Tokyo Mew Mew New Episode 6: Hear My Voice! I Will Surpass Myself Review

Probably my favorite episode so far. I love what they did to this story, and it shows growth in both Zakuro and Mint.

One of the issues that I had with the original versions of this story is that Mint doesn’t get to be that involved with the resolution. Ichigo, as leader/main character, gets to the be the one who inspires and convinces Zakuro to join their team.

In this version, however, Mint is the one taking center stage, and she subverts your expectations. Instead of desperately trying to convince Zakuro to join them, Mint shows that she understands where Zakuro is coming from, respects her decisions and just wants to protect her so she can do what she actually wants to do. She merely asks if she’ll allow them to protect her from Kisshu – doing what they do best and what they want to do.

From what she said in the previous episode, it makes perfect sense that she’d decide against pestering Zakuro to join them and just let her do what she wants and find her own way. They can have all the faith in the world that Zakuro will be an ally and a fellow Mew Mew someday, but that’s her own choice to make.

Not only was this a very mature and respectful choice, but Zakuro was extremely impressed if not captivated by how fierce and determined Mint was when telling her this. Mint’s demeanor and expression were the polar opposite of the starstruck fangirl lost in a fantasy that Zakuro saw before. Mint had become more mature and stronger, which is something Zakuro also wants for herself.

When she saw how hard Mint was fighting to protect her, even getting hurt in the process, it struck a chord with Zakuro and gave her the drive to transform and join the fight. I thought this was a fantastic reimagining of Zakuro’s origin story, and it really made me feel like the other Mews truly do have more agency and purpose in this show instead of just being props to support The Ichigo Show.

Also, I DEFINITELY like this more than the 4Kids dub that insinuated that Zakuro/Renee was forced by her Mew Mew nature to protect the other Mews and join them.

I also love how the other Mew Mews had unwavering faith in Mint and supported her in whatever her decision was with Zakuro. It really shows how much their friendship has truly grown.

While I did really love this episode, there were some weak points. I think the antics of running around trying to sneak into the studio were drawn out a bit too long. It was entertaining, but it just felt like they were twiddling their thumbs after a while.

Also, Kisshu’s plan, while at least being less random this time around, was clearly not planned very well. He didn’t have an actual Chimera Anima this time. All he had were the Parasite Animas. We did learn that the parasites can merge into a giant insectoid creature, which is cool, but you’d think Kisshu would be better prepared with actual Chimera Animas to try to assassinate a Mew Mew, especially knowing the other four were likely going to be there to defend her.

The music stuff cannot shake this tinge of commercialism. The music sequences fit better in this episode than they did in episode four, but it still feels like it’s a bit crammed in there for the sake of soundtrack sales…..I did like the song, but I can’t help but feel that way.

Finally, you can’t tell me the cameras didn’t catch Zakuro transforming. In the original anime, she ran off and transformed to save the others. I didn’t catch this before, apparently, but she also transforms in front of the cameras in the manga. Zakuro’s identity should 100% be revealed right now. In the anime, she was even on a stage with spotlights on her when she transformed.

All in all, I really love this version of the story, and I’m still really enjoying this reboot so far. Onto episode seven!

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Tokyo Mew Mew New Episode 5: Smile, Mint! A Fancy Lady, Forlorn Review

Wow…..This episode was great.

Mint-centric stories tend to be hit or miss with me usually because, on one hand, she has some of the deepest development and layers of the main characters, but on the other hand she still frequently reverts back to just being her annoying and spoiled self.

This episode basically melds her original origin story with the episode where she deals with Zakuro rejecting them and calling her annoying. Not only does it manage to do that without being clunky and weird, but it makes its own unique story and shines brighter than the previous two stories.

After Zakuro rejects the invitation to be a Mew Mew and calls Mint annoying, it sends Mint into a depression. She’s doing her best to cover it up by working and being generally pleasant, but her friends know something is very wrong with her. To cheer her up, they visit her at her mansion.

Mint initially is annoyed by them, not understanding their efforts in cheering her up or hanging out with her. The situation is made worse by the presence of her older brother, Seiji. He was a one-off character in the original anime they brought over into the reboot, which is something I welcome because I think Mint having a brother creates an interesting dynamic for her.

Seiji is a very sweet kid. He’s extremely polite, accommodating and kind to the girls while clearly loving his sister very much. However, Mint hates the fact that Seiji treats her like a little kid who needs constant protection and guidance and can’t be trusted to do things on her own. A mindset that is particularly weird considering she’s literally being brought up with intentions on making her an important figurehead in her father’s massively successful company alongside Seiji.

I dunno if the idea is that Seiji is doing all of the legwork and actual training and studying while Mint will just be able to pop in and have her brother take care of everything while she coasts or something.

Being brought up in an incredibly rich household does tend to breed sheltered children who just inherit powerful jobs because their parents give them those positions. Many times, they really don’t have to do much in life because their parents will pay for everything. Maybe they have to put in an effort at school, but, sadly, even that seems more unlikely every day.

Having the foresight to look at yourself in that situation and actually be sad that everyone around you pretty much just wants you to be taken care of instead of allowing you to take care of yourself would certainly be frustrating. Many kids would just gladly accept the free pass through life. Her parents don’t care at all about her own desires and are basically just shaping her into what they want her to be.

When she found out she was a Mew Mew and Shirogane and Akasaka told them they needed her to help save the world, her outlook changed drastically because that was the first time anyone had ever told her they needed her.

While this is a great change to Mint’s origins, it’s also disappointing because we never really get to see the circumstances surrounding how she became the first Mew Mew. Maybe this will be covered in a future episode, but I’m starting to really doubt it.

A few years prior to the start of the series, she discovered Zakuro and was enamored by how strong-willed and independent she was despite being ‘the same age’ as her…..Gonna question the ‘same age’ thing pretty hard because Zakuro may have been aged down a tad between versions, but she certainly still looks a couple years older than the other girls. I mean, look at Zakuro in that video in the flashback and compare how Mint looks.

Anyway, finding out Zakuro was a fellow Mew Mew was a huge moment for her. When Zakuro not only turned them down but called her annoying, she was obviously gobsmacked. However, she took the time afterward to try and understand why Zakuro would say that. Then she realized that she was putting Zakuro on a pedestal. Despite loving her from a distance, she had no idea who Zakuro truly was as a person outside of her public persona. She just made assumptions about her and pushed her own desires for Zakuro onto her without learning what she wants or respecting her views, so of course Zakuro would see her as annoying.

That last part I inferred on my own because she stops the explanations at the part where she explained she didn’t know anything about her besides her public persona, but it was implied that’s what she was going for.

All of this is being conveyed to Ichigo, Pudding and Lettuce during a really sweet and emotional extended conversation that they were having during a sleepover.

I really appreciate that they actually took the time to stop for a bit and analyze Mint’s reaction and thoughts on what happened with Zakuro because they really didn’t do much with it in the original anime. She was just sad until Ichigo convinced Zakuro to join up with them.

The scene is similar in the manga, as far as I remember, but they only really have them coming over to cheer Mint up and starting a pillow fight. They didn’t have a long conversation between the pillow fight and Kisshu’s appearance like they do here.

It may sound weird that I’m appreciating a mere conversation being included here, but I don’t think we ever got enough of the girls just talking regularly and having deep conversations without it being about Mew Mew stuff or Ichigo and Aoyama. I think scenes like these are really necessary to help solidify the friendship between the group, especially when all too often it felt like the girls weren’t organically a collective group friends instead of just being support for Ichigo.

The weakest part of the episode happens after this conversation. Kisshu just shows up out of nowhere, asks Ichigo on a date, then he turns Mickey (Mint’s dog) into a Chimera Animal when she says no. They really couldn’t think of any better way of introducing the conflict into the episode. No big evil plan or anything – just ‘Date me Ichigo!’ ‘No!’ ‘Oh whatever then. Guess I’ll try to kill you all.’

He did basically the same thing in the last episode. What gives?

They transform, and we get a slight glimpse into Lettuce’s transformation. From what I saw of it, it seems pretty cool. She’s swimming like a mermaid, and her flip before what I think is probably the shot before her pose is all underwater. Really want to see the full version, but looks cool so far.

They try to battle Mickey, but Mint doesn’t have the heart to do so, not wanting to hurt her dog. None of the others can attack Mickey either because of Mint’s apprehension. You’d think if one of them would be suitable for this job it’d be Pudding. Her attack just encases in the enemy in gelatin.

Either way, it looks like the girls are legitimately screwed for a bit. They just keep getting viciously smacked away and can’t hope to overpower Mickey without their Mew Mew abilities. They are totally reliant on Mint making the choice to step up and do what she has to in order to save all of them.

