds, art design, the colors…. it was legitimately the greatest looking animated movie I have ever seen and that is saying quite a lot.

I usually prefer when a live action film uses subtitles instead of dubbing because the original voices tend to have the proper emotion. That is not usually the case with animated films that I have seen dubbed. Ne Zha II was dubbed with English and, if I am being honest, I was unimpressed with the voice over work. Part of that may have been how the main character of Ne Zha sounded, as he was screaming in that Anime manner, and I have never been a fan of that. None of the voices stood out to me and I found that a weakness of this version of the film. Of course, I do not speak Chinese, so there is that.

The story was a touch confusing, and that might be because this is a sequel to a film from 2019 that I had never seen. I think they updated that part in the opening exposition, or, at least, that is what I guessed. There was another part of the film that I did not love and that was the attempts at humor. I did not find most of the humor to work and I might have preferred them to stick to the action.

Speaking of the action, it was exceptional. This was part of the animation and it was wonderfully laid out and was amazing to look at in every battle. Everything was laid out perfectly and helped build the tension of the film and most of the action also helped to develop the characters.

Ne Zha II is a massive success and is one of the most visually stunning films of all time. It is also the most successful monetary film of all time too. I am glad that I got a chance to see it even the movie may have a few drawbacks when it comes to story and time. It was certainly worth the two and a half hours it took to watch it.

3.9 stars

Stick S1 E5, E6, E7, E8, E9

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So I wanted to catch up on Stick, which is on Apple TV + and has episodes dropping on Wednesdays. I do believe the final episode of the season is this week, so I had five episodes to run through in order to get caught up.

Stick is such a great show and it is a easy watch as the episodes run around 30 minutes. It is also very well-written and compelling in a sport that does not truly entice me much.

Much like the F1: The Movie and auto racing, a film/show can be entertaining and engaging if it is intelligent and well-written, acted and smartly plotted out even if I am not a fan of the sport involved. I am not a fan of golf, but Stick is far more than just about golf.

The story of Pryce trying to help Santi to become the best he could be in the world of golf took a lot of turns, some that very not necessarily positive, but everything worked well.

That is, until Santi’s father showed up at the end of episode nine. That feels like one more major hurdle for the characters to overcome.

Some other cool highlights of the five episodes include:

  • The truth with Zero and Pryce’s deal coming out rocked Santi’s world. We knew that was going to happen when it first happened.
  • Santi and Zero have sex. This was surprising… especially with Santi looking for advice from Pryce. I really thought Pryce was going to respond differently and I liked the uncommon response he had.
  • Timothy Olyphant is always a welcome actor in any show I am watching.
  • Mitts and Elena’s relationship comes around. I like them together.
  • We get more with Pryce and his dead son. The dream of Pryce with his son, Jett, was really hard to watch.
  • The whole scam to try and get Santi into a pro PGA tournament was strange, but cool.

There was a lot of enjoyment in these episodes and I have grown to like these characters.

Paradise S1 E7

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“The Day”

Holy $%^$

Flashback episode and WHAT A FLASHBACK episode. Man this was tense. The show finally showed us the day when everything changed. We learned what happened to the earth that sent the Americans into the plan to go inside the Colorado mountain.

And man, was it powerful.

I mean, this was something else.

Not only the flashback, but the bookend scenes with Xavier and Sinatra was absolutely jaw-dropping. I found myself hating Sinatra almost as much as I used to hate the Cigarette Smoking Man on the X-Files. I was yelling for Xavier to put a bullet in her head, just like I used to want Mulder to do to CSM.

Sterling K. Brown and James Marsden are absolutely tremendous in this episode. Both of them gave amazing, Emmy-worthy performances in this episode as they dealt with the crisis of the earth’s downfall and the President’s drastic decisions prior to entering the mountain.

The tying of the events of The Day with the Cuban Missile Crisis is a stroke of genius and amazing writing. The determination of President Bradford in his decision to set off the huge EMP instead of launching the nuclear armory from the nuclear football is stunning. Could he have save the world with his choice?

