Ranking of Kings

An anime with excellent characters.

This currently two season anime adventure series follows the little prince Bojji who dreams to become a great king like his heroic father, but has some huge obstacles in his way the least of which being that he is small, weak and deaf. The art style is a simple one which lends itself to the child's tale but there are a number of great action sequences and even more great emotional moments in this fantastic story which gives even the side characters little arcs and goes to great lengths to show that no one is one hundred percent bad... or good. Absolutely fantastic series and one I highly, highly recommend!

Alas the second season, titled "The Treasure Chest of Courage" is a collection of short stories that take place in between various episodes of the first season. While it is very fun to have more screen time with these characters, it's structure alone makes it difficult for it to compete with the excellence of season one. Still worth a try if you get into it. 

Adolesence and Twilight of the Gods

Two Netflix series about killing!

Adolesence

This four episode British series starts off with the arrest of a 13 year old boy for murder and goes from there. It's a pretty heavy story in terms of content but also features excellent cinematography and acting, the primary reason for which is that each of the one hour episodes is all shot in a single take with no cuts. This is excellent TV and is high on my recommended list.

Twilight of the Gods (Season 1)

This Norse themed animated series has a high content of violence, gore, nudity and sex - definitely not for younger audiences! It follows a vengeful bride to be who goes after Thor with the help of Loki and more than a few other Norse mythological beings. I like the art style and the flowing animation but it suffers from characters passing the idiot ball which makes the tale far less epic than it's trying to be. I'll watch season 2 if they make it but am not so fussed if it never happens either.

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep and Bogota: City of the Lost

Movies with ... colons in the title?

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep

This animated film follows everyone's favorite Witcher, Geralt as he gets embroiled in basically a much darker version of the Little Mermaid. Sorry, the parallels are just too obvious! That said it has a good deal of violence, adult themes and an important Witcher spin on the whole thing that keeps it interesting. While the animation is ok, too much spinning can be found in Geralt's depicted combat style. Not bad but I'd recommend this only to Witcher fans, especially the game version of the Witcher since its the same voice actor.

Bogota: City of the Lost

En route to the USA, a Korean family is robbed of their money and travel documents in Bogota and they are forced to live there. Wishing for a better life the son decides to get involved with petty smuggling and working his way up the crime chain because this is one of those movies where crime pays. Outside the interesting Colombian environment this is a pretty stock standard and mostly predictable crime flick with backstabbing aplenty. Not terrible but not great either.

Kung Fu Panda 4 and Borderlands (2024)

Accepting change.

Kung Fu Panda 4

Continuing on from the previous movie, Poh (voiced Jack Black) faces his next task of choosing a successor - something he doesn't want at all because it would mean no longer being "the Dragon Warrior". Of course these movies are really all about accepting change, and his adventure this time has side-lined the other high paid voice actors defenders "the Furious Five" off on single sentence hand waved missions (which is a good idea). Funny and entertaining but only watch it after Kung Fu Panda 3.   

Borderlands

When bounty hunter Lilith (Cate Blanchett) is sent to track down a fugitive on her home planet of Pandora, she learns a few things about herself. Oh, and kills a LOT of people in ther process! As regular readers might know, I've played a lot of the Borderlands game series from which this movie is based of. My advice if you are like me: put everything you know about the games and the meta in a box, set the box aside (and maybe air step over it) when you go watch this as it will be more enjoyable as a clean slate than if you have expectations.

I did that, and I was not disappointed. Sure, it's not as gory-violent as the games but its still very entertaining in a PG-13 way. Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black) is actually funny and not as annoying as his game counterpart, and there's just some ridiculous fun in the chase and action sequences that kept us glued to the screen. My wife, who has never played Borderlands, absolutely loved the show and wished it was a series so that there would be more. While I might not have loved it as much as she, I'm in agreement as it wasn't bad at all.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge and Battle of the Realms

"FIGHT!"

