Arknights: Endfield

Set in a universe of anime style characters who have spaceships but still use swords and spears, this free to play single player game features some nice graphics, decent voice acting and a click fest of combat that rewards timing.

Not only do you have to balance your team of four from a roster of operators (most of whom are possibly teenage girls) who will each individually require leveling, gearing, leveling the gear, and such - you also have to get lucky to recruit them from the gachapon style lucky draw that you earn every so often.

Base building is also a pretty big component of this game (which caught me by surprise). Sure, you can hit minerals and gather bushes to craft stuff. But you can also setup auto mining rigs, processing plants, fabricator factories, conveyor belts between said parts to move materials around and electrical generators and have to run electrical cables to each of these for them to activate. Cable not long enough? Build a relay to keep it going! 

You can easily spend sessions not fighting at all but just harvesting, expanding and such. Oh, and you also build outposts that you can assign one of your team to manage, that can then trade and grow on its own too. There's also a stock market where you can buy goods and hope that you can sell for higher, because this "single player" game still takes into consideration what other players are doing. And if that isn't enough you can then fix up and build out your space ship. :O

Yes, there's A LOT going on here with tutorials galore in the form of simulations, including the base building part. Cool game but ultimately just too much for me, and you can almost taste the grinding as you need loads of things to level up your people, build your base and the like.

I hate Visual Novels... sometimes?

When players can't make meaningful decisions, is it still a game?

Return to Ash is a simple hand drawn art where you play as a dead person in the ghost land with loads of reading and options that don't really go anywhere? Too much novel and too little game for me. 

Universe for Sale has better (albeit weirder) art and animation set on Jupiter where the protagonist is a neckless, jointless, cult freak and again most of the dialogue doesn't go anywhere but forward. A few extra mini-games break up the tedium a tiny bit but ultimately its still reading a comic book. 

Eternights has animated anime style art (and full anime cut scenes that include full depictions of blood and gore [NICE]) which is also fully voiced. Its about some sort of zombie contagion outbreak and your protagonist has many action arcade segments of fighting them (complete movement and camera controls, dodging and striking mechanics and special moves). It's also very much a dating sim. WUT? Yeah. Because your companions perform better if they like you. Less narration / "thought bubbles" and funny nicely written dialogue. But you're still going through a single story with no branches. 

Lead the party in Eternights, and date them?

I guess VNs are more palatable for me the more they have other systems and mini games going on. How are they for you?

Reign: The Conqueror (1997) and The Rats: A Witcher Tale

Two TV shows with different problems.

Reign: The Conqueror

This anime series is the story of Alexander the Great, in the art style and clothing choices of the Aeon Flux cartoon (1991) and set in a strange pseudo-future where people still ride horses and use short swords and super long spears but also can occasionally turn into aircraft, field giant robots in battle, and more than once have outer body experiences that involve standing in space looking down at the planets and obsessing about geometry. 

One episode has Alexander journey through a city he hasn't built yet in a flash-forward, where he has to reach his own, digitally encrypted tomb while another features the most ridiculous execution device ever: a spinning blade the size of a building. Strange doesn't begin to describe it, but its otherwise an ok story with very little character investment.

The Rats: A Witcher Tale

Set after season 4 of the Netflix Witcher TV series, this live action movie has loads more problems than the above. Due to its nature you already know how it ends before it starts, and the main characters are basically a band of army deserters turned brigands that are stupid selfish asshats who think their personal trauma makes them unique snow flakes in a world of NPCs which doesn't really improve their likeability from their time in the main show. 

There are some nice action bits and funny bits and Dolph Lundgren's character is the main highlight of the whole thing but even all that is not enough to save this. 

Unrelated, but I'd be remiss not to talk about Witcher S4 while I'm at it where the main change is that protagonist Geralt has a new actor in Liam Hemsworth. For me, he actually does a pretty good job of character continuity from his tone of voice all the way to his fight moves. If anything, the only problems with S4 would be the same ones from previous seasons - the plot and plot holes. I still enjoyed it though, much more than I did The Rats. 

Genocyber and Takopi's Original Sin

Animes with unstable females.

Genocyber (1994)

In a future where scientists weaponize unstable little girls, they are hilariously surprised when the psybernetic (that's not a typo) weapon goes on a rampage and over the course of a handful of episodes quickly obliterates most of the planet. The old style anime art is well done and the stories are interesting enough but it would have been great if they gelled together a bit better instead of seemingly having time skip cold opens a few times. 

Takopi's Original Sin

A goofy alien that looks like a happy squid lands on Earth with the mission to make people happy and pairs up with an abused and suicidal teen. The animation of this one is really smooth with a violently depressing story (though I found some dark parts quite funny). I have a feeling that because the beatings depicted are more grounded to reality it actually hurts more than say the flurry of blows in Dragonball Z. Very different from my normal viewing, and very dark.  

Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim and Devil May Cry (2025)

Anime set in other franchises.

Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim

Set 200 years before Bilbo finds the one ring, this extremely well animated story focuses on Hera, the heroic daughter of Helm Hammerhand the King of Rohan. An altercation with one of his vassals eventually leads to a war and its up to Hera to save the day (sort of). While the art is awesome and the action scenes sufficiently violent, there are more than a few crazy plot holes in this tale which is a shame. We enjoyed it but were quite amused by some of the narrative choices taken. 

Devil May Cry (2025)

Based on the action adventure game franchise of the same name, this is actually the second attempt at an anime for it but unlike the original Dante is not yet a mature and experienced demon hunter. Instead this protagonist is youthful, funny and foolish but also regularly gets beaten by high level humans. Not sure if that's what happens in the later games as well but he is a bit too immature compared to the Dante I remember. Still, good fight scenes and animation are basically what hold this generic demons invading from hell plot together. Maybe it will improve in season two.

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. 

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!

Atlas, Industria and Ninja Kamui (Season 1)

Where future tech makes plot holes!

Atlas

In a world where AI had advanced so much they look a lot like people, then warred against their human creators and fled the planet, a random lead falls into the hands of the world government who call in a specialist scientist who hates robots (played by Jennifer Lopez) to team up with a force of humans riding robots to go fight the bad robots on bad robot planet. The opening narration kinda sounds as tacky as my sentence there, but this turned out to be an enjoyable but predictable film.

While the CGI is ok and the main plot points are decent, I feel the creators added things that they thought would be "cool" which puts many devils in the details. How exactly does an oxygen -mask- necklace provide air? THROUGH SCIENCE! How does this character achieve with almost zero training what the legion of trained extras failed to do? SCIENCE!? Control two extra arms made from 10 minutes of scrap metal bending? SCIENCE!!!! Seriously though, you need to like or at least not hate Jennifer Lopez if you watch this as she carries 3/4ths of the movie. I don't mind her acting so it's fine with me, but if for any reason you don't like her then definitely give this a skip.

Industria

This is a decent, albeit short first person shooter about messing with technology and getting transported to another world full or hostile machine men and machine dogs. Easy controls and simple enemies won't really challenge an experienced gamer but it is still good nonetheless thanks to the voice acting, the atmospheric maps, and the plot - which has some very strange bits that make no sense at all and leaving many questions unanswered - possibly to hook you in for the sequel. Thumbs up for this one.

Ninja Kamui (Season 1)

It is the future and the way of the ninja has gone global but due to a rift based on their code the loyalists brutally hunt down their rebel bretheren which leads to a John Wick scenario if John Wick was a futuristic ninja. Yes, the protagonist is pretty flat here as is the plot but the smooth and violent action scenes coupled with a decent sound track almost make up for it. I say almost because apparently since this is the future, ninjas eventually get mecha type armor suits then it becomes a bunch of robots fighting each other with martial arts. While that's ok-ish it really breaks the excellent combat streak that this show started with making season one finish with a "meh". If there's going to be a season two then this will really need to up its game.

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.

Echo and Solo Leveling (Season 1)

Weak protagonists gaining ridiculous powers.

Echo (Season 1)

This five episode series focuses on Maya, the titular Echo, who is a pretty disabled gangster (being deaf and missing a leg) previously working for Kingpin as was last seen in the Hawkeye series. Probably a good series to practice your sign language knowledge on as there is a LOT of it, but the story is very average and the action scenes and budget are subpar for a Marvel show (maybe just one fight near the start is good). I do enjoy that the protagonist is naturally very easy to sneak up on, and I hope that remains to be the case despite gaining some ancestral super powers, because its a superhero show and apparently because she's not good enough without powers? Mmm, what's your message here Disney? Lol. Only for die hard Marvel fans; everyone else can give this a miss.

Solo Leveling (Season 1)

The setting for this Korean anime is a strange one: present day but with fantasy monsters occasionally warping in from dungeon dimensions and modern equipment has no effect on them. Lucky there are people born as "hunters" who can fight and defeat these to protect the world. Yes, a hunter with a tiny dagger is more effective than a tank or Gatling gun versus a goblin. Just don't think about it.

Further more, hunters are ranked by strength and this never changes or fluctuates. A strong guy will always be that strong, never weaker / never stronger. Except for our protagonist who is the weakest hunter of all. For plot device reasons "the game" decides that he in fact CAN level up, and boy does he make use of it. While the plot isn't very deep the animation quality and fights of which there are PLENTY are very good. It also helps that there's a good amount of blood and gore thrown in there too. Quite entertaining if you just want an action anime. Recommended!