This is certainly a tough choice, even if she knows Mickey won’t die. (I’ve never seen any of the animals they free from being a Chimera Animal be severely hurt or killed) she still has to hurt him a little in order to free him. The other girls obviously don’t want to hurt Mint’s dog, so they leave the decision in her hands, knowing she’ll do what’s right for everyone. And she does. She saves Mickey. She saves her friends. Everything’s good again.

Kisshu decides to take advantage of Ichigo’s weakened state to try and kidnap her, but Mint isn’t having that. She declares Ichigo as a good friend of hers, which is a big deal considering she denied calling them her friends before to her brother. She threatens Kisshu with her bow, forcing him to leave, but not until he makes it clear that he’s going to kill Zakuro next so she will never be able to join their team.

So yeah outside of the laughably weak motivations for Kisshu’s appearance and the slight disappointment that is the possibility that this is the only glimpse into Mint’s new Mew Mew origin story, this was a really great episode for both Mint and their friendship group as a whole.

I really enjoyed it, and I hope these types of episodes keep coming.

Next time, can the Mew Mews save Zakuro and convince her to join their team?

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AniManga Clash! Yu-Gi-Oh! Season Zero Episode 20 (Placeholder Review)

We’ve finally gotten to the last of Kaiba’s Shitennou – Daimon – and this one’s pretty intriguing. Daimon is basically Kaiba’s surrogate grandfather/mentor, much like Sugoroku is to Yugi. Ever since Kaiba was a child, Daimon taught him everything he knew about games. Back then, Kaiba had a deep and sincere kindness and passion for gaming, but the kindness in his heart vanished over time.

Daimon was very elderly and sick even when Kaiba was a child. You may be wondering how Daimon is Kaiba’s last Shittenou if he was so badly off even back when Kaiba was young. Surely, there’s no way he’s alive now, let alone strong enough to be Kaiba’s Shitennou.

Well, Kaiba loaded him up with cybernetic organs and synthetic….stuff flowing through his veins that allow him to live even though, by Daimon’s own admission, he should have died a long time ago, and is basically a walking corpse. Even a doctor says as much. Daimon has to, for lack of a better word, charge or hibernate in a special pod for most of his day. He can only last about three hours outside of the pod before he is back on death’s door.

Basically, Kaiba turned his mentor into a cybernetic zombie, and that is insane and awesome on levels I can’t even fathom.

Kaiba remains to have a lot of respect for his mentor, enough to do all of this to make him his final Shitennou, but it’s clear his kindness and caring are mostly gone even for someone as important to his past as Daimon.

The only manga note in this episode comes from chapter 40. In the chapter, Mokuba recaps his and Seto’s history, eventually leading up to Kaiba taking over the company behind Gozaburo’s back. In the manga, when he’s faced with this betrayal, Gozaburo commits suicide by smashing himself through the window and falling several stories to his death. He’d rather die on his terms than accept failure. In the anime, we get this scene in real time, not a flashback. However, in this version, Gozaburo is too scared at the concept of dying once he reaches the window and has a heart attack, which seemingly kills him. (Daimon says he wishes to pay his respects to Gozaboro immediately after this happens, so I assume he’s dead.)

Despite the fact that I do like Daimon and really wish he was a character who had been carried over into the 2000 anime, this episode is pretty darn bland. It’s a shame considering it’s the final Shitennou showdown.

A good chunk of the episode is taken up by Daimon and Kaiba’s backstories together. Then Yugi kinda causes Daimon’s car to crash by walking out in the middle of the street to get to a game store.

Daimon’s unconscious when the car crashes and is taken to a hospital. Yugi waits in tormented anguish thinking he’s either badly hurt or killed someone, but the doctor rather non-nonchalantly tells him it’s no big deal because he was already dead before the crash. (By the way, they never say if the driver was okay.) He explains all of the tech and surgeries that are being used to keep him alive long beyond his intended death.

Daimon wakes up and reveals he’s mostly fine. He immediately challenges Yugi to a game of Duel Monsters when he sees the cards in his pocket. Daimon manages to win, but he respects and admires Yugi because he reminds him of Kaiba when he was younger.

Later, Anzu and Yugi go to an amusement park together, and once again Anzu notes that Yugi acts like a little kid and longs to meet “Cool Yugi” once more…..*sigh* Also, she’s a damsel in distress in this episode because why the hell not?

They enter a monster house because Yugi thinks it will scare Anzu and get her cuddling up with him, but he’s disappointed when she starts petting the giant monster animatronics and saying they’re cute.

One of the monster robots grabs Anzu, puts her head in its mouth and she passes out. Kaiba and Daimon reveal themselves in a dome above them, and Kaiba tells Yugi to duel Daimon or else he’ll crush Anzu’s head in the robot’s mouth. Also, the dome somehow reads their minds, and this ability somehow creates perfect holograms of the monsters and everything they’re playing, because I guess that’s literally the only thing they’re thinking about.

Shadow Game (Not Really)

It’s just a simple game of Duel Monsters, so…..yeah none of it makes any sense. They don’t even keep track of the Life Points at all. It’s ridiculous, quite frankly. Out of all the duels so far, this is probably the one with the least amount of explanations outside of that first montage duel Yugi had with the first Shitennou. It’s a little insulting that this episode is all about people who have a great respect and passion for games but then when it comes to depicting one they’re just like “Yeah, just show monsters doing shit. I don’t care.”

Because it takes a staggering 16 minutes before any duel actually happens, they have to slam that gas pedal and rush through this duel. I’m going to try and go through this duel turn by turn to see if I can make actual sense of it.

Daimon sets one card face down (Yes, they finally start using that mechanic, although he doesn’t declare this part of the move.) and then summons Skull Bat with an ATK of 800.

Yugi, now Yami, plays King Rex with an ATK of 1200 and declares an attack.

Daimon states that the attack of the King Rex triggers his trap, Golgotha’s Punishment, which immobilizes King Rex. Also, Skull Bat is able to defeat King Rex now for some reason. I tried to translate the text on the card with Google Translate, but the footage is too low quality, and Daimon’s thumb is covering half of it. The Wiki just says it reduces the enemy’s ATK by “???” I do see an 8 at least, and maybe a 7, but that’s about it.

Either way, they don’t update the Life Point counter, so there’s no way to tell. It has to be more than a 400 point reduction, though, given the ATK point differences between the two at base stats.

Yami plays Big Tree in defense mode with 600 DEF points.

Daimon then summons Bloody Zombie with an ATK of 700 and attacks the Big Tree. Yami activates the trap card he DIDN’T SET FIRST. So glad the continuity is as pristine as ever. The trap is called Miraculous Water, and unlike Golgotha’s Punishment, we actually know what the text on this card says…..and it’s just useless flavor text. “Those who go against its torrents are swallowed up,

and in time give water to the earth.” How the hell does anyone know what traps and magic cards do if they don’t have their effects written on the card?

This is one of the bullshittier cards. Miraculous Water causes a wave to wash over the opposing monster that triggered the trap and destroy them. Not only that, but the water also feeds the tree, prompting it to create and drop seeds. These seeds sprout, and the plant that grows from it destroys the Skull Bat.

Being fair, yeah, that is kinda what the flavor text describes, but if someone did that and pointed to the flavor text as the true explanation, I’d call bullshit. I could believe it destroys the attacking enemy and powers up earth-based creatures, but it doesn’t imply anything about immediately destroying other monsters.

Anyway, again, I can’t determine any Life Point changes here, if there are any.

After this turn, Daimon doubles over in pain. He’s spent too much time outside of his pod and is starting to deteriorate. Kaiba immediately activates a series of tubes that pump Daimon with probably a liter or more of intense painkiller that allows him to continue.

To help him along, Kaiba puts an extremely obvious visor over Daimon’s eyes that allow him to see Yami’s cards. It’s so obvious, in fact, that Kaiba might as well just stand behind Yami and yell out each card he draws. Kaiba, why bother keeping Daimon alive for the express purpose of using his awesome gaming skills to defeat Yugi if you’re just going to encourage him to cheat?

Daimon refuses to use the visor since he’s an honorable duelist who would never resort to cheating.

Daimon plays his…..Isn’t it Yami’s turn?……..Whatever, Daimon plays Golden Pegasus in attack mode with an ATK power of…..uhhh…..Dammit, this series needs to be released in HD.

According to the Wiki….it’s…..000?….Uh….okay…..Why the actual hell would Daimon, this supposed game master, play a monster with no ATK points in ATTACK MODE?

Yami plays Devil Dragon, which, considering it’s just Koumori Dragon, I know has 1500 attack.

The dragon beats the pegasus, so, at the very least, Daimon should be sitting at 500 LP.

Daimon then summons Fairy Ophelia in attack mode with 350 ATK. Devil Dragon defeats it, and Yami wins.

Nevermind. I thought I was watching a duel that followed rules and logic. Silly me.

Daimon then summons Bug Demonmyst with 200 ATK and 400 DEF, but I don’t know what mode it was in.