Scorpion's Revenge

This ultra violent animated martial arts film is based on the Mortal Kombat game franchise and somehow fits in a ton of characters, a decent story that has a decent script and character growth along side great and bloody action sequences which is a surprise coming from the Warner Brothers Animation studio. Highly entertaining an excellent film to occupy you for 80 minutes even if you know nothing of Mortal Kombat. Recommended!

Battle of the Realms

This sequel film continues with the ultra violent animation but loses a bit of ground in the plot department as there are a few things happening at the same time, which tries to mash together the tournament, a side quest involving robot ninjas, demons and a kaiju style fight for the finale. Yeah, they did this to include even more named characters but the result is the story isn't as tight - and as ridiculous as some of the Mortal Kombat stuff is to begin with, there are bits here that are really hilarious like: jumping off to certain death counting on a random gust of air to save you and "oh, this magic door needs a key to open so lets spend the whole movie getting the key to get in. How to get out? Easy, just shoot a hole in the ceiling and fly out! So... why didn't we do that to get in? ..."

Still, if you enjoyed the first one you'll most likely enjoy this not quite as good sequel. Still recommended. :)

Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss

Cartoons in Hell!

Hazbin Hotel (Season 1)

This violent animated musical about Lucifer's daughter trying to setup a hotel to redeem souls in hell is full of swearing and adult themes but also has some good musical numbers. As Juris pointed out, the best part about each song is that they actually advance the story in some way and the animation, while definitely on the cartoony side, is quite decent. Definitely NOT for kids and you'll need to watch the pilot episode on youtube but it still gets a thumbs up from me. Looking forward to season two!

Helluva Boss (2 Seasons so far)

Set in the same universe/hell as Hazbin Hotel this show (fully available on youtube) focuses on a corporation of lowly imps who act as assassins for hire. At least, that's what the first season hook is and when they get into fights it is gloriously bloody with smooth animation.

It also has musical numbers but less plot advance-y as Hazbin, and the focus switches to the characters early on, sometimes to characters not even in the main group, which kinda fizzles the interest for me. While this and Hazbin both fly the pride flag with very few straight characters, it's more in your face here because apparently that is where the main story lies (and not in the murdering business. Sad face). Still ok, and Stolas is a scene stealer, but Hazbin is better with its more solid plot (currently).

Lastly, because the focus for Helluva Boss is on the personal relationships and not a "plot" per se I think its main problem is the pacing, as suddenly all the other episodes are basically "filler". Cut out the excess and it will make the whole thing better. Currently I suggest: Pilot / (S1E6) Truth Seekers / (S2E4) Western Energy / (S2E8) The Full Moon. (S2 hasn't finished yet as of this post but I think S2E9 is also filler).

Jujutsu Kaisen (Seasons 1-2) and 0 (movie)

It feels like Naruto, but better and bloodier.

This anime features some of the best combat animation I've seen for awhile. Where other series have slow story episodes so that the animators can make some epic fight scenes later on, this one throws that formula out the window with some crazy combat happening almost every single episode! The flip side of course is that the story does dip into silly territory often, to the point that it might be two minor characters you don't actually care about but they're having an epic animated fight. :P

The main premise of the show is a nice one though - our high school protagonist joins a secret group of sorcerer / martial artists to try kill an ultra powerful curse who he happens to be the host for. Thumbs up so far, though on my first watch I did not actually get that the main character is being possessed by the main villain. There are also awkward humor bits (Naruto does this better), and it did take me longer to warm up to the character roster here despite them even making the bad guys have silly and funny moments.

But the best part of this show is that it isn't afraid to kill its characters left, right and center. Things always pick up when that happens and this, along with the aforementioned animation, earns two thumbs up from me. Recommended, and I'm looking forward to season three!

Shardlake and Scavengers Reign

Shows with mystery!

Shardlake

Named after the hunchback protagonist (played by Arthur Hughes) who works as a barrister/investigator in the 16th century, this four episode series has him sent to investigate a murder at a monastery which happens to also be flagged for dissolution by the crown. Thus his job is two fold: close the monastery and find the killer, and it's actually pretty quick how everything is wrapped up by the last episode. Decent acting, story and sets make this an alright watch, though Shardlake does enjoy talking to himself and seeing visions of dead people a bit too often for my liking. Recommended if you like murder mysteries of the English variety, and would probably watch a second season if they ever make it.

