Excellent fights part 1 Deku vs Muscular

One of the shows I have been watching recently is the most recent season of  Boku no hero academia. I was told by people that are familiar with the manga the anime was based on that there was some really awesome content coming up and when I watched episode 42 I think I knew what they were talking about. However I was rather tired when I watched said episode and felt that I wasn't as hyped as I should be so I decided to watch the episode again. Given the that I knew what to expect and I was able to watch it in a more detached manner and I wondered exactly made this a good fight.

This is not to say that it is a bad episode but I noticed that it lacked several things that people consider elements of a good conflict are missing in the Deku vs Muscular fight. Muscular is hardly an interesting or complex villain (Not that the show is lacking in interesting characters). It wasn't a particularly technical or long fight; it was mostly a fist fight between two rather strong people.

I felt like was like a fight you see in episode 1 of many shonen action shows. The hero fights an ill defined villain and wins because the hero has a new power up, usually the hero gaining the powers that they will have for rest of the show. In this case all for one turned out to be stronger at a crucial moment than previously expected.

However this conflict was also the first time that Deku fought a super-villain on his own in this show. It was also a fight that he couldn't run away from or lose without consequence. This differentiates this conflict from  previous battles such as the tournament arc or the fight with Stain. It was as though the show had training wheels on Deku for the previous 41 episodes and this was the episode when those training wheels came off. In action there is a desire to escalate with each fight. However this is a clever use of a temporary limitation to give the feeling of escalation without making Muscular more powerful.

It behooves me to mention the presence of Kota in this conflict as even though he has only a minor effect on the flow of the fight he gives it a lot of weight. First off he is part of the reason Deku can't simply run away. More importantly he first civilian that Deku ever saves. While it is common for a protagonist to save someone weaker than them in a shonen action series but it has a special weight in this show. If you have even the slightest familiarity with this series you know that Izuku's reason for being is to be a great hero who saves everyone and banishes fear like his personal hero All Might. Thus this is  not only the first time Deku fight a villain one on one, it is also the first time he saves a person and thus acts like All Might.

Thus I think I made it clear that the value of a fight is not only the attacks used but also the build up and potential for character growth that it presents. 

Thoughts on Your lie in April episodes 1-3

I have been on and off blogging about anime for a long time and this time I decided to start blogging again with a different tack since I came to realize that writing reviews is a bit soul crushing, or at least boring for me. Also I listen to a couple of podcasts that do it better than I ever could. So I decided to blog about shows that I find important. Hopefully you will find it entertaining.

After last season finished there were no more episodes of March comes in like a lion and and after a month or so I realized that my sad glasses boy anime itch needed to be scratched and I didn't get around to watching Your lie in April when it was first airing so I decided to finally get around to watch this show.

So the show starts and we have our protagonist Kousei Arima. He used to be a child prodigy at the piano but due to some vague emotional trauma from his sick mother. Now he lives in a depressed state with his two friends Tsubaki and Watari as though Kousei is a taller version of the protagonist of Accel world. One day Tsubaki invited Kousei to a double date. When he arrives at the location, he sees a beautiful and mysterious girl, and takes a picture of her playing music on some local kids.

This leads to a misunderstanding and thus unleashes said girl's Tsundere nature. It also turns out that said girl is the violinist Kaori and the person he was supposed to meet. Episode 2 is mostly devoted to showing off Kaori's music talents.

Some people here might complain about this show saying that Kaori is what is called Manic pixie dream girl. Episode 3 shows that this is quite, quite false as the MPDG is someone who doesn't have much in the way of personal motivation while Kaori spends a good part of episode three bullying Kousei into playing piano with her at the next music competition. Eventually he agrees and they zoom off to the next competition with the help of Kousei's more athletic friends.

I found the first three episodes of this show to be decent but it hasn't gotten exceptional yet. I notice that there is quite a bit of foreshadowing and the art of the show is really nice. I will continue watching and hope you find this worth reading.

Review Mary and witch's flower

Note: unlike with most reviews I and reviewing this movie from watching it in my local theater. So I don't have normal screencaps of this movie,

Mary Smith is a girl who has just moved to the countryside and is bored out of her mind. The only other child in the village is a boy named Peter and the two are at loggerheads. She looks around the countryside she find a strange luminous flower. She find that this flower contains magical power including allowing her to fly on a broom that she finds. She flies to the magic school, Endor college but are the people that run the place as forthright as they first appear?

Mary and the witch's flower is a movie based on a book. It is also the first major outing by studio Ponoc, a studio which is formed from the ashes of the famous studio Ghibli. This movie is a family movie and thus there is nothing objectionable in this movie.

I found this movie to be a solid movie and there is little to complain about in this movie. I found the main character to be a solid protagonist and the rest of the cast to be decent as well. Even though this is a movie for kids I found the plot to be not insulting to my intelligence. Also the animation to this show to be wonderful.

Overall I found this to be a solid fantasy show

Rating the silver broomstick (Kiki's delivery service) for a very nice film staring a girl riding a broom

winter 2018 season preview part eight wrapping up

Like all good things and most bad things the winter season preview has to come to an end. There simply isn't any more new shows to review (since I have hidive at the moment and netflix likes to throw in binge seasons for shows) for the next two and a half months. This is not to say these late comers are neccesarily least as there is at least one good show in this bunch.