Devil Dragon also makes quick work of the bug.

Yami wonders what Daimon is doing summoning weak monsters that will obviously fall to his dragon, and Daimon reveals his secret strategy. He summons Zombiemaster, which resurrects all of the fallen monsters over the course of the duel (from the player’s graveyard) and absorbs their power. The Wiki says it gives Zombiemaster “????” amount of ATK points for each monster and allows multiple attacks per monster resurrected. However, if it is as Daimon explained it, that would mean he’d get 350+200+literally zero added onto 500, which is 1050, which isn’t enough to defeat Devil Dragon.

Whatever, he defeats Devil Dragon.

On Yami’s next turn, he summons three monsters in attack mode.

The first is King Beetle with 1400 ATK, the second is Dark Mammoth (I think) with 600 ATK and the final monster is Mushroom Man with 800 ATK.

Daimon defeats all of them in one swoop because, apparently, another effect Zombiemaster has is being able to attack multiple times in a single turn depending on how many monsters he resurrected with it.

Yami uses Revive the Dead on Fairy Ophelia, which….I don’t think he can do because, at the moment, Fairy Ophelia is not dead. It was ‘resurrected’ by Zombiemaster, was it not? I guess the Wiki acts as if the monsters are more representations of Zombiemaster’s acquired power than actually resurrected, and, looking at the field, Daimon only has two cards out, so maybe that is right.

Anyhoo, Yami revives Fairy Ophelia, which reduces Zombiemaster’s power by whatever since it has one less monster in the graveyard to draw power from.

Yami: “If the dead are revived, Zombiemaster loses its power. Its power returns to normal.” Huh….does that mean Zombiemaster needs at least three monsters in the graveyard for its ability to work at all?

Yami uses Flute of Light on his new Fairy Ophelia which lets himmm…..*Translates flavor text* “Sacred timbre becomes light and evokes the true power of fairies.” …..Hmmmm…….pbbbbbttttttttt….He wins okay?

Daimon collapses after the defeat, and Kaiba walks away, seemingly not caring that his once beloved mentor and grandfather figure is on the floor dying. Yami comes up to him, and Daimon takes his hand pleading with Yami to return the kindness that he knows Kaiba still has deep within him. Meanwhile, Kaiba’s outside stepping on some kid’s orange that fell on the ground. Guys, he’s abandoning his dying mentor because he lost a card game. We don’t need bonus proof Kaiba’s a dick.

It’s implied that Daimon dies in Yami’s arms, and Anzu is freed from the robots. She’s been passed out this whole time? Someone get Anzu to a hospital. That’s not normal.

And, uh, that’s it.

Not much else to say, really. Oh, they do tease Kaiba Land, which will be important for the second to last arc, but other than that, that’s it.

Again, it’s a shame they never implemented Daimon into the reboot. There was a good opportunity there for some extra humanity points for Kaiba instead of just relying on his bond with Mokuba.

Poor Daimon all around, really. The guy chooses to live a sad existence spending most of his time in a pod, only being let out when he’s needed to play games or test Kaiba’s new equipment. And all just to do whatever he can to turn Kaiba back to the kind kid he knew before he passes on, which he couldn’t do. It’s really sad.

Next time, Kaiba kidnaps Yugi’s grandpa and starts the events of the final arc, the Death-T trials in Kaiba Land.

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Here is Greenwood Review

Plot: Kazuya Hasukawa has enrolled in the prestigious all-boys Ryukuto Academy and is placed in the infamous Greenwood dormitory, known for having odd students living there (Like a guy who carries around a motorcycle in the dorms because there’s no garage….and yes, he carries it. Like a sack of potatoes.) The reason that Hasukawa has entered into this school is to avoid living at home. He claims at first that it’s because he doesn’t want to basically be a third wheel in a household with his older brother since he recently got married and continues to live in the same house. However, it’s later revealed that he’s in love with his brother’s wife and can’t stand to live in the same house with the two of them because of that.

Now Hasukawa has to deal with his family as well as the students living in Greenwood.

Breakdown: Damn it’s hard to find slice-of-life shows that have male casts.

No, I’m not including sports themed anime, and I’m iffy about including reverse harems. I mean actual slice-of-life. It’s a genre very much saturated with shows featuring all (or mostly) female casts aimed at girls. In fact, if there is a boy in there he’s usually either a target for abuse, a token guy who’s completely forgettable or a love interest. I can’t even think of one that meets the criteria that has an all-male cast besides what I’m featuring today. I’m sure there are some, but I very rarely come across them in my watchings.

It’s pretty refreshing actually. While I do tend to enjoy many slice-of-life shows, I won’t deny that many of them are hard to relate to because the girls seem to look and act more like they’re young children than the teenagers they supposedly are. And it seems alienating to the guys out there. I’m certain a bunch of all-girl slice-of-life shows can be enjoyed by any gender, but the boys need some limelight sometimes.

Did they get it?

Very much so, in my opinion.

Yes, finally another lost gem in OVA town. Here is Greenwood is a show I was skeptical about. It didn’t seem to have anything special going for it in the first chunk of episode one, but the show quickly grows on you, and you soon come to love all of the characters and their antics. This is especially impressive as this is a mere six episode series.

Don’t be fooled by the plot either. The series isn’t centered too much on Hasukawa. There are four other main characters that the show puts focus on.

Shinobu is our resident cool, strong silent type. He tends to offer mature and sometimes blunt advice to the boys when they get into binds. His main shtick isn’t so much his. He has a sister who hates his guts and is completely obsessed with making him look bad. And when I say “obsessed,” I mean she’s perfectly fine with kidnapping kids and holding them hostage merely to force Shinobu into doing something embarrassing and catching it on video. The real joke with that is that Shinobu doesn’t take her seriously at all and takes every opportunity to (cooly) tease her.

Mitsuru is the resident ladies man, though it’s not like you see that much considering they go to an all-boys school. Otherwise, Mitsuru is the troublemaker of the group, but is actually pretty mature and older-brother-like to the group as well.

Shun is Hasukawa’s roommate and the focus of a lot of the comedy when he’s on screen. In fact, he’s the focus of the main joke of the first half of episode one. Shun looks very feminine, so they play a prank on Hasukawa utilizing this. Much of the jokes involving Shun involve his feminine looks and mannerisms. His little brother actually looks and acts more like a girl than he does. I realize that this aspect has not aged well, but I don’t think any of the humor in this realm is particularly offensive. I might not be the perfect person to judge that, though, so take my view with a grain of salt. He’s fairly immature and blunt and especially likes teasing Hasukawa.

Hasukawa himself is a bit abrasive, but he grows on you. He just tends to be too serious and grumpy.

All of the characters have great chemistry, exchange good banter, and they click very well very quickly.

The comedy hits the mark quite often. There aren’t that many instances of stale or cliché humor, which is pretty impressive for a show made in 1991 (and finished airing in 1993. Wow.) And there are heartwarming moments every now and then.

I will mention something that’s not really a negative but moreso a point of confusion. You quickly fall under the impression that this show is more or less a full-on comedy show for the majority of it. You get that idea because little to nothing happens for most of the runtime that is serious at all. Then the last two episodes show up and they’re almost entirely drama/romance. It’s kinda jarring.

However, despite the drastic and sudden tone shift, it’s honestly not a bad point because the final two episodes are handled fairly well. It’s a two-parter (considering most of the show has been more or less episodic so far) that focuses on Hasukawa meeting with an old friend of Mitsuru named Miya Igarashi who has fallen into some trouble with a gang. He falls in love with her, but it turns out that she has a very caring boyfriend.

The arc is very interesting and even suspenseful because you’re really rooting for him to finally break free of his attachment to his brother’s wife, Sumire, and be together with someone actually appropriate who seems to like him back.

The boyfriend in question is one who is a long-standing childhood friend adored by her mother and is seemingly so kind and perfect that you know practically from the first scene that there has to be something wrong with him.

And there is. That’s basically the one big problem I had with the ending. Spoilertown.

They could’ve just worked it out maturely, had Tenma hurt but understanding and still be a good friend to Igarashi and maybe even Hasukawa, but as predicted, the boyfriend, Tenma, just turns out to be a controlling jerk. He does seem to care about Igarashi, but he seems to care more about his stance in Igarashi’s life and family than he does her as a person. He hides a letter from Hasukawa to Igarashi to keep them apart, and when Igarashi admits to Tenma that she loves Hasukawa, his exact words are ‘Really? So what?’ So yeah, he turns out to be a complete jackass that you don’t care ends up getting dumped in the end.

End of spoilertown.