Scavengers Reign

This one season animated sci-fi series follows the survivors of a massive space ship, now stranded on a strange and alien planet with both wonderful and horrifying things to behold and experience. The story, artistry, action segments and just general cool ideas are all top notch here - my only complaint might be that the character art is more "simple" than what I'm used to but they are definitely fine. Highly recommended but definitely not one for kids! Again I'd watch a season two of this if ever it came to be.

Attack on Titan and Megalobox 2: Nomad

Start with despair and go from there.

Attack on Titan

I've mentioned this anime in passing many times through the years and now that its finally done I can review it properly! Featuring excellent art, awesome music and some pretty nice action scenes this show focuses on people who live in a walled city, trapped but safe(ish) from the ever hungry giants lurking outside who they refer to as Titans. It has one of the strongest openings of any story, and this momentum carries forward through the first few seasons but alas - peters out as the stranger events are given not-so-strong explanations and titans seemingly become less and less dangerous (because the protagonists are improving right? Like in the Walking Dead, season 1 a single zombie is like OMG, season 11 its "oh another zombie horde, whatever"). While I do still recommend it, I don't like the way the story went at the end so no perfect score from me here.

Megalobox 2: Nomad

We catch up with our protagonist Joe, five years after the events of Megalobox and he is not in a good place. The questions of "why?" and "what happened?" are what kept us around, despite the first part of the season having him serve only as a side character (which is weird but makes sense if you stick to it). While the first Megalobox was all about an underdog trying to clinch every win, this season is all about loss and is framed very differently. I made a comment about the original where everyone but Joe gets character development - well here he develops in spades. Recommended only if you liked the first season. If you can put up with the episodes at the start where he doesn't do much, it does improve and finishes pretty strong.

Kung Fu Panda 3 and Testament: The Story of Moses

Learning to be teachers.

Kung Fu Panda 3

Having saved the village numerous times now, the "dragon warrior" Po (a talking panda voiced by Jack Black) is tasked with stepping up to be the new teacher as his own one is retiring while also reconnecting with his biological dad which puts his adoptive father on edge. Naturally things go terribly at first but urged on by an impending doom track yak, a mighty undead warrior from the ghost realm, Po has to get everything lined up perfectly just in time to save the day... by simply being himself! It's a good message for the younger audience wrapped up in a fun animated adventure, but plot wise there's no real threat to Po or his friends here which is a shame as I do enjoy protagonists learning through consequences. Still a decent watch.

Testament: The Story of Moses

As you might expect, this three episode mini-documentary-series focuses on the life of Moses from escaping death as an infant to bringing lots of death to the Egyptians while saving the slaves. Alas Moses himself is mostly a grumpy, non-interesting character (which is ironic as this is his story) but maybe that's what they were going for? In contrast Pharaoh exudes in screen charisma and is great. While the dramatization certainly has some budget behind it, I'm not sure how much value is added by the "expert" segments of actual theologians talking about him seeded at various points in the plot which couldn't have been better done with just some book-end like text. As such the episodes are quite lengthy and if you should attempt watching it I'd advise at least bumping it up to 1.25x speed.

Masters of the Universe: Revelation & Revolution

Because He-man never dies! Oh, wait...

This Netflix animated series continuation of the old He-Man TV show and is pretty well animated, nicely violent and opens with the question "what if both He-man and Skeletor got killed right off the bat?"

It's an interesting opening premise though that does make the early part of this plot very female character focused with Teela taking the lead, but it's absolutely fine especially since it isn't shy killing off and/or giving character arcs to others while they're at it.

I didn't have high hopes for this one but I was pleasantly surprised so you might like to give it a try, starting with Revelation which has two seasons followed by Revolution which is currently one season, but it would be pretty easy to add more.

Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix and Akame ga Kill!

Animated violence!

Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix

From the makers of the Castlevania TV Series and more importantly the Guardians of Justice, is this completely whacked out animated series wherein Ubisoft basically handed over all their IPs to be blended into a story about heartbreak, revolution and revenge. Much like the Guardians of Justice the format changes from animated to sprites to blurred actors? The mixed mediums work just as they did previously which is, not great. Then you have characters completely changed for the story. When the last Assassin is a talking frog (and he happens to be the best character) you can just feel something went very wrong. Somehow there's going to be a season two of this, and I can only hope they put more effort into making it better narrative wise instead of just more woke than it already is. Thumbs up on killing characters though. That's always a plus!

Akame ga Kill!

This is an older dark fantasy anime that I've only recently finished watching and it focuses on a band of assassins who are the spearhead for a revolution against an oppressive empire. The art isn't really super high quality which is why it slipped my attention previously, and while the action is just on the ok level, it has a really good story that uses the harem-style in a pretty unique way. There are only 24 episodes to it, and in each one someone dies. Sure it starts out as low level goons but as it goes on members from both sides of the war start biting the bullet. High praise for perfectly illustrating characters on the "bad" side too, who aren't all monsters and having decent music to boot. If you're looking for a fighty anime and don't mind losing a good chunk of the cast, then this one is for you. Highly recommended.

Labyrinth (1986) and Green Lantern: Beware my Power

Teaching not to take things for granted.

Labyrinth (1986)

Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) is surprised when her wish for her baby brother to be taken away by the goblin prince Jareth (David Bowie) comes true, and sets upon a quest to get him back before time runs out. The creatures and sets from the Jim Henson company make this excellent fantasy story come alive and it helps that both leads are good. What unfortunately lets it down are the non-catchy MTV-style musical numbers. I can't help but feel that had those been cut or at least improved to the level of the ballroom scene that it would have improved the final result. All up still a good movie, but it has some bits that will probably let its audience zone out. Recommended!

Green Lantern: Beware my Power

When veteran John Stewart investigates a crashed spaceship he is chosen by a lantern ring to become a member of the Green Lantern Corps, which is explained to him by Justice League members when the ring takes him to visit them. They decide to get involved when the ring reveals its previous owner was their comrade Hal Jordan. Pretty nice art and animation in this one which includes numerous fight sequences and coupled with a plot that contains some surprises this is a rather decent animated movie. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that actual Green Lantern fans might not enjoy it though because of some plot decisions, but if you're just in for a superhero show then this ticks that box.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Teaching kids to consume shrooms.

When two plumbers end up being transported to the magical Mushroom Kingdom, it falls upon them to save the princess! Oh wait, not in this movie as girls are very capable, so Mario has to go save his brother Luigi while helping the princess save her kingdom from the tyrannical turtle Bowser - who, in a great surprise to me, is much more musically gifted than I anticipated! Wahoo?

Obviously the film touches on as many Mario-isms as it can, because lets face it - this guy has been everywhere from underwater, to kart racing, to jumping barrels thrown by a gorilla. Great graphics and a funny plot with just some action sequences just extending into spectacle. As the tone is kid friendly it doesn't matter how much bloodless violence occurs as everyone will be ok anyway, even the dry bones. I was most impressed by the tiny little emotes the often nameless side characters have - those really made their scenes click. Still a tiny bit long for my liking but otherwise a decent kid friendly movie. Thumbs up!

Obliterated Blue Eye Samurai

Two first season series with swinging cod.

Obliterated

After disarming a nuke, the special team led by Chad (Nick Zano) and Ava (Shelley Hennig) decide to party very hard to celebrate only to realize in the messy-after hours that they're still on the clock and have to do the job while tripping balls. My wife accurately described this R-rated action comedy series as being like Legends of Tomorrow but without the sci-fi theme and with a ton more full frontal nudity. There are middling action sequences peppered in the laughs but if you don't like the concept where a team of "professionals" consistently goof up (and if they didn't the thing would be over sooner) then this is probably not the series for you.

