Suzume (2023) - Movie Review

From the director of Your Name, the only body-swap romance film I can think of that’s actually worth watching, the latest from animator Makoto Shinkai makes that film’s high concept look downright pedestrian. I mean, most films look normal compared to the story of a Japanese schoolgirl who falls in love with a chair cursed by a cat-god, but my point still stands.

Creed III (2023) - Movie Review

I can’t remember the last time a sports movie got me this worked. Hell, I’m not even sure there was a ‘last time’ for the effect this left on me. In real life, I’m quite comfortable in my pudgy lion-bear physique and look, but coming out of the cinema for this, I felt jacked. Like I just climbed those famous Philly stairs and was ready to throw down in the ring. Having sat through all the Rocky films thus far, along with the previous two Creed films… I can’t recall any of them giving me this kind of endorphin rush before.

Josee, The Tiger And The Fish (2021) - Movie Review

Looks like keeping Music the hell away from my review schedule wasn’t enough to stop me from dealing with the topic of ‘inspiration porn’. For the uninitiated, no, we’re not talking about Tony Robbins’ sex tape (thank fuck for that), but instead an aspect of depictions of disabled people in mass media. Put simply, it’s how even the simplest of everyday tasks suddenly become ‘inspirational’, purely because they are being done by a disabled person. It’s basically a term for media that, while depicting and centred on disabled characters, largely exists for able-bodied people to feel good about themselves because ‘if this person (who I subconsciously consider to be in an inherently worse position than me) can do things, so can I’.

Speaking as someone with disabilities, I have mixed feelings about this whole conversation. Part of that is due to my previously-mentioned attitudes towards abled actors ‘passing’ for disabled characters, but there’s also how… well, I don’t really know how else to put it: Far as I’m concerned, I’ve done inspiration porn in the past with Employable Me. Don’t get me wrong, no part of me regrets taking part in that documentary… but I can’t say I haven’t, both at the time and even today, worried that I was simply becoming part of that same voyeuristic equation. That quick snapshot of disabled life that makes the abled consensus feel good for a moment, and then never consider that reality again until the next picture develops.

Godzilla: City On The Edge Of Battle (2018) - Movie Review

After narrowly defeating a Godzilla, only to discover that the original Godzilla is still alive and as monstrous as ever, humanity’s last stand on Earth is in a difficult spot. That is, until they discover a tribe of people on the planet, descendants of humanity, who offer aid and another chance to take down the god of monsters. Knowing the diminishing returns when it comes to sequels, I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting much from this one after just liking the first one and not much more. But man, this follow-up comes in hard.

Godzilla: Planet Of The Monsters (2018) - Movie Review

  

It has been 22 years (or something closer to 20,000 years, due to the quirks of faster-than-light travel) since humanity left his home. After numerous kaiju attacks ravaged the Earth, and Godzilla finished the job by razing human and monster alike, mankind has had to find a new home. But after years of traversing stars, finding nothing close to a habitable world they can use to start over, the situation is looking grim. Like “we’re running out of resources and have to cull the small population we have” kind of grim. Left with no other choice, they return to Earth to find a world utterly unlike the one they had to escape so long ago. One that the monsters have officially declared their own.

Illang: The Wolf Brigade (2018) - Movie Review

 

Transferring media born from one culture to the tastes of another requires more than simple copy-and-pasting. In order to make it convincing that there is a reason why a particular story is being reframed and reshipped to different territories, sometimes changes need to be made. It can involve relatively minor changes, like replacing some of the aspects of Watchmen, or it can be a lot more thorough, like the complete political shifts in V For Vendetta. This film, closing out today’s triumvirate of live-action anime adaptations, is a South Korean take on a piece of Japanese animated cinema. The results are… mixed.

Fullmetal Alchemist (2018) - Movie Review

 

Time for something with a bit more personal investment to it than the last review. Fullmetal Alchemist, in no uncertain terms, is one of the best anime series ever. Its characters, its incredibly dark and complex themes about life and death, its airtight pacing and yet incredible variety; it is a true-blue classic. It has had film iterations before, primarily the two connected to the two FMA series (the original and Brotherhood, which actually went in quite different directions due to their different connections to the manga), but this is the first attempt at a live-action adaptation. However, this is a wholly different beast to what we got with Bleach, for both good and bad reasons.