Art and Animation: The art is okay, nothing special. But the color palette is kinda ugly. Maybe it’s just poor aging but the colors seem washed out, and many of color choices just seem awful. Hasukawa was actually distracting me with his apple-red hair and peach-pink eyes. The animation is done by Studio Pierrot and it’s just as eh as you’d think an early Pierrot would usually be. Luckily SOLs don’t require much in terms of animation, but it’s still shaky, jumpy, and you can see several spots where they cut corners like their infamous stillshots.

Music: Nothing really special, but it was kinda catchy.

Voice Acting: Japanese (Though apparently this OVA has two different English dubs, one by TAJ and another by Bang Zoom! Entertainment.) Everyone was very good and fitting in their roles.

Nozomu Sasaki, voice of Hasukawa, was the voice of Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho and Shadi from Yu-Gi-Oh.

Chika Sakamoto sounds just right as Shun. Chika also voiced Nuriko from Fushigi Yuugi.

Mitsuo Imata, Mitsuru, also voiced Cyborg 008 in Cyborg 009.

Finally, Toshihiko Seki, Shinobu, also voiced Legato from Trigun, Watari from Yami no Matsuei and Iruka from Naruto.

Bottom Line: This is a great and funny OVA that I would gladly watch again. It’s a bit old, which may put off some people, but I personally like it. Like I’ve said before, I’m a bit of a sucker for the older art styles and just older titles in general. They just create a homey atmosphere. The show has a little bit of everything for everyone. There’s even a fantasy adventure plotline wonderfully stitched into the show as a movie some of their classmates are filming. At six episodes, there’s really no reason not to give it a shot, and I gladly recommend it.

Additional Information and Notes: Here is Greenwood was directed and written by Tomomi Mochizuki. It was produced by Studio Pierrot, and while the dub was originally made by Media Blasters, it is currently not licensed in America.

Episodes: 6

Year: 1991-1993

Recommended Audience: There’s completely censored nudity once or twice in the bath. One slightly off-putting plotline involving Shun’s younger brother in terms of very light hints of pedophilia. Other than that, nothing really. 8+

Tokyo Mew Mew New Episode 4: Who Doesn’t Want to Be Her? Our Last Remaining Member is a Huge Star! Review

This episode was the first one that mostly disappointed me. Not saying I hated it, but it was weird and didn’t feel like it knew what it was trying to do with Zakuro.

First and foremost, Zakuro is now primarily a singer, like in the dub of the original anime, instead of being primarily a model/actress which is fine, but I almost feel like they made this decision purely for OST purposes. I say this because that song she sang during the auditions could not have felt more out of place and commercial. It literally was edited to look like an end credits sequence in an anime. Why would she just break out into song like that?

In the original series, she got up on stage to show the girls, who were dancing, dance moves as an example or inspiration, and she did it on request of the other judges. But their role in this version was to act in a scene, not sing. Zakuro comes in of her own accord, does part of the scene and then breaks out into a long song number. I was so confused when she started doing this. It came off so much more like she was just showing off (and somehow had the proper musical accompaniment on standby) than setting an example for the girls (even if they told her later that her performance allowed them to continue their scene.)

Second, did they completely remove the religious aspect of her character? There was absolutely no hint of it in this episode. She didn’t even wear her cross. Her weapon is a still a cross, but did they just keep it that way because it’s the way the weapon was originally designed?

Third, Zakuro’s actual debut was a little weird as well. A wolf, that was somehow howling on top of a nearby building, is what triggered her transformation? Excuse me? What is that about? I get that she was in danger either way, and that triggers transformation, but they purposefully framed it to make it seem like hearing the wolf put her over the edge.

Speaking of her transformation, it was ridiculously short. Is that all there is to it? It can’t be…..right? It’s not a bad transformation, I just felt like it was super short and like she didn’t get to finish it.

As for her new design…………….I….don’t…..like it. When she’s not transformed, she looks perfectly fine. She barely looks any different from the way she used to look. Transformed, now that’s a different story. I honestly can’t pinpoint anything I really like about her new look, which is pretty damn weird for the model.

Technically, they didn’t change much. She still has basically the same outfit – the tube top, the shorts, the long boots. However. Her shorts in this version seem like they’re way too short. Like they would come off if she actually did run on all fours like she does sometimes. Not that she ever could run like that in those platform boots. Her old boots had a heel to them too, but not a high full platform. Honestly, the running comment is being a bit generous. They pretty much look like they require censorship if she moved the wrong way even slightly.

And why does she get to keep her shorts but Pudding doesn’t?

But what really kills it for me is her hair. Who the hell approved her hair? It is WAY too long and does not, in any manner, convey “wolf.” Granted, her old hairstyle didn’t convey that either, but her hair unreasonably long. It shouldn’t cover the floor when she kneels down. It very nearly touches the floor when she’s standing. That’s so ridiculously non-conducive to battle situations it makes me a little upset. Actually, forget battle situations. That looks like it’d be annoying to deal with just walking around.

I agree that her hair being in a ponytail is a good decision, but that practical decision is ruined 100x over by giving her ten feet of hair.

I don’t even particularly care for the ribbon in her hair. The one on her neck is fine, but the one in her hair just seems unfitting

And to cap it all off, her flute looks weird, too. I guess it looks more like a flute of some kind, but the end of it looks too wide. Unless that was just the animation for this episode making it look particularly awkward.

Kisshu’s attack was pretty pathetic. He comes out of nowhere and attacked with a bunch of Chimera Crows. It was just a bunch of more-or-less regular crows that were controlled. They weren’t particularly monstrous.

Pudding was annoying in this episode too. I get that her ruining the audition was in the manga and the original anime, but that doesn’t make it less annoying. And then they have her ruining Mint’s attack during the battle and acting like it was a good thing. I usually love Pudding, but she was irritating today.

As before, Zakuro’s debut is a two-parter, so maybe the second part will make up for this episode, but as a whole it just disappointed and confused me.

Next time, Mint deals with being rejected by Zakuro.

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Tokyo Mew Mew New Episode 3: A Stolen Kiss?! Mew Pudding is Here! Review

Hmmmmm……Hm.

Today’s episode is a bit of a mixed bag. I didn’t firmly dislike anything I’m about to mention, but I feel like this could have been organized a bit better.

As I mentioned, today’s episode is Pudding’s debut, but you don’t see her until the episode is nearly half over. The rest of the episode is taken up by Aoyama and Ichigo on a date at the zoo. The date is really relatable, adorable and sweet, I just kinda wish it was in a different episode.

In the original anime, Pudding’s debut got a dedicated episode, so I don’t know what the logic was with slicing her debut in half. She’s kinda just thrown in there, too. We learn absolutely nothing about her besides the fact that she’s very energetic, desperately wants tips and is basically like a human monkey. She suddenly performs her circus routine in the zoo during Ichigo and Aoyama’s date, and Quiche also debuts to give Ichigo her kiss, further derailing the attention from Pudding.

Then Quiche turns a bunch of animals at the zoo into Chimera Animals, the girls (Lettuce and Mint show up – Lettuce doesn’t transform in this episode *pout*) try to fight them off, but there are too many. Ichigo is about to get crushed by an elephant that is either insanely slow or they purposefully slowed the footage for dramatic effect, it’s hard to tell, and Pudding transforms to save her. She also encases all the animals in the gelatin thing she makes. Really helpful of them to group up so tightly for her to target. Then Ichigo blasts them all, and that’s that. Pudding’s a Mew Mew now.

Kinda disappointing, to be honest. I guess it’s safe to assume that her backstory and whatnot will be explored more later, but, still, it’s her debut episode. Why was she shoved into the sidelines like this?

That being said, oh my god, Pudding’s so adorable in this, guys. I love her new hairstyle. I love her tiny pigtails. I love her denim suspender shorts. Her transformation – GUYS – she has like one of the cutest magical girl transformations I’ve ever seen. It’s so perfect for Pudding. I love the way her hair changes to make her braids look a little like monkey tails. I like her shoes and her socks (although….would those not be more suited for Mint? They’re basically ballet slippers.) I like her gloves, even if they are missing the faux fur.

……Okay, so someone commented somewhere (sorry, I forget where) that they didn’t care for Pudding’s new outfit, and one of the main points of contention was the fact that they changed her from a pair of shorts, or I guess it was more of a romper kinda thing (I’m sorry, I don’t know fashion), to a dress.

……and yeah, I totally agree. A dress just doesn’t fit Pudding. She jumps all over the place. She’s literally the monkey of the group. A romper type deal or something with shorts is way more preferable for both agility and avoiding showing off her underwear to everyone she sees whenever she’s hopping around in the air like Tarzan.

I also don’t really like how wide the waist is. For her age, it just looks wrong. Also, the bottom of it being that wide just makes it more awkward to wear when she’s jumping around. It will easily catch the air and flip up.

Do I prefer the original design over her new one?….In this case, yes. Her original outfit made much more sense and suited her personality more than this one does. Even the shoes/socks are better since the way the socks bunched up around the strings gave off a little bit of a circus vibe. And I really do miss her faux fur gloves, even if her new gloves are pretty cool in their own right…..are they even gloves? They’re more like wrist bands that go up over the back of her hand without wrapping around any part of her hand.