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Season 1) and Strong Girl Nam-soon (Season 1)

Featuring female protagonists that make you laugh and cry. In a good way.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Season 1)

 
This anime is a strange masterpiece. It takes place in a Dungeons and Dragons like fantasy world focusing on Frieren the long lived elf mage, and the story begins with her and the party of heroes having saved the world from a demon king - usually the end of a campaign but that's ok, because this is a mostly a melancholic drama about characters growing as people. As a bonus there just happens to be a good portion of awesome action sequences on top of the excellent art, music and story. I'm sorry Blue Lock, this is now my favorite anime as it regularly hits me in the feels. Highly recommended!

Strong Girl Nam-soon (Season 1)

This continuation in the world of Strong Girl Bong-soon gives us a new cute protagonist but unlike Bong-soon, Nam-soon (and her family) has no problems making use of her superhuman strength in public. While yes, there are bad guys who just happen to be idiots despite their good looks, this is mainly a love story with a heavy focus on humor. This works for the most part but in the few episodes where Nam-soon is taking a back seat in the plot it can get quite taxing... Ultimately if you enjoyed Bong-soon you'll probably like this too, but just don't expect it to be as good.

Unicornus Knights

Anime stylized box artof a happy princess doesn't do it justice.

This is one of the best designed games I've ever played. I hope that's a strong enough start for you, especially given how many board games I've already reviewed. In this cooperative war game, up to six players must somehow guide the revenge hungry princess to defeat the emperor (before time runs out!?).

The setup can be a tad lengthy especially if you aren't used to how the flower shaped tiles are meant to be joined together, but the summary is that the princess starts at the furthest part away from the Emperor. Most of the tiles in between are ruled by randomly chosen Empire leaders while the farthest edges are where the princesses allies (that's the players) start. Game play from here goes pretty quick!

On a turn each player will either be collecting knights, gathering supplies, sending those to someone else, drawing a bonus card or moving. Now each knight adds another die to your combat roll, but to move you must pay one supply per knight! This means big armies move slowly, especially over difficult terrain. If you end up in a space with an enemy, roll your dice. Some characters are better at attacking, some better at defending, and some are better not fighting at all.

When the bad guys move it's simple: blue ones stay put no matter what, white ones (or leaderless ones) will only move at you if you walk right beside them, and red ones will always move one space closer to the nearest enemy. As soon as they are one step away from a player (or the princess) most of them get a fate card which can really shift the game as some can be made friends and ALL of them have an ally power.

As for the princess, she comes in different flavors too with the easiest being one the players can control (the others just always max move towards emperor like an idiot). She can have the largest army but that also means potentially move the slowest, and in combat she doesn't roll dice. Instead the bad guys do the maximum damage they can on her (and her forces) and if she still lives - even if its just her with 1 HP left, she obliterates anything on her space - making her both the weakest and strongest piece on the board.

That's really the bulk of it, but those fate cards that make each villain different per game are awesome - meaning each telling of this tale is memorable and different from the last. Highly recommended!

7 Seeds and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Letting the younger generation take over.

7 Seeds

In this two season anime a catastrophe has befallen the Earth and only members of the fallback project known as the 7 Seeds project awake from cryosleep to find a totally different landscape along with new dangers, but as usual the biggest danger is usually other 7 Seeds teams. There's a big cast of characters and some interesting narrative choices but feels very much incomplete as it got canned. The average art was ok, but as the story is left hanging I can't really recommend this one.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Season 1)

This live action series follows a pair of step-siblings searching for their missing and presumed dead father who turns out to be connected to a covert organization monitoring kaijus like Godzilla and King Kong. This average story straddles between two time periods (with great use of Wyatt and Kurt Russell) and makes use of decent CGI when the monsters decide to show up - which is more often than I initialy thought. While I wouldn't mind a season two if it appears, I do have issue with some of the main cast who I found a tad unlikable. If you like Godzilla (specifically) then maybe give this a try. Your mileage may vary.

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.

Cagaster of an Insect Cage and The Lost City

Shows about love?

Cagaster of an Insect Cage

In this one season anime, nothing makes sense. That's a great start isn't it? There's a virus that causes people to randomly transform into zombies giant man-eating dragonfly type bugs and we are told in the introduction that these critters are impervious to bullets, blades and tank shells with the only opportune time of slaying a person undergoing the change (so still mostly humanoid) to be in the first 20 minutes, via decapitation.

In the very next scene, we see a lone soldier take down a giant dragonfly with a sword and shotgun, and soon after learn there are entire tank brigades dedicated to fighting the bugs. What? Interesting take on having the protagonist being a potential child rapist too, but its ok because the 14 year old says "yes" at the end of the series. Love always wins! Yay? So um, yeah. Sorry for the spoiler but its not a great story and only OK art and action means I'm going to not recommend this one.