Bleach (2018) - Movie Review

 

It seems that last year’s Death Note movie has opened up the floodgates for live-action anime adaptations on Netflix. And what’s more, judging by the myriad of memes I’ve been seeing all year, they don't seem to be doing too well. Not to say that I’d be too surprised at that, seeing as Death Note wasn’t exactly the best introduction to a genuinely great franchise, but I’m willing to keep an open mind about all this. So, for today, we’ll be looking at a few of these adaptations, starting with the story of a high school student tasked with saving the neighbourhood from a giant seaweed monster. It’s anime; don’t even try and act surprised at that.

I Want To Eat Your Pancreas (2018) - Movie Review

  

The plot: While at the hospital, a mild-mannered high school student (Mahiro Takasugi) meets classmate Yamauchi (Lynn), who has kept her life-threatening pancreatic disease a secret from everyone... until now. As the two connect over this secret, they learn from each other what it means to really live.

A Silent Voice (2017) - Movie Review

Previously on this blog, I have discussed certain aspects of my own film-watching philosophy, in that I consider cinema to be an inherently emotional art form and that it should be perceived and commented on as such. However, I understand that there are parts of that mindset that contradict others. Emotions are far from being simple things, considering we rarely if ever experience just one of them on their own. By contrast, I tend to treat the films I review on here in rather simple terms; this is why films like Moonlight are as difficult to pin down as they are, since they actively go against my usual ‘one and done’ methodology.

 

And sure enough, we have another example of that today with quite possible the most perplexing emotional post-film reaction I’ve gotten yet. Petulant anger, holding back tears, relief that came seemingly out of nowhere? I barely know how to process these feelings in real life, let alone writing about them at length in connection to fiction. Nonetheless, let’s press forward with this incredibly odd feature.

Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale (2017) - Movie Review

Even though I have discussed anime on this blog a few times by now, I don’t want to give the impression that I even classify as an otaku by most people’s standards. Hell, I know even less about it than I do filmmaking, but I can at least bluff my way through most films. This fact will become obvious as we get into more franchise anime films that I have absolutely zero prior knowledge of, with today being a perfect example. I know a little bit about Sword Art Online based purely on seeing its name in passing on anime aggregators and the occasional review by one of my contemporaries, but that barely passes for intel; I’m going in all-the-way blind on this one. Thankfully, I’m fairly certain that this isn’t going to be one of those weird sectors of anime where going in unawares results in the destruction of sanity… not that that would matter much to me anyway, so let’s get into today’s offering.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side Of Dimensions (2017) - Movie Review

Yu-Gi-Oh!, otherwise known as the next step anime after Pokémon, has a rather complex history with yours truly. I watched the original series a LOT as a kid, played many a game in the playground at school (and saw kids keep getting the show’s rules for the game confused with the actual rules) and then there’s its place within my background in YouTube with LittleKuriboh’s seminal work in online parody with Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series. It’s rare that I can point to a single franchise as being so influential to my upbringing in this many points of my life. I fell out with the game a few years back until I started doing a work skills course and found a few yahoos that got me back into the franchise through all three of those signifiers. I still suck at the card game but at least now I have some semblance of an understanding of the insanely in-depth rules of the thing, and I can still have a good laugh at the series (both the original and the parody by LK). Naturally, when news hit of a new film from the franchise hitting cinemas, I brought in a close friend and fellow fanboy and sat down to watch this thing. So how did that turn out?

The Boy And The Beast (2016) - Movie Review

Your Name (2016) - Movie Review

Makoto Shinkai is, in no uncertain terms, a genuine underdog story in the annals of anime history. Starting out by essentially going for broke in more ways than one, just to bring his first short film Voices Of A Distant Star into fruition, he has since gone on to become one of the most celebrated anime filmmakers of the modern era. That may not mean much to those outside of the fandom, but just to be clear, this guy’s work is so incredibly lauded that he has often drawn comparisons to Hayao friggin’ Miyazaki. Even if Makoto himself doesn’t take much credence to those comparisons, that’s pretty high praise and, even with the little of his work that I’ve seen thus far, I can’t help but feel that it is entirely warranted. Voices Of A Distant Star is easily one of the most emotionally potent works of fiction, let alone anime, ever conceived, and the fact that it’s only 25 minutes in length makes that feat even more astounding. And now, he has a new feature-length production out that is also gaining high praise. Time to dig in.

One Piece Film: Gold (2016) - Movie Review

One Piece is up there with the likes of Naruto, Bleach and more recently Toriko as one of the biggest titles in Japanese manga. Of course, ask your average Westerner about it and they will likely recount the horror stories of what 4Kids Entertainment did the series. Now, I don’t have nearly as much issue with that version of the show (I’d even say that the much-maligned theme song is pretty catchy in its own right) but then again I don’t have as much experience with the title as a whole. I’ve read a volume or two of the manga and I thought it was decent enough but it never really grabbed in the way that other series like Death Note and Toriko did. Oh trust me, the new Death Note movie review is coming up soon but, for right now, we’re dealing with the latest iteration of the One Piece anime… and going from this alone, I think it’d be worth it to go through those volumes again.