One last note about Pudding before we move on…..what the hell was that last joke about? She offered Ichigo a special medicine from her family that she suggests slipping to Aoyama without his knowing……..Is this….a date rape joke? Please tell me I’m misinterpreting. I honestly can’t imagine any innocent intention behind this suggestion. Even if it’s an aphrodisiac or something it’s still very wrong to suggest slipping to him without his consent.

Back to Ichigo and Aoyama’s date, this was very sweet. I did enjoy it quite a bit for what it was worth. They were both nervous, he was being quiet because he was nervous, neither could express how nervous they were until they were forced to address it in a more comfortable setting. It was very nice and it reflected how they’re both becoming more comfortable around each other while also realizing that that level of comfort is actually scary to a degree – a good scary. And it somehow managed to make the scene in which he gives her a bell choker not as creepy as it originally was in either the anime or the manga.

They saw a little black cat in some cat…petting…room….that they have at a zoo? It was wounded, so they wrapped up its paw in a little bandage. I dunno why they didn’t contact anyone who worked at the zoo about it, but that was nice anyway. The cat had a bell on it tied with a red ribbon. Later, when the Chimera Animals attacked, the cat came back to save Aoyama, who had been separated from Ichigo before the attack, from a Chimera Parrot. In the process, the bell fell off, and then the cat ran off.

After being shaken so badly at losing Ichigo again, and realizing she lost her own choker in the battle, he ties the bell around her neck saying that he needs the bell to ensure he never loses track of her. He then calls her his kitty, which is weird, but then he says that was a corny thing to say so I guess it’s not that bad.

I mean, it’s kinda weird to give her a literal cat bell that was on an actual cat as a necklace, but it’s a sweet gesture.

What I’m wondering is, is there something with this cat? Why did it save Aoyama? It was a bird Chimera Animal, so maybe it was just instinct, but that’s still a really weird coincidence. Also, the cat is watching them as they walk away after this interaction. I’m pretty sure this cat isn’t Shirogane because his cat form is in the ending credits and his colors don’t match this cat. Is it just a weird cat? Hm.

Anyway, I liked this episode, truly I did, but I just wish the date and Quiche had been in an episode separate from Pudding’s debut. She kinda got shafted here. Just a bit. Hope we see look more into her character soon.

Next time, Zakuro’s debut!

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Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters | Episode 1: Getting Played Review

Plot: Yugi and Téa are getting into a new game called Capsule Monsters – a spin-off (?) board game of Duel Monsters. Joey wins an all-expense paid trip to India and invites all of his friends to come along, but their plane suddenly crashes on a remote island. While everyone is okay, they’re stuck until help arrives. The group decides to explore the island while they wait, and they quickly stumble upon an unconscious man named Alex Brisbane. According to him, he was exploring a strange Egyptian-esque pyramid on the island with Yugi’s grandpa when he suddenly went missing.

Yugi and the others follow Alex into the pyramid to Solomon’s last location only to see a massive empty room with a strange map covering the floor. As he walks onto it, Joey vanishes in a flash of light. Realizing Yugi’s grandpa likely vanished the same way, Yugi, Téa and Tristan step on the map as well, following Joey and Solomon to find them and bring them home. Little do they realize that they’ve actually become trapped in the world of Capsule Monsters, and they’ll need to play the game in order to leave.

Breakdown: Ever since I did my 4Kids retrospective, I’ve wanted to completely review Capsule Monsters. I won’t be able to do an SDC on it since a Japanese version either doesn’t exist or simply isn’t available, so I thought I’d just do a simple episode-by-episode review on this…spin-off?….Season? Arc? I dunno. Whatever 4Kids intended for this to be.

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The first episode starts with Yugi having a nightmare about Yami, who is clad in gold armor for some reason, fighting a giant shadow creature, who winds up consuming him. Yugi jolts out of bed and reveals that this is a recurring nightmare. He then notices the Puzzle glowing and acting strangely.

Yugi heads out, but then remembers that his grandpa is still gone after suddenly leaving for a ‘secret’ week-long trip. He should have been home that morning, but there’s been no sign of him. Does he not have a phone or anything?

After the theme song, we get such a dramatic reveal of Joey that I really thought this was indeed meant to be a spin-off moment. There’s no reason whatsoever to reveal him so dramatically when nothing is going on. However, no one else gets such a dramatic reveal so I dunno.

Joey partakes in a street contest for a prize of some sort.

Back at school, Téa and Yugi are playing Capsule Monsters, and Téa, being the mostly stereotypical girl character she is, doesn’t bother learning how to play and only wants to play cute monsters like Happy Lover. She duels the same way, basically, but at least she roughly knows how Duel Monsters works and gives a crap about it.

Téa: “I suppose that means your soldier guy is going to fight my flying guy?” Soldier gu—That’s Celtic Guardian. You know Celtic Guardian. You’ve seen that monster tons of times.

Tristan shows up followed soon after by a super excited Joey who explains that he won three tickets for a special trip for all of them…..All four of them. I guess it’s possible that he was showing off the tickets he was offering to the others and withholding his, but why would he do that?

As they walk along, Téa thinks to herself that she has a bad feeling about their trip because whenever they go places terrible and usually supernatural things tend to happen. Well, I mean….yeah, she has a point.

She’s snapped out of her concerns by the voice of Yami, and they oddly note his sudden appearance with a chime like “Oh who cares about all those supernatural threats that tend to follow us? I have my hunky pharaoh now!”

It’s only here, right before they’re about to get on the plane, that we learn this is a six-day trip to India. Before, all he said was they were “tickets to paradise” and literally all the tickets showed were vague images of fields with stone walls with a statue in the foreground.

As they’re flying, the plane starts shaking violently and the first thing Tristan says in response to this is;

“Hey! You messed up my photo, man!”

Either he has nerves of steel, or he’s an idiot.

Their engines fail, and the plane crashes into the water below. We cut to the group, sans the pilots, on shore. Joey complains he lost all of his stuff, but uh…..how? He has a backpack, and it looks like you can still access the plane no problem. Go back and get it? I guess it’s possible that it’s all waterlogged, but if that’s the case then how were all of their backpacks left dry? Why do they even have backpacks? It sounded they were planning on a vacation not a backpacking trip.

Téa says that the pilot, who is never shown again, sent out a distress signal, but it could be hours before they’re rescued. Joey and Tristan immediately decide to leave and wander in the unknown wilderness so their trip won’t be wasted. You guys are going on a six day trip. They said it would take a few hours to get rescued. I’m sure they’d still take you to your destination. Just stay still. But of course they don’t, and I guess it’s made okay because they point out how stupid they’re being.

They stumble upon a man in black robes passed out on the ground. They give him some water and help him out when Yugi notices a black bandanna fall out of his pocket that looks identical to his grandpa’s.

Shocked, the man, Dr. Alex Brisbane, reveals that he was on an expedition with Yugi’s grandpa in the area, but he went missing….I just realized Yugi flippantly went on a six-day trip to India right after he became suspicious because his grandpa hadn’t returned home yet. He DOES have an off-screen mom, and he had to have gone home and packed. Didn’t he learn any more about grandpa’s trip or anything during that time? Was the trip literally immediately after Joey won the tickets?

As they travel with Alex to help find Solomon, Yami tells Yugi that this all seems way too suspicious. They randomly win a trip, they randomly crash, they just so happen to stumble upon the last person to see Solomon before he went missing right in the area they ‘randomly’ crashed in – it’s all too weird. Very good point, Yami. Although it’s so obvious that you really wonder why no one else has gotten suspicious before now. I mean, yeah, weird things do tend to happen to them……I was going to continue, but then I started listing all of the weird things that happen to them in my head, and realized this is probably one of the easier things to accept.

They reach a pyramid, and Alex explains that they were exploring and analyzing this weird Egyptian pyramid that somehow is in India (I assume they’re in India) when Solomon went missing. According to him, this pyramid is the tomb of Alexander the Great who was briefly crowned a pharaoh in Egypt, which is why he supposedly has a pyramid, but the mystery is why the pyramid is in the middle of the jungle instead of in Egypt.

Alexander the Great was indeed a pharaoh, and the Egyptians even named Alexandria after him and hailed him as a god after he died. However, he was mummified and buried in a tomb in Alexandria. No one knows where exactly in Alexandria the tomb is as of now, but they’re fairly certain it’s in Alexandria because several people who claimed to have visited the pyramid in the past stated it was in Alexandria.

There was a recent report in 2021 claiming the tomb had been found in Siwa, Egypt, but it hasn’t been verified, and there hasn’t been any updates on that report as of this writing.

