Shin Kamen Rider (2023) - Movie Review

Where Shin Ultraman looked at superheroes as an ideal, tapping into the loftiness tied to a lot of DC superheroes and even some of the cosmic areas of Marvel’s continuity, Shin Kamen Rider is a more street-level affair. It’s just as indebted to the styles of its predecessors, from the high-flying low-angle shots to the often-jarring scene transitions mid-fight scene, but with a much darker tone. Well, that and a much bloodier presentation; the first major fight scene involves a lot of goons being punched and expelling clouds of gore, and the fights to follow are just as visceral.

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.