Top 20 Anime Abandon Episodes

Given my track record for intros so far, I would bring up this guy’s simmering disrespect for Tim Burton as reason enough for why I don’t like him. Hell, for a long time, Bennett The Sage was legitimately my least favourite reviewer (that I was aware of at the time) for that very reason. And yet, as the series being spotlighted today ‘Anime Abandon’ grew and his prior series ‘Sage Reviews’ fell more and more by the wayside, the guy well and truly won me over. So much so that this guy might be the single best reviewer I’ve seen in terms of storylines, something I’ll clarify about as we go through today’s list. As such, let’s get into my picks for Top 20 best episodes of Anime Abandon.

#20. Agent Aika

Opening on a note of questioning the difference between exploitation for the sake of satire and just plain old exploitation (wondering how much of the joke is intended? Sage and the Rap Critic should do a collab at some point), this review is littered with that pondering that brings certain parts of the story and production into a clearer light, which is pretty symptomatic of a lot of Sage’s deeper musings in certain episodes. As a result, this is the perfect way to start out our list. That, and it showcases quite possibly one of the best extended counting gags of any video.

#19: Night Warriors

While filtering through a film that is balls-to-the-wall stupid, and yet keeps trying to pretend that it isn’t, we get a taste of Sage’s past aggression in his outburst towards whoever it was that left us with the main character we have in this series. It gives a nice reminder of how impulsive and psychopathic Sage’s character used to be, which works as a really good contrast for some of the episodes that we’ll get to later on down the list, especially with how it stands next to his depiction of being lonely that occurs not long after that initial outburst.

#18: Aeon Flux

Reviewed as part of Not-Quite Anime Month, Sage goes into detail about how this is easily the worst show he’s ever seen; even more so than the show’s whipping boy Neon Genesis Evangelion. While a lot of the review revolves around the series’ philosophical touches, and admittedly my brain continues to glaze over at a lot of the finer points in the massive block of explanation Sage gives to bring the audience up to speed on Gnosticism, his grievances with the show are definitely made perfectly clear.

#17: Akira

A look at one of the most celebrated anime films of all time, Sage manages to give the film its due in terms of influence and grandeur, all the while admitting that a film doesn’t need to be ‘good’ to be ‘important’. Indeed, between the original horrible dub and the story gutting that it went through during the adaptation process, he shows that the film has a lot of problems. And yet, none of those problems take away from the film’s positives, and Sage in no way thinks that they should.

#16: Ninja Resurrection

This is one of Sage’s freakout episodes where the subject is so bad that he actually has a mental breakdown, and while I would argue that the idea is getting slightly overused of late, that doesn’t detract heavily from the ones that work. Take, for instance, this one where the battle between legendary ninjas and major religious figures reaches the heights of lunacy. This is also one of the more gory freakouts on Sage’s part, which is something that adds to quite a bit of the character mythos. After spending so long playing the depraved murderous sicko, it’s kind of interesting how violent his traumatic visions end up being.

#15: 8 Man After

Billing something as a ‘gritty reboot’ is just about the worst label possible that doesn’t involve the word “Jai”, “Theresa” or “Akiva Goldsman”, and this might show the absolute worst traits associated with that label: Mandated connections to the original that feel amazingly disjointed, serious tonal issues, not to mention plot developments that make no sense. I’m with Sage on this one: A brain in a jar shouldn’t be this poorly explained.

#14: Tokyo Revelation

Getting into a couple’s spat with his big book of gay jokes, the hipster demon worshipper, the nonsensical demonic ritual in question, the over-your-head jokes that are almost Adult Swim in how weirdly funny they are; this is almost like a highlight reel of great Sage moments. Given how insanely weird the plot is, it makes sense how something like this could inspire so many great little moments in such a small package.

#13: Virgin Fleet

Even with how much worse his subject material would get (and in fact, had already been), this is easily the angriest review of the series. The hatred is just dripping from his voice with every word, not to mention the fact that he almost looks like he’s going to explode under his own power near the end, and he brings up more than legitimate reasons for him to be. Somehow, I doubt that the concept of ‘virgin energy planes’ could sound good to anyone.