Anyway, is anyone going to ask why two professional archaeologists went in the middle of nowhere to investigate an incredibly fascinating out-of-place pyramid that they’re theorizing is the resting place of one of the most famous historical figures ever whose tomb is so mysterious that people have referred to it as the ‘Holy grail’ of archaeological discoveries, should it be found, and went to this place entirely alone and without proper emergency equipment or communication with emergency services?

No? Okay. Moving on.

Actually, while I’m at it, why did none of them go back to the plane and notify the pilots who have radios and stuff? Yugi’s grandpa is missing and possibly hurt or worse. Can someone please make an intelligent decision?

As they wander the halls of the pyramid, Joey accidentally sets off a spike trap that nearly kills him, and Alex, whose name totally isn’t suspicious, by the way, just ignore that, remembers to mention that there are deadly traps around every corner in this place. To avoid them, they have to hang from ledges 50 feet above more spikes and scoot across the chasm as well as crawl in tunnels.

Téa is only now getting suspicious, but not of anything I’ve mentioned. She gets suspicious because Alex seems to know an awful lot about a pyramid he’s only been in once before. Yes, the one thing that’s not all that suspicious is the thing she gets suspicious about.

They reach a fork in the path – one leading up and one leading down. Alex explains that he and Solomon, being the incredibly dumb people we’ve already established them as being, decided to split up at this point. Alex would explore upstairs while Solomon explored downstairs. It’s stupid enough to split up in an unexplored tomb in the middle of the jungle, but they already knew at this point that the place was covered in lethal traps. Why the hell did they split up?

Alex eventually reached a sealed door, so he went back, but Solomon wasn’t there. He took the path down and reached a dead end where only Solomon’s bandanna lay on the floor.

They’re all adamant that Solomon has to be there somewhere, so they all head downstairs. They reach a massive room with a giant map on the floor – a detail Alex omitted from his story. They all believe, for some reason, that the room is so big that Solomon probably got lost in it, so they head off to find him……*lip smack*….The room isn’t THAT big, guys. Is it big? Yes? Is it so big someone would get lost in it? No. There are no walls, and you can clearly see the other side of the room. It’s about as big as a hockey rink. Even if, for some reason and somehow, Solomon did get lost in this room, you’d be able to see him and vice versa.

Joey rushes off to find him, but the instant his feet hit the map on the floor, it glows and Joey is sucked into it. Yugi, Téa and Tristan run off to investigate what happened, only slightly weirded out by the fact that their friend just vanished in a magical floor. Again, though, given their lives at the moment, it’s understandable that this doesn’t surprise them much. They realize that there’s an odd pattern to the map. It’s a mixture of multiple environments such as mountains, jungles and deserts. Yugi thinks that it looks familiar somehow. Alex mentions that this tomb is also said to house some sort of game. Yugi believes that it now makes perfect sense why his grandpa would come on this trip – he loves games. I think him just being an archaeologist would justify him being here, but okay.

Yugi proclaims that he’s going to enter the floor map and find his grandpa and Joey. Téa and Tristan offer to go as well, but Yugi tries to convince them not to go.

Yugi: “Thanks a lot. But I’ve been leading you guys into danger week after week for way too long.” Haha, it’s funny because Yu-Gi-Oh! used to air weekly.

Also, it’s not really your place to act like this is purely your responsibility anymore, Yugi. Joey’s lost too. Besides, if anything, it’s your grandpa’s fault. He’s a very bad archaeologist.

When they jump into the map, they wind up back in the forest, but now they have weird contraptions on their arms and belts that look like they’re meant to hold things.

They also notice strange stone pods around them, and Yugi tells Yami that he thinks something might be inside.

Before Yugi can investigate further, they’re suddenly attacked by three monsters.

Yugi: “I recognize those things!” Yeah, you should. They’re Gokibore, some of the most common monsters in Duel Mons– “They’re from the Capsule Monsters board game!”

Uh, well…yes, that is accurate, I guess. They are in that game too.

*Kamakiriman appears* “That looks familiar too!”

Yeah, it’s a very basic insect card from Duel Monsters. You know, that game you incessantly play every single day of your life?

….Uhm…anyway, Téa and Tristan wind up getting separated from Yugi. They’re being chased by the Gokibore while Yugi gets chased by Kamakiriman. Téa and Tristan manage to escape the Gokibore by sliding into a very small cave that leads down a deep hole and lands them onto a beach. Behind them, they see that a Happy Lover and Thunder Kid have followed them, but they’re posing no threat. If anything, they seem very friendly to them. Téa recognizes Happy Lover from the Capsule Monsters game. I’ll accept this because, as far as I remember, despite Tea having a fairy themed deck, I’ve never seen her use or witness the use of a Happy Lover card.

Briefly back with Joey, who somehow got to the top of a cliff, he’s suddenly taken away by a giant crow-like monster I can’t really identify because I can’t see it very well.

Back with Yugi, he escapes the Kamakiriman by diving into the water, but it follows him when he reaches shore. Just as he’s about to be attacked, Yami shifts into action and jumps away, accidentally touching one of the weird pods. In response, it glows and reveals Celtic Guardian, who leaps into action against Kamakiriman.

Yami: “Why does this all seem so familiar?” Because it’s Celtic Guardian. He’s been in your Duel Monsters deck for age–

*flashback to Yugi and Téa playing Capsule Monsters*

Uh…..are you guys okay? You all collectively seem to have Duel Monsters amnesia. I mean, I get that he touched the capsule which summoned Celtic Guardian, but that is the only factor that would lead back to the board game. You can’t even argue for the map being strictly Capsule Monsters related because that’s just bumming off of Field Spells from Duel Monsters, particular in season one where Duelist Kingdom pre-made their field spells based off of the environment.

Also, I’d like to point out that this is the exact same shot they used earlier (the one I used as the header image), but the one they used in the flashback has an animation error where the capsule to the far right is on the wrong layer, so it looks like it’s floating beside the desk.

Once Celtic Guardian defeats Kamakiriman, he speaks to Yami, which is trippy as hell, and tells him that, for the duration of the game, he shall protect his new master, Yami/Yugi. In a glow of light, he’s sucked into the device on Yami’s arm, which then ejects a capsule just like the ones from the Capsule Monsters board game. This would have been a much more appropriate time to make that connection. Like, have them think this is all Duel Monsters related like normal but then when they see the capsule that’s when they say “No….this is….Capsule Monsters!” But, hey, I’m not the director.

With his new Capsule in hand, Yami proclaims that they’ve found themselves in the world of Capsule Monsters. Just to really drive it home that it’s Capsule Monsters, when they do a big zoom out, they overlay grid lines and Celtic Guard to make the area look like a game board.

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And that was the first episode of Capsule Monsters…….it was bad.

The animation and art are noticeably jankier than the regular series is, and that’s already not that good. I kept getting distracted by how cheap it all looks. The story, which, again, is something you’d typically give leeway to anyway because it’s Yu-Gi-Oh!, is somehow even sloppier than the writing tends to be. No one is acting or thinking the way I’d think they would be or should be.

Téa is nervous about the trip before they even go, and for no other reason besides terrible shit just seems to follow them, but then she sees absolutely none of the major red flags raised by Alex. The one she does see is barely a red flag. Like “Hm, this archaeologist certainly does know a lot about this place he was researching and has explored before.”

Everyone has Duel Monsters amnesia, which, given how much of their lives revolve around that game, even if half of them don’t really play it, is really, really weird to the point where it’s kinda unsettling. It would be one thing if this was an entirely different game from the ground up. I wouldn’t be as preoccupied wondering why they’re not thinking of Duel Monsters. However, as far as I’ve seen, it’s just Duel Monsters in pods with a weird crystal involved.

In the manga, they had entirely different monsters than the Duel Monsters game so it felt more unique. This just feels like it’s piggy backing off of Duel Monsters.

What’s even worse is that they explain almost nothing about this new game besides you have to play strong monsters and you need to capture your opponent’s symbol thingy, if that ever comes into play. That is a pretty big sin for a gaming anime to commit. You can’t just throw your audience into this completely blind. They don’t even show them playing a full game. They just show Téa gushing about her cute monster while Yugi passively explains two facts about the game.

The only real hook I see from this series is that they have ‘real’ monsters in a ‘real’ environment, but that’s something they’ve already done before several times. Specifically, this feels awfully reminiscent of the Legendary Heroes and the Virtual World (Noah’s) arc. Hell, anytime they have a Shadow Game the monsters are technically real.

But let’s see how the story unfolds further next time.

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Tokyo Mew Mew New Episode 2: What Makes a Real Friend? Review

Lettuce’s debut! Or should I say De-Mew–Nonono! Must stop! *ahem* Anyhoo, Lettuce is here! How did they cover everyone’s favorite finless porpoise? Let’s check my notes.

– So apparently all legendary creatures are actually Chimera Animas?…..Mmm….Okay.