Blue Eye Samurai

During the Edo period in Japan where they closed their borders to foreigners and were even more xenophobic than usual, the bastard children sired by said foreigners are treated like trash and one such child is the protagonist of this very well animated revenge killing spree, though there are a fair few gaps between the killing parts during which again, there's a fair bit of adult content just in case the visceral combat sequences weren't enough. While the plot is decent I do find it funny how most of the good guys are a bit over powered. Guy without eyes can basically see, guy without hands can do whatever etc. Still, we really enjoyed this one and are looking forward to a season two.

ZOM 100: Bucket List of the Dead (Season 1 and Movie)

Somehow both got released close to each other!

Anime (Season 1)

A zombie apocalypse is exactly what Akira needs to break free from his exploitative corporate job and is inspired to list and do "100 Things before I become a zombie" which range from the mundane to the absurd, which fits perfectly into this comedy. Any horror here is dialed right down with the zombies being covered not in red blood but a rainbow array of yet unexplained goo. It's a funny and uplifting nine episode series with pretty good animation and voice acting (note: I listened to the English VA for both). Nine episodes as of now that is. If it was popular enough to get a live action movie straight away I'm certain there will be at least a season two as well. Recommended if you want something silly.

Live-Action Movie

While the setup is almost identical the movie condenses themes and beats from the nine anime episodes into a two hour flick, with more horror than the anime as they got some decent makeup (no longer in rainbow colors) and flexible actors to be the zombies who now have a slightly different trait. For the most part the story condensing is quite well done actually, though it does get a bit rough in the last section timing wise. Despite that I think it actually could have been condensed a bit more with some unnecessary long sequences and speeches. Worth noting the English VAs in the anime did a better job and the acting here is subpar at times. That said, if you haven't seen the anime then this will probably be fine so long as you're expecting a silly and just occasionally funny movie.

Blacklight and Atlantic Rim: Resurrection

Movies with silly plots.

Blacklight

This action thriller follows an aging and paranoid FBI "fixer" (played by Liam Neeson) who isn't technically FBI but somehow is more skilled than FBI agents when it comes to saving them or killing them as he stumbles into a plot which involves a secret FBI branch murdering innocent US citizens which isn't in his moral compass. It's an ok premise I guess but seriously everyone passes around the stupid ball throughout the film to make idiotic decisions. Even with your brain turned off you might not enjoy this one but it is still leagues better than...

Atlantic Rim: Resurrection

Giant monsters from the deep are terrorizing the world so mankind sends giant robots to stop them... again - because apparently this is a sequel movie but not to the ones you might be thinking of. No, this is a terrible copy-pasta (the signature trademark of The Asylum studio) which involves very short, poor quality bursts of CGI interspersed between ridiculously long and pointless conversation pieces in bland rooms with non-functional stage equipment. A prime example where at least a third of the cast could have been done away with and it would have resulted in a better movie.

On the flip side - we get the hilarious scenes where the military runs out of pilots (a grand total of three of them) to fly the mechs, and characters hiding behind a locked door, which is simply opened with no problem when they are rescued. Said characters have no bearing on the story. Not recommended unless you are in the mood for this sort of thing!

Decluttering Day 18: Old and shredded/disintegrating pillow case. Not sure how this got to the disintegration stage as it was just in its own plastic container but there you go.

Exception and Sweet Home

Two first season horrors!

Exception

In this CGI animated series, the copies of five specialists are "printed" on an advance ship (which goes so fast that no life form can survive that journey) to begin terraforming a planet for a colony vessel that will arrive in a hundred years or so. Issues arise when crewman #5 is misprinted into a monster, and that the ship's printer won't let them print "weapons". While the horror here is less jump scares and more cranial, there are some really fantastic and philosophical ideas in this series too. The art is... a different style with very angular characters but it can be overlooked. Story wise it starts off very strong but it does feel that the season could have been shortened, or did something else towards the end where it wobbles a little. Recommended if you are in the mood for something different.