#12: Burn-Up W

Using Jackass as a means to explain the line between mindless fun and just mindless idiocy is a decent enough footing to start off with, along with using Movie 43 as a clear example of how not to do either, but he extends his examination of that same line to the review proper. Not only that, he cuts off a nice bit of potential conspiracy theorizing concerning a certain mech look-a-like, and his “Someone’s waifu is missing!” line just cracks me up.

#11: Tokyo Godfathers

Sage prefers anime dubs over anime subs. That’s a pretty hefty deal-breaker for some people, but damn it all if he doesn’t give a damn good reason for thinking so. His little experiment to test his theory about the experience of watching a subbed film is interesting and makes for some nice points. It probably helps that the film he chose to review and break his usually-stringent rule about dubs is one that genuinely deserves to be looked at.

#10: Love Hina Spring Movie

This is just straight-up reaction porn, as Sage’s facial expressions and cries of utter bewilderment at what is happening on screen, flying turtles included, rank up there among some of the best I’ve seen from an Internet critic. I haven’t watched any of the Love Hina series outside of the clips from his reviews, but based on his own feelings and the content inside, just the fact that this is rounding off a trilogy of reviews gives this video a lot of oomph as well. This is all in spite of an opening gag with Oancitizen that ends on a note that, honestly, I’m still having difficulty reading into even after watching and re-watching it an unhealthy number of times.

#9: The Guyver

Yeah, this video has gotten very little regard since its release that it inspired quite possibly one of the greatest responses of any video, which itself got dramatized into its own video. That said, I’m highlighting this video because of its place in the storyline of Bennett The Sage, specifically his past appearances. His interaction with the Nostalgia Critic is basically his earlier sins and violent tendencies coming back to bite him (like his infamous appearance on Ask That Guy With The Glasses), with Sage’s stance essentially being to try and see past his previous actions in favour of who he is now. That, and his banter with the Critic is funny as well, but I like this primarily for its thematic elements.

#8: Tenchi 2: The Daughter Of Darkness

This isn’t the first time Sage has gotten into the Tenchi Muyo series, but he certainly lends the credence to why people would be into it by going through the characters and the essential premise and pointing out its inherent strengths. Hell, he even gives lip service to what is a pretty damn effective bit of drama in the film proper. That said, this is still a Christmas film that in no way should be a Christmas film, and barely even qualifies for that matter, and Sage gives it the hiding it deserves on those grounds.

#7: Inuyasha: Affections Touching Across Time [Nuts & Bolts]

This review’s impact may be heightened with me personally because this is the one review that I was seriously waiting for him to do. When the 100^th episode came out and it wasn’t Inuyasha, I’ll admit, I was a bit pissed. But then this review came out and, even with its notions about the archetypical ‘bad boy’ that I could make serious disagreements about, his gripes with the series and the characters are all solid. I really like when someone points out how a possessive relationship where the girl is abusive is still possessive and abusive; this might get me some hideous feedback, but I like the gender-equal view on that one. That, and the line in response to the freeing of the demon at the beginning is absolutely hilarious.

#6: A Wind Named Amnesia

This is a film that, for reasons of idiocy, I checked out after having seen the review. Really, after having to sit through this mass of pretentious twaddle with its empty and sickening platitudes about the human condition, not to mention the piss-poor conclusion that the story comes to, I fully understand Sage’s anger with this one. It also helps that seeing someone else tear this thing a new one is hella satisfying as well.

#5: Fake

Have to admit, this is probably the last place I was expecting to find some amazingly poignant statements about the depiction of gay characters in fiction, even in porn. And yet, his espousing about how yaoi titles are tailored for audiences that can’t participate in such courtships is genuinely fascinating, especially when you consider that this isn’t limited just to homosexual guys. In lieu of a long rant that would take a whole other post to get everything across, I’ll just say that you’d be surprised how little lesbian porn out there is actually made for lesbians, rather than straight guys.

#4: Twilight Of The Cockroaches

This entire review is done as a send-up to the Simpsons spin-off show The Critic. And yet, this video is extremely funny even if you don’t know anything about the original show; I should know, as I still haven’t watched any episodes of the show yet and I still found this to be awesome. Sage’s performance is top-notch, but I honestly love Neer in this review as he probably gets some of the best lines of the entire series.

#3: Memories

So far, I’ve covered a few videos that have honestly changed how I view media; this is another one in that grouping. Through looking at this anthology’s utter mastery of the animated medium, between the artistry of Millennium Rose, the slapstick of Stink Bomb and the experimentation of Cannon Fodder, he also explains about the finer points of animation that, since seeing it just a short amount of time ago, has given me a better understanding of animation than I had before watching it.

