SandLand anime review

When I first saw the visuals for Toriyama Akira's SandLand, I just thought it was Go! Go! Ackman set in the desert which Sandland is. I had no interest in watching SandLand, even with the Toriyama name. Reason being that I did not like where Dragonball became, Goku getting even more hair colours, all sort of fushion characters and Vegeta getting screwed all the time. I have a friend who is big into the current Dragonball stuff but it feels like a series that should have ended long ago and I thought Toriyama's best days were behind him.

Since I have Disney+ for Gannibal, I decided to give SandLand a go and I was hooked from the beginning. SandLand is set in a country where water is scarce and humans think demons are all not good and responsible for all the bad things in the country. The demons all look like they belong as monsters in DragonQuest. The main character Beelzebub, the prince demon is another Go!Go! Ackman. His funny trait being he think he is a bad demon when he isn't and he is another Goku.

What makes SandLand work is the Rao. He enlists Beelzebub's help and has the best backstory in anime. From the first episode, SandLand had me hooked when I realised the show was about racism, corruption and not getting tricked by government propaganda. This why I feel in love with anime in the first place. Shows for kids that deal with mature issues in a way that is entertaining and not preachy.

I love the tank battles. I never knew tank battles could be so exciting and I wanted more. Should I start watching Girls Und Panzer? I wanted more single episode stories of our group of adventurers and their tank. 

Watching SandLand, I am reminded of Toriyama who started Dragonball as an adventure story with a young Goku, Buruma and Oolong. This feeling of fun and sense of adventure.The only negative is that Belz is kinda of overpowered when he did not need to be. Toriyama does power him down in the second half though.

I want more adventures in Sandland, especially with the tank. That is the heart of the show. The 3 characters going around in the tank. I will definitely buy the game when it goes on sale unless the game is that bad. Very watchable anime.

The Great Passage / Fune wo Amu anime review

I first watch The Great Passage movie a very long time ago and gave it a must watch. I did not feel the need to watch the anime but since I have 2 more months of Amazon Prime, it was finally time to give it a watch.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

The Great Passage is about the herculean job or making a dictionary. A job that no one would ever think about. The main character of the show Majime, as his name suggests is straightforward but socially awkward person moves from sales to the dictionary department of Genbu Publishing because he was headhunted as being a perfect person for the job of creating a dictionary. 

Creating a dictionary is a very labour intensive job taking many years and does not bring in that much money. The Great Passage is an underdog story about the blood, sweat and tears of a small team who dedicate their lives to making dictionaries.

THE GOOD

+ The Great Passage is for people who enjoy shows about the intricacies of other jobs. From compiling and figuring out definitions of new words to the politics of working in a department that is not bringing much money to a company, The Great Passage lets you peek into not so glamourous section of publishing.

+ The characters are really good especially Nishioka who is the opposite of Majime and they both become a good combi and Kishibe who comes kicking and screaming from fashion magazines and then realizes that she can take all her skills and knowledge from fashion and apply it to dictionaries.

+ The ultimate feel good anime and will warm your heat. This is chicken soup anime. This is a story about interesting people working together for a common goal.

+ 11 episodes fly by like nothing. The pacing is excellent.

THE BAD

Nothing.

SUMMARY

The Great Passage is anime perfection. Makes me want to rewatch the movie.  I will definitely watch the jdorama as I believe it is from the perspective from the Kishibe character. The feeling I got when watching The Great Passage was, this is what anime should be. Must watch.

Dororo anime review

 

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Dororo is an anime based on the manga by god of manga Tezuka Osamu. It is about this character called Hyakkimaru who was born without limbs, cannot see, hear nor smell but can fight with his prosthetic limbs and because he can see what is inside people. 

Hyakkimaru's father is the ruler of this land of Daigo that was facing ruin because of famine and natural disasters and the father made a pact with demons that he would give them anything for his land to prosper and what the demons did was take everything from Hyakkimaru when he was born except for his head.

Hyakkimaru is on a quest to kill the demons and for every demon killed, he recovers a part of his body. Dororo is the name of the kid who accompanies Hyakkimaru on his quest.

WHAT IS GOOD ABOUT DORORO?

+ So many 'fantasy' anime today are just MMO wish fulfilment stories. Dororo is not that. My first thought watching Dororo is that this story appeals to so many of my sensibilities. It is dark and depressing but beautiful and kids should not be watching Dororo.