Sweet Home (Season 1)

This Korean horror focuses on an all-in-one apartment block that gets locked down when people inexplicably start turning into monsters world wide! It must also be one of the few times that I was actively rooting for the monsters to kill all the moronic, scummy and worthless humans for at least the first half of the season. That's actually my main problem with it, it takes that long to find someone to get behind as the main protagonist is one of the most unlikable wooden person (probably by design) through out all of it. The show does better when he isn't on screen! Isn't that a problem? Lucky the story is entertaining enough to stick with despite the plot going through phases of monsters showing up out of nowhere and difficult to follow action sequences - possibly to try hide their lack of monster budget. The monsters are ok though, really. The story is too. They just need to do something with the protagonist. Surprisingly, I'm still recommending this and am hoping season two can improve some things.

Decluttering Day 12: Old plug-in type vacuum. The stick vacuum replacement is really much better.

Drifting Dragons and Castlevania: Nocturne

A pair of animes with great art.

Drifting Dragons (Season 1)

In a world where dragons are just wild animals people have taken to dirigible "draking" (whaling) ships to hunt them. This one season story follows the crew of one such vessel and their trials not only against their prey, but also against the ship's budget and occasionally each other. There's also a lot of focus given to the butchering of said dragons followed by strangely specific cooking and eating sequences that involve dragon parts that have convinced me the dragons there taste great most of the time! The series starts of slow and gives almost all the crew on the draking ship some screen time and by the end it was getting some good emotional payoffs. That said I am not sure how some of these people haven't died a few times over already but I guess it's just not that sort of anime. Recommended if you don't mind a slow burn with very little thinking.

Castlevania: Nocturne (Season 1)

Set hundreds of years after the first series this one continues with the excellent art style and action pieces of its predecessor while introducing a new band of heroes to face off against more vampires and creatures of darkness. Getting used to the new protagonist might take some time, especially since his will and power levels fluctuate wildly over the course of the series and the main villain seems super bland when they appear because of the "they are in the background, so lets develop all the lieutenants instead" approach. 

Lastly wokeness seems to really be the theme inserted here with a true rainbow cast of characters and nary a weak female with a speaking role in sight. Alas, with all those powers combined that leaves this first season in a pretty weak state. Hopefully season two can bring out the big guns and focus more on a good plot rather than real life politics. (Spoiler: season two is much better)

Decluttering Day 9: Four broken umbrellas.

Green Snake and New Gods: Nezha Reborn

A pair of animated Chinese films made by Light Chaser Animation.

Green Snake

After she gets banished to a sort of violent modern day purgatory by a powerful monk, Verta the green snake demon must find a way to escape without her powers, beat said monk and free her sister Blanca the white snake demon who was trapped by the same monk. Yeah, I kinda like that the monk is just insanely powerful. It also means Verta can look like a good looking human female for the entire film. Smooth animation that seems to be filled with non-stop action makes this a really awesome movie, but the story dips heavily into Chinese mythology so if you aren't so familiar with reincarnation and the like it might feel a bit jarring at places but otherwise its pretty cool. There is a lot of fighting and a decent amount of death!

Side note, the other name for this movie is "White Snake 2" because there is a White Snake film that happens first which I wasn't aware of before watching this. Do you need to watch that first? Maybe, because the opening here really felt like it was dropping you right into it - but after the first 10 minutes the entire setting changes anyway. Didn't bother me. Not as much as not being able to find White Snake with English subs or dubs anyway. Well, I'm getting side tracked. As far as Green Snake goes, I can definitely recommend it.

New Gods: Nezha Reborn

Set in a future being affected by a massive drought the protagonist is a motorcycle racer / courier / smuggler who can't help but mess with the most powerful clan that controls all the water in the region. When blows are eventually exchanged it turns out the clan big shots are actually supernatural beings, as is the protagonist who is a reincarnation of a very violent (but also powerful) child. Fantastic animation once again with the odd "ancient beings in a modern setting" vibe going and a decent if predictable story though with slightly less action bits and more talky bits. Does that make it better? Not really, which is surprising. Note that it is quite violent and probably not really suited for younger audiences, like the scene where a helpless cat is killed. That happens twice. All up I preferred Green Snake.

Decluttering Day 8: A no longer non-stick frying pan, and a second smaller one that was my wife's very first frying pan.