#2: Violence Jack [N&B]

A seriously risky venture on Sage’s part who, after spending months setting up his review of the almost legendarily awful of Violence Jack, instead made a video that was a dramatization of the making of the review. While some viewers were (somewhat reasonably) pissed off by this decision, I and many others found merit in the legitimate drama that went into this thing. From Sage’s conviction in showing the dilemma he’s in when it comes to showing the review, to Neer playing the raging superego that insists he completes it to Gabe in one of his less butt-monkey roles as the emotional support, this is a wrenching watch that is honestly more engaging than a slew of the stuff that he ends up reviewing. As if that feat of outdoing his opposition wasn’t good enough, the video itself ends on a note that is seriously tear-jerking in how well it’s played.

#1: Video Girl Ai [N&B]

How in the hell do you outdo the finesse of the Violence Jack “review”? Well, making one of the most comforting videos of all time is a good way to go. Seriously, with how easily the subject matter lends itself to cheap laughs at the expense of others, the way he gives it a disarming amount of pathos is worth all the kudos I can bestow unto him. He talks about how different people cope with their lives, from movies to anime to… well, video girls, and the way he is able to normalize all of it and even takes time to give comfort to people that may relate to such a title is insanely admirable. This, in my humble opinion, is the highest dramatic point of Sage’s karmic character arc. After spending so long having to pay for his past sins and actions, with the mental strain of his demons and his want to redeem himself regularly causing him to mentally break down mid-review, this is the point where he reaches utter redemption and shows humility and compassion where few people do. He may have continued making mental freakout reviews later on, but I still consider this to be his ultimate moment in terms of development; it is just plain heart-warming to hear this guy speak in such a tone.

Since we’re already look at reviewers of Japanese media that may be somewhat underappreciated for his legitimate talents, time to dive even deeper into that pool next time with a look at a reviewer that is well and truly underrated.

When Marnie Was There (2015) - Movie Review

 

Even if you’re too hesitant to venture further into the world of magical girls and giant robots, Studio Ghibli is that rare exception that demands respect from everyone. Comparable to the Disney of Japan, its filmography are among the most definitive of the entire art form, from its fantastical marvels like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away to its more heart-rending productions like Grave Of The Fireflies. New releases from this studio are looked forward to as much as Wes Anderson films in film buff circles. So, when news hit that not only was the head honcho Hayao Miyazaki going on hiatus but the rest of the studio as well, otaku the world over felt a collective tear form in the corner of their eye. Given all of this information, today’s subject has a lot of weight to it as, potentially, the last film that Studio Ghibli ever releases. It’s not Miyazaki, but that doesn’t change the clout the name ‘Ghibli’ has, so this had better be damn good. This is When Marnie Was There.

Pokémon The Movie: Hoopa And The Clash Of Ages (2015) - Movie Review

With how sequelised Hollywood apparently is nowadays, it’s understandable to get a sense of déjà vu from any given film. Or, to be accurate, to worry about getting that sense of déjà vu from any given film. If you’ve seen one horrible piece of fossilised pelican faeces masquerading as a love story, you’ve seen them all. However, every once in a while, a film comes along that offers a better-than-average chance of proving my assumptions right. And, of course, this is yet another example where I happily accept the idea of being wrong: The latest Pokémon movie. Yep, we’re shooting for No. 18 this time around, as if this franchise isn’t already reaching Disney levels of money-grubbing prevalence. Really, the best I can hope for is that this isn’t quite as crap as last year’s effort.

Dragonball Z: Resurrection 'F' (2015) - Movie Review

Pokémon The Movie: Diancie And The Cocoon Of Destruction (2014) - Movie Review

Pokémon: A franchise so big that it may one day topple Japan’s own government; a TV show that is one of the few anime series that everyone knows about, guaranteed; and a game series that has a special place in the hearts of children and man-children alike. Yes, Pokémon is all of these things and I am a fan of the games myself. I specify ‘games’ because the TV show isn’t really my thing. Honestly, out of all the different anime titles that we grew up on (Yu-Gi-Oh!, Digimon, Dragon Ball Z, etc.), as a show Pokémon would have to be the weakest. Don’t get me wrong: The games are still awesome, even though with the advent of ‘Mega Evolutions’, my mother’s outcries that Pokémon and Digimon are exactly the same is starting to make too much sense, and while I haven’t played any games past Emerald (I kind of fell out with portable gaming somewhere down the track), I do still find myself playing homebrews on my computer (Zeta/Omicron is pretty damn good). So, with the 17^th instalment of the Pokémon movie series coming out at my local cinema, I decided to head out with a couple of friends and check it out.