– Also, the reason they chose endangered species for the Mew Project was because those animals are naturally more motivated for fight for their survival? I guess that’s cool, but doesn’t really make much sense. How do animals know they’re endangered?

– She can change back from her Mew form by just saying “Change back”? I wonder if that will work on her full cat form. Probably not. That is a slightly interesting inclusion, though.

– Wow, Shirogane. It’s rude as hell to call her a bioweapon…

– I like that Mint snickers when Ichigo spills the parfait on one of the bitchy girls. I think I’m liking their dynamic a tiny bit more in this version, even if the differences between versions aren’t that stark. Mint is still a bossy stuck up girl, but she’s a little less abrasive and meshes with Ichigo just a tiny bit better here.

– While it is really cool that Lettuce gets powers over water when she’s really upset, why doesn’t she get all mermaid-y like Ichigo gets cat traits, ears and a tail? It’s weird that once again the series explains that Ichigo has cat traits because of her powers but they never adequately explain why the other girls don’t have traits of their animals. At least, not yet, I guess. Kinda doubt they will go down that route, but I feel I can have some hope.

– OOOOHHHH Mint’s new transformation is awesome! I like how they had the door shift to being on bottom so they could show the birds flying up out of it instead of just out of the door.

Not crazy about her pose, though, because she seems like she’s turned too much. She’s not facing the same direction as the bird, and she’s not facing us. I get that she’s meant to be facing up towards the sky, but I still feel like maybe turning her a little would feel more natural. Maybe that’s just me. I love the added touch of the sunbeams, though.

– Disappointed that we didn’t get to see Lettuce’s true transformation today nor her proper attack animation, but that’s fine. I’m sure we’ll see it in the future…….Does give me bad flashbacks to 4Kids’ basically all but removing her transformation entirely, though.

– As for her new look when transformed, I like it. I particularly like how they styled her hair. Not crazy about the skirt, but that’s about it.

– I like the minor tweaks they did to Lettuce’s breakdown here. It’s not her taking advantage of her powers to lash out. She’s losing control of her powers and basically herself because she’s having a massive breakdown over her internal struggles with making friends. I also like that they included brief glimpses of Lettuce throughout her life showing that, no matter what she did or how much she tried to make friends she’d always end up alone.

I always kinda disliked the original version (whether sub or dub anime version or manga – though the dub was the worst offender) because it’s like they were shaming her for how she was feeling when it was totally validated. Here, Ichigo’s not only making the effort to ensure that Lettuce knows she legitimately wants to be her friend because she’s nice and cares about others, but she’s also saying that learning to love herself is more important than pleasing others, and that friendship is more than just spending time with people.

They actually managed to pull off a very emotional scene here where it always frustrated me in the original versions. It really struck a chord with me, personally. I actually kinda felt like tearing up. I am quite impressed, TMMN.

And they showed her rejecting the bitchy friends! AND doing her best to be more legitimately sociable! AND the customers cheering her on!

This is pretty much everything I ever wanted from Lettuce’s reveal. Bravo!

In the end, this is definitely the best version of Lettuce’s debut, and the episode as a whole was very enjoyable. I like they ended with her not only getting some legitimate friends but also showing that she’s becoming a bit more confident, even if she clearly has more work to do. I hope we see some cool things from Lettuce in the future. She was always one of my favorite characters.

Next episode is Pudding’s debut. Will TMMN continue to impress me? I certainly hope so.

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Yami Shibai 10 Review (Emotional Roller Coasters and Confusing Garbage Trucks)

Plot: The tenth season of the horror anthology series, Yami Shibai.

Breakdown: I was very happy to hear that Yami Shibai was already airing a season ten while I was reviewing season nine for Animating Halloween last year. As of this writing, there hasn’t been an eleventh season announced, but despite this season kinda coming off like maybe it might be a grand finale, I’m hopeful it will come back sometime in the future.

However, if this is the last hurrah, I’m satisfied with how it went out because this season is one of the best Yami Shibai has ever had.

To recap:

Episode 1: A Job to Quit – This was a strong story to start us off on. It was the perfect length. It definitely had the creepiness factor locked in with the mannequins, and it was a fairly unique premise.

Episode 2: Ending Note – There’s a whole lot going on in this episode. It’s quite the emotional roller coaster for a five minute story, and the fact that they pull the rug out from under you in the end was very effective and shocking. Definitely a sadder entry than scary, but still a very good story.

Episode 3: The End of the Day – One of Yami Shibai’s more unique entries, and definitely one where you need to rewatch it a few times to really work out what exactly happened, but I liked it a lot. I choose to believe it had a more hopeful and bittersweet ending than a tragic one.

Episode 4: Last Train – My main gripe with this episode is the possibility that they’re perpetuating stigmas against mental illness, particularly depression. Otherwise, I did call it the weakest of the lot so far, but even then it was still a pretty good episode.

Episode 5: The Last Customer – The art in this episode is some of the creepiest they’ve ever had without stretching out too far into the realm of being unrealistic. I mean, technically, this is just an elderly lady, but she’s designed in such a manner that instantly freaks you out when she’s on screen. While I do think this was a decent one, and certainly had scare value, my main issue here was that the lesson, if there was one, was extremely muddled and messed up.

Episode 6: Trash Drop-Off – Sadly, this is certainly the closest this season gets to a stain on an otherwise really strong season. I do think the premise is quite workable, and you could have had some really scary and messed up imagery with the trash compactor they reveal in the end, and you can have some emotional turmoil with the “most prized possession” gimmick, but instead they poorly explained the rules behind this garbage truck and broke the rules they did establish. I still don’t understand how the episode went the way that it did.

Plus, after I posted that review, I realized that this episode may be borrowing a bit from a previous Yami Shibai episode in season six, Swamp Offering. That episode had a similar premise, only you were meant to sacrifice your most precious item to a swamp to protect yourself from harm, and if you didn’t give up that item you’d be taken away by the ‘muddy,’ That episode was similarly sloppy, but I think it worked better than this one by a significant margin.

Episode 7: What Happened in the Tunnel? – Not the strongest of entries, but still pretty memorable and a mixture of sweet and crazy. It’s one of few Yami Shibai entries where I still can’t decipher what exactly happened or give a strong theory to it, but I feel like this is also a rare instance where that doesn’t matter too much. The ending is confusing, but it’s also where the sweetness comes in. That man’s dedication to his girlfriend is very heartwarming, which makes what happens to them all the sadder.

Episode 8: Wristwatch – This episode had all the makings of being a bad or silly episode, but it really wasn’t. I had a fun time working out exactly what happened, and it wasn’t so vague or messy that I felt like I was making up the story for them – the story beats were there, I just had to pay close attention. The presentation in this episode alone was strong enough to carry it as well.

Episode 9: To My Future Self – This episode really made me think they were gunning for a depressing vibe than a scary one. Like I said in my tag for that episode, how much would it suck to find a DVD from a past version of yourself who winds up massively disappointed that you turned out badly/didn’t achieve your dreams? However, they pulled a 180 on us, and I think it was pretty effective. It was less scary than some people claimed it was, but it was a solid episode.

Episode 10: The Other Building – I don’t think I should have said this was possibly one of the weakest entries in the season since that definitely belongs to Trash Drop-Off and nothing else. Looking back, this episode’s worst sin is that it’s too obvious, but otherwise it creates a decent degree of atmosphere and tension.

Episode 11: Bye-Bye – This episode definitely has creepy atmosphere to it, and some really good audio, but it’s still eclipsed a bit too much by how funny the constant “Bye bye”s are. Just on entertainment value alone, this episode holds a special place in my heart. I can’t help it. BYE BYE!

Episode 12: Pinky Promise – While not really scary or even creepy, this episode was ‘dark’ in the manner of just feeling sorry for the ‘fake’ wife. It was definitely a good and well-written episode that I enjoyed.

Episode 13: The Hundredth Story – Closing out strong, we have a good old fashioned episode about a bunch of teenagers going to some abandoned location to do something spooky. It had good pacing, really good atmosphere, pretty strong creepy vibes, and I love the way they ended it. The only real issue I have with it is that I still can’t wrap my head around these kids managing to tell a hundred horror stories in one night. All with a hundred candles burning. Not a one of them got exhausted or ran out of material and the candles never melted even a little let alone to the point of burning out.

All in all, I really enjoyed this season. There are rumors that this is the final season, but as far as I’ve been able to tell there’s nothing official labeling this season as such, so it’s all just speculation likely stemming from how final the ED feels. As I said, if it is the end, then I’m pretty fine with it going out this way. Sad, but content. I do hope we get more seasons in the future, though, just because this series is such as a staple of Animating Halloween, and I do really enjoy it, but only time will tell.

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Hell Girl: Fourth Twilight Full Series Review (A Hellish Ending to a Franchise)

Plot: The fourth and seemingly final season of the horror anthology series, Hell Girl.