The Lost City (2022)

When a burnt out romance writer (Sandra Bullock) winds up being kidnapped it is up to her slow-witted cover model (Channing Tatum) to mount a rescue attempt. For an action adventure comedy this movie certainly hits all of those themes pretty well, and while the plot is mostly predictable it was still quite entertaining and ultimately much better than I was anticipating as I got invested in multiple characters right away, even the bad guy (there are some duds though)! Turned out to be a decent watch. Good choice wifey. :)

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.

Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku (S1) and Mashle: Magic and Muscles (S1)

Two first season anime reviews that both deal with "magic and muscles".

Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku (Season 1)

During the Edo period in Japan, a bunch of captured dangerous death-row convicts AND their equally lethal minders are sent to a mysterious island believed to be the location of the elixir of life. Whichever convict returns with it will be pardoned. This immediately sets up a battle royale type scene but its just made all the worse when the island is full of horrible monsters too (why else are they sending expendable criminals right)?

Decent art with well animated and gory fight scenes make this worth watching despite the "down time" episodes that are mostly talking. Also given the large cast it takes sometime to care about some of the characters but that fixes itself nicely once people start dying off. Fair warning though, until the announced second season comes out this won't have a satisfying ending. Still a thumbs up from me!

Mashle: Magic and Muscles (Season 1)

In a world ruled by magic users, those born without the talent for it are simply executed to keep the blood line strong. Enter Mash, who is one such "abomination" with zero magical ability (and possibly a lower IQ). What he does have however, is super athleticism and when he is forced to attend "magic school" he must come up with ways to physically achieve what the others just wave wands for.

This lighthearted comedy clearly makes fun of Harry Potteresque ideas, and it's pretty cool to see arrogant wizards put in their place through pure brute force. The jokes are a bit hit and miss though, and you'll need to power through episode one to get any traction. The art is also a step down from what I usually watch but again, its fine for what it is. Another one I'll definitely be watching the second season of. :)

Blue Lock (Season 1)

An anime about... death match soccer!?

Anime can be just about anything these days, so when it focuses on something mundane (for me at least) like sports I normally opt to skip it. This one is all about soccer, and how the titular experimental Blue Lock facility is trying to generate the best striker out of 300 participants in a series of pseudo death match / knockout trials.

It is fantastic!

Good art, decent story, excellent characters who elicit viewer emotion and almost each episode ends with you wanting to watch the next one. I'm not a sports guy, but I got totally hooked on this and am now waiting for season two! Highly recommended, I even prefer it over Chainsaw Man. You can watch episode 1 here (and probably find the rest too, if you search for it).

Made in Abyss (Seasons 1-2 + Deep Soul)

Beautiful and messed up at the same time.

On a distant island is a giant cursed pit known as the Abyss, so deep that no one knows how far it actually goes. Riko, the protagonist, is inspired to find out. This anime has some really beautiful scenery, excellent music, decent animation and crazy ideas. With colors usually on the brighter side of the palette and a very "kids theme" art style and the majority of the heroes being kids themselves, you would be forgiven if you thought this was a kids show. It is not.

Let's jump down this giant hole!

Adult themes are dealt with constantly along with violence and other pretty horrible stuff that litters the excellent narrative. Expect to be hit in the feels a lot as death and fates worse than death abound. I'm greatly looking forward to season 3!

Apparently you can either watch season 1 (which I did) OR the first two movies which cover the same content (can't comment I haven't seen those), followed by movie 3: Dawn of the Deep Soul before moving onto season 2. They're all of excellent viewing. Highly recommended!

Wednesday and Chainsaw Man

Snap twice and pull the cord.

Wednesday (Season 1)

Antisocial student Wednesday Addams (played by Jenna Ortega) has a wide array of murderous skills, but the one she is best at is getting people hurt and getting targeted by a murderer at her new school is just what she needs to put on her detective hat to drive most of season 1's predictable story - but the acting, writing, cinematography and music make this very entertaining. Recommended even for people who have never heard of the Addams Family before, and I'm looking forward to season 2!

Chainsaw Man (Season 1)

This VERY well animated series might use a lot of bright colors but it is much darker, gorier and more adult in content than Wednesday. Our protagonist Denji spends half the time killing devils as he's fused with a devil himself that lets him become the titular "Chainsaw Man", and the other half of the time trying to get laid. Finally, an anime that gets a teenagers priorities right! The only downside is that some of these devils are freaking weird design wise, but that makes it unique I suppose. Again recommended, and another one I'll be waiting for season 2 on.