Hakyu Hoshin Engi

Taikobo is a orphan who has been training as a celestial warrior. One day he is tasked with the Hoshin project (namely taking on 365 celestial criminals). He soon finds out that this task may be harder than he may first think.

This show is a reboot of a long running manga (it even had an adaptation in the 90s). This show has the feeling of being made mostly for those already familiar with the manga. If you aren't that familiar (like me) the show may be a bit hard to follow.

Hakata Tonkatsu raman

The Hakata ward of Fukuoka city is known for being a city of assassins. There are many pro killers as well as the urban legend of the killer of professional killers.

The first episode of the show is slightly hard to follow since they introduce a whole lot of characters, but I have the feeling that it will get easier in later episode, especially that given the nature of the show some of the characters will get cut out.

Darling in the Franxx

In the future humanity is relegated to living on special plantations and even those are under attack by giant monsters. They are defended by robots piloted by a pair of teenagers one male and one female. The main male character meets a strange woman with horns.

This show is the lone mecha show of the season, and I have to say that it has a nice look to it, being that it is partially made by Studio Trigger. I have a feeling the first episode was mostly set up but I am interested in seeing how future episodes will pan out.

Winter 2018 season preview part seven supernatural girlfriends of the amazon

Last year there was an anime service on Amazon.com called Anime strike. It was expensive but it had some of the best shows of every season. However the premium service is gone (you still need amazon prime to watch some of the shows though) and there are still some new shows on the site. However unlike when strike was around none of the shows in this batch will probably be as good as say Made in Abyss.

Killing Bites

Super powerful corporations have had secret fighting tournaments for a long time and now has genetically engineered hybrids to make for even more exciting fights. Yuuya is a normal college student who ends caught up in the tournament.

This show looks like it will be the sex and violence show of the season. The action and fan service is pretty good and the characters are okay. You probably already know if this is the show for you.

After the rain

Akira Tachibana who is a high school girl who also works as a waitress at a local diner. She is also secretly in love with the manager despite the fact that he is a much older man who was already married once.

I found this show to be the best one of the bunch. It had decent characters but I want to see how they evolve.

Beatless

In the future human-like robots called Hies are common. One night five powerful hies escape from their lab and one of them ends up with a normal high school boy Ayato.

From the looks of the first episode this is a very generic boy meets robot girlfriend show. I am not saying it couldn't be decent but it just looks quite generic to me.

winter 2018 season preview part six magic magic everywhere

As my winter season preview grinds on I sometimes have to cover some shows that aren't that great. Maybe it's just a spate of bad luck but maybe that is part of why I do these previews, since not everyone is dedicated enough to watch over twenty new shows every season and you need to know what to weed out, even some of the shows on the trash pile aren't really awful to watch.

Marchen Madchen

Hazuki is a shy girl who reads books to deal with her social awkwardness. One day she meets a magical girl and finds a strange book in her backpack. She follows the stranger and it leads to a magical school.

This show looks like a fairly average magical girl show. There might be some more interesting stuff in the future but the first episode didn't set up anything more than there is a magical school and the main character has magic. There is also a fair amount of nudity in the first episode so there is also that to watch out for.

How to raise a mummy

Sora is a normal high school boy who has a strange father who one day sends him a small mummy one day. As to be expected Sora has no idea of how to take care of the little mummy. 

This is a nice and cute slice of life show and the mummy, Mi-kun is adorable. From the promo art and closing animation it looks like the main character's friends will pick up small supernatural pets of their own.

Death march to a parallel world 

Suzuki is a programmer who works very hard. One night he goes to sleep in the office and wakes up one of the video games he works on. By chance he wipes out an army of high level monsters and gets all of the loot and experience from beating the army.

This is this season's entry to the isekai genre. I don't have a feeling that it is great but it might be a decent show. Even though there isn't really any girls in the first episode the ending and the promo art tell me that this will be a harem show. 

winter 2018 season preview part 5 unexpected visitors

It is said that there are only two stories, either someone starts a journey or a stranger comes to town. Maybe that only can be said of some of the anime shows here but then again there wasn't too many slice of life stories back then (I blame a lack of paper).



A Ryouo's work is never done

Yaichi is a young shogi prodigy being the holder of the Ryouo title at age sixteen. One day a nine year old girl named Ai shows up at his apartment and wants to become his disciple.

This show is a pretty cute show with some nice characters. There is one fan service scene in the first episode so I wonder how prevalent that will be in future episodes.

Karakai Jozu no Takagi

Nishikata is a high school age boy who wants to do nothing more than to prank his female classmate Takagi. However she is a bit more clever than him so she ends up pulling pranks on Nishikata instead.

This show feels a bit like a bunch of short shows strung together into a full length episode. I found the show to be funny and cute but I wonder how long it will last.


Basalisk

There was a huge ninja war ten years ago and now a new group of children train to become ninjas. That includes Hachirou and Hibiki who come from different ninja clans but are fated to marry.

I didn't watch the first season of the show so I don't know how much I missed. I have the feeling that there will be some strange and cool ninja combat but I have no idea on how the plot will turn out.