Breakdown: This season kinda threw me for a loop. After being thoroughly unimpressed (read: frustrated and massively disappointed) in Three Vessels, I didn’t have my hopes up very high for Fourth Twilight. My hopes were only lowered after hearing negative things about it for a variety of reasons. However, I didn’t want to just write off the whole season without giving it a chance. I decided to wipe my brain as clear of preconceptions as much as possible, and I’m glad I did because I really think this season’s bad rep isn’t deserved…..

……A little bit.

When it came to the anthology stories, I was rather impressed, really. The stories had been better than about 75% of the stuff that has been included in Hell Girl recently. On strictly anthology merits, I think this season went out quite well.

One of the issues this season has by default is that it’s tragically short. Technically, it’s only a six episode season, which sucks pretty hard for an anthology series especially. It had a bit of a rough start to be sure, but basically all of the anthology stories were quite good, and I enjoyed them. However, it’s obviously quite difficult to sneak in a main overarching storyline to such a short season while still having an adequate amount of anthology stories, which is where the cracks start to form.

As I mentioned in the plot synopsis, this is meant to be the final season of Hell Girl, meaning we need to find some way to say goodbye to Ai. In comes Michiru whom we learn near the end of the series is meant to be Ai’s newest replacement as Hell Girl. What happened to the whole “Ai will be Hell Girl forever” from season three? I don’t know. I don’t care. That was a stupid decision made for stupid reasons. Let’s all just forget about it.

I do like Michiru. I like her character design, I really like her backstory and her general aesthetic. I truly believe she makes for a good Hell Girl. However, they didn’t fully handle her story well in the end. While her backstory episode was quite good, complete with a case in present time that paralleled her own, the last episode where she takes up the mantle of Hell Girl is lackluster to say the least.

It’s like they wanted her to have this big moral struggle with becoming Hell Girl and just gave up on the idea and made her Hell Girl offscreen during an entirely unrelated anthology story.

All I wanted from this season was a proper ending to Ai’s story. To finally let her pass on and rest in peace. If this is actually the end – the final for real finale end – which it seems to be because this was made in 2017 and there hasn’t been another anime season since – then the one thing I ask for is a good send-off to Ai……And they couldn’t do it.

First of all, the ending is vague. Many people are confused as to whether Michiru actually took Ai’s job and Ai retired or if Ai is still Hell Girl and Michiru is just another Hell Girl. As far as I’ve been able to tell through research, though, bear in mind, resources are limited with this season, Michiru definitely took Ai’s role as Hell Girl and Ai is freed from the job now.

Second, the reason people were confused is because, unlike in season two where Ai actually disappeared when she was freed from her role, in this season, she just kinda…sticks around in the living world with the Hell Team….forever?

The only person who stays in the role is Yamawaro who makes the decision to stay with Michiru as her sole assistant, which made Kikuri super angry, which made me super happy.

In episodes seven through twelve, we see that the Hell Team has bought a bar and spends all of their time there while reminiscing on old cases. Ai never appears in these episodes, but it’s clear she’s still around.

In the end, while Ai did get freed and the title of Hell Girl was passed on, it all just felt unceremonious. Four seasons of buildup, and the ending is pretty much a shrug. And not even a strong shrug. A shrug like you’re unsure if the person shrugged or if their shoulders are just a bit sore.

I did say that this season is “technically” six episodes long. However, the season is also technically twelve episodes long. It was initially released as a twelve episode season, but most websites now list the season as being six episodes long because the new content mostly ends after episode six. Episode seven onward are recycled episodes from old seasons just with the Fourth Twilight OP and ED and intros with live-action paper puppets of the Hell Team attached to them. These reruns negatively impacted the overall rating for many people, but I decided I’m not that irritated by these.

It’s clear that they’re basically bonus material, even though it’s only about a minute and a half of new content per episode. It’s the fact that they were part of the season officially in the first place that rubs people the wrong way, even if they admitted right out the gate that only six episodes were new stories and the rest would be reruns.

As I mentioned in my episode reviews, I really feel like this wound up being a problem with budget and a lack of desire to even make a season four in the first place. They just wanted to officially close out Ai’s story while also spending as little money as possible while still keeping some semblance of an anthology to the series – and that little money wasn’t even enough to support the episode order they gave them so they just put in six episodes from past seasons.

That’s just my theory, but it’s what makes the most sense to me.

I stand by my stance that season two should have just been it. It was a good story, Ai repented and moved on, it still allowed Hell Correspondence to exist – it was fine the way it was. Then season three came along, ruined everything, and season four had to blindly fumble through trying to clean it up a little. I really believe if they could have used all twelve episodes for new stories, it would have been a much better season. A twelve episode order is tighter and easier to deal with in regards to the overarching story than a 26 episode order is, and they could also have more wiggle room with more anthology entries. But nope. Just six. Not enough for a satisfying anthology. Not enough for a fleshed out overarching storyline. Definitely not enough to squeeze in both.

Don’t get me wrong. They still messed up even within the reasonable limits of six episodes, but given the quality of the episodes they had, I really believe they would have been motivated to go out with a bang if they had the budget to do all twelve episodes.

It’s not just not giving Ai a proper send-off, either. I was interested in seeing Michiru grow into her own as a new Hell Girl, but we only see her do the job once. I’m kinda concerned that if they do decide to revive the series in the future, they’ll just bring Ai back because she’s the face of the series and Michiru will just be retconned.

At the end of the day, it’s a very short watch, especially if you skip the latter half, it does bring a slight sense of some more proper closure to Ai’s story rather than just saying “Fuck you, Ai. Be Hell Girl forever to save this stale pretzel stick.” and the anthology entries are pretty good. So if you’re wondering if I recommend it, I give it a hesistant yes, but newer fans would probably be better off with season one or two.

Long time fans, it’s a toss up. Many of them seem pissed by this season, but I can’t say I entirely sympathize, mostly because I’ve realized a good deal of the venom for this season is also aimed towards the individual stories, and I don’t get that much at all. They’re not masterpieces or anything, but compared to some of the garbage I’ve seen in episodes in the other three seasons, these are definitely some of the better entries.

I do agree that episode three, which most people note as being the worst episode of the season, is absolutely, balls to the wall, insane, given that finale, but while many people find that episode to be unrealistically dark and evil, I didn’t see it that way. Sure, there was some iffy writing there, but you’re a little too sheltered and innocent if you think this situation isn’t realistic. I’ve read about tons of WORSE situations in real life. This shit happens.

I can, with certainty, say that most long-time fans will be ultimately disappointed with Ai’s final end though, no matter how much they wind up liking Michiru. They’ll also likely be disappointed with Tsugumi’s end, but I feel like this is a slightly better send off for her than in Three Vessels where they act as if her presence will have a point, but it doesn’t, and then she just gives up and leaves…..At the very least, they’ll probably be pissed that they had her in an entire episode and still didn’t give us any closure about Hajime.

I feel like this season might just make fans demand another season to properly-properly-noforrealthistimeactuallyproperly close out the franchise even though it’s been five years since Fourth Twilight came out.

I guess it’s possible. This is the time for random revivals, continuations and reboots. And there was over an eight year wait between Three Vessels and Fourth Twilight. Personally, I desperately don’t want them to continue. Mostly because I’m afraid they’ll manage to screw it up even more. This ending was far from satisfactory, but it could have been worse. The best I can hope for if they do continue the anime in the future is one of two things – either they continue with Michiru as Hell Girl and we explore whatever weird issue might be preventing Ai from going to heaven and end with her going to heaven. Or they just full-on reboot the entire franchise, we go through Tsugumi and Hajime’s story but rework it a bit to allow for more moral ambiguity on the side of the clients so we actually sympathize with Hajime sometimes, and they end that season with Ai moving on somehow. Or maybe they don’t let her pass on in season one and re-do seasons one and two so she can properly move on in season two.

Never re-do three. Three is just unsalvagable, if you ask me.

Additional Information and Notes: Hell Girl: Fourth Twilight was directed by Takahiro Omori, who directed Hell Girl, and Hell Girl: Two Mirrors, but not Three Vessels, and written by Kenichi Kanemaki. It was produced by Studio Deen. While it is licensed in North America by Aniplex of America, it does not have an English dub.

Year: 2017

Episodes: 6 (12 if you count the “Reminiscence” episodes.)

Recommended Audience: There’s some pretty messed up things in this season compared to the previous three. There’s heavy implications of rape on a minor, another episode implies rape on an adult, there’s a lot of domestic abuse, episode five in particular has some of the most graphic imagery in the entire franchise showing kids’ bodies after a car crash when they were sitting on the outside of the doors, the bodies of three drowned kids, a murder via a stick to the head, a child and her mother slowly burning alive and a bunch of people getting burned to death. 14+

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