Hearing Teri’s voice at the end was shocking and made me just hate Sinatra (aka Samantha all the more).

Plus, Sinatra told Xavier that the DNA found at the President’s murder site did not match anyone from inside the mountain, meaning that the murderer came from outside. I am not sure I believe her, but it is a massive twist if true.

This was the best episode of the season so far in a show that is chocked full of amazing episodes. Such a great hour of television on Hulu (or Disney +).

The White Lotus S2 E4, E5

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“In the Sandbox”

“That’s Amore”

It was two interesting episodes that seemingly flipped my opinions on some of the characters from the first three shows of season two.

This was the first time that I was interested in the two prostitutes who had been hanging around the White Lotus, Mia and Lucia, had been a distraction for much of the first three episodes, but, for some reason, I started to enjoy their presence in these two. Mia’s relationship with Albie felt sweet. I was a little uncertain because it felt like she might be taking advantage of him. Then Lucia’s accidental poisoning of the piano player led to her to gt a chance to play the piano.

Tanya, whom I already like, was able to get out of her depression over Greg’s leaving when she came across a group of gay men who invited her into their circle. I’m still not sure about the overall positiveness of this though. The end of episode five made me wonder. Still, it was nice to see Tanya apparently happy for a bit at least.

I was rooting for Portia, but her hooking up with Jack felt beneath her, and I was not sure I liked that storyline piece.

This was also the first time that I got into the story with Dominic and his father Bert. There was a scene between the two of them at dinner that brought this troubled relationship to light, making me understand these two way more than discussions of The Godfather ever did.

Aubrey Plaza’s Harper, who had been my favorite character up until these episodes, found a condom wrapper in the apartment and became extremely unhappy with Ethan. This entire arc has done nothing but make me dislike Harper and make me feel sorry for Ethan. It feels at this point that Ethan is way better than any of the people he is with, whether it be Harper or his best friend, Cameron, who is just a creep.

I do think that the show has begun to hint at who the bodies are going to be and we had a couple of characters go out to the water in moments of melancholy and close their eyes. It was both Dominic and Harper at different points during these episodes. I do not know if this is meant to be red herrings, but these two are easily the most depressed characters on the canvas right now, even lower than Tanya.

Two more episodes to go before I start season three.

What If … ? S3 E1

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“What If the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers”

I am very happy to have What If…? back once more over holiday break, releasing daily for my entertainment pleasure. I love this release schedule which they started last year. They are releasing the eight episodes daily, starting on December 22 and running through December 29. It gives me something to look forward to every day.

What If…? has been a fairly consistent show over the three seasons. It has been enjoyable, but perhaps not outstanding. It is typically really good, fun and entertaining. This first episode feels like it falls right into that category.

The What If the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers episode had a new team of Avengers with their giant mech technology, much like Voltron or the Power Rangers, and they took on some gamma beasts created in the Gamma War.

One of the best parts of What If…? is the use of the actual live action actors for voices in the animated shows. This episode included Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, and David Harbour as Red Guardian.

The first half of this episode felt as if it had too much exposition and, despite having a series of cool animation styles during the period, I thought there was too much telling and not enough showing. This is one of the overall issues with What If…?. Episodes are kept around 30 minutes and sometimes feel as if it is too short. This one felt like it would have been more compelling if it had been an hour. Maybe we could have seen some of the Gamma War instead of just using it as set up.

However, the second half of the show was solid and included some awesome giant robot vs. Kaiju type action, including Bruce Banner transforming himself into a gigantic Godzilla-like creature, I dubbed Hulkzilla as soon as I saw the scene. This was fun and an enjoyable action piece with a decent theme working.

Admittedly, after seeing some of the outstanding animated TV shows this year such as X-Men ’97 and Batman: The Caped Crusader, What If…? feels like a step down. That may not be fair, but when the genre is elevating its game, you expect other shows to step up too. What If…? episode one of season three was fine, but probably not as memorable as it could have been.