+ It is a story about revenge and what price of vengeance is worth it? It is also a story of sacrificing one for the happiness of many and whether happiness that is not truly earned is worth it in the long run.

+ Love the relationship between Hyakkimaru and Dororo. Hyakkimaru has suffered through so much and is so single minded in his quest and Dororo is the one thing that keeps him grounded. 

+ Gaining a body part back might not be advantages for Hyakkimaru. 

+ Amazing animation especially the action scenes. I love how much love and money was spent on Dororo and Pluto, both based on Tezuka's mangas.

+ I never skip the intro for the first opening. I love how the art looks more similar to Tezuka's. Meh on the second opening although it is from AKFG.

WHAT IS BAD ABOUT DORORO?

- Nothing.

SUMMARY

This is why I love anime. It is all about beautiful visuals and storytelling. If you are like me and sick of the modern MMO style anime, this is for you. Not must watch but I had an great time watching. Very watchable and is on Amazon Prime. The picture is from the PS2 game. Everytime I do an anime screencap, I always get some warning from blogger.

Onimusha review

Once upon a time Capcom created a game called Onimusha. It was Resident Evil with swords game set in the sengoku period starring actor Kaneshiro Takeshi (Golden Bowl) and it was good. It was a puzzle action game like resident evil with the main character having this magical gauntlet which could absorb the souls the bad guys and give him special powers.

Very excited to see an Onimusha anime on Netflix. Very surprised to see the main character look is Miyamoto Musashi and they made him look like Mifune Toshiro! Even better, they got the legendary Otsuka Akio (Snake/Batou/Skull Knight) to the voice! I thought it was a cool idea.

The story is a straight copy of Seven Samurai. Musashi who is past his prime has to go with a bunch of samurai and a monk to defeat this bad guy Iemon. Musashi borrows the Onimusha gauntlet for this mission and they say this girl and fight lots of genma/zombies.

Onimusha started out ok. Then it was revealed that the gauntlet would turn Musashi into a demon/oni so he can't wear it all the time. I guess they want to do the Ryu because Evil Ryu stereotype story which is fine.

Then Onimusha started to become a rehash of Musashi's greatest hits with his famous antogonists turned into genma. It started to feel like someone just wanted to mash Seven Samurai with Musashi and didn't care about the game at all.

Can you guess who the director is? Miike Takashi. The same director who took Ryu ga Gotoku ip and mashed whatever elements he like and turned it a crazy Miike movie instead of a good RGG movie. Why can't he pay the same respect to the actual games he adapted like he did for Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney? It was the one game adaptation where he was faithful to the game. 

Speaking of Ryu ga Gotoku, I am so scared for the amazon adaptation. Takeuchi Ryoma does not have the I will eff you up fKiryu aura but I hope I am wrong. Will be getting prime to support it regardless. Giving money to streaming services to support jdoramas is so much cheaper than buying overpriced jdorama blu rays. A new jdorama blu ray box set costs around $200,00 yen. Crazy.

I got freaking bored with the Musashi rehash and it just gets worse. The fighting in Onimusha is just bad especially in the end when it just went Dragonball Z recycle the same animations to show how fast they were swinging their swords. This is bloody Miike doing whatever the hell he wants. Maybe its more the writer's fault but I have seen this from Miike before. He should have done his own Musashi rehash movie and didn't need the Onimusha IP. Such a freaking waste of Netflix money. Miike should have done the story of the first Onimusha game. Do not watch. 

Anime review Monster

Just finished the 74 episode epic anime Monster ,based on Urasawa Naoki's manga. I think most people have heard about the time travel problem of if you could travel back in time, is it ok to kill baby Hitler? Monster asks a slightly different question, if you are a super surgeon Dr Tenma and you treat all life as equal, is it ok to save the life of evil named Johan and if you have helped this evil to survive, should you finish him?

The reason I started rewatching Monster was that I was wondering why Japan has not done an anime adaptation of Urasawa Naoki's 20th Century Boys? It is one of the greatest mangas and pieces of fiction ever and Japan can have 50 Isekai animes every season but not an anime of one of the greatest stories ever told. I know I have actually watched Monster before but I don't remember finishing it. I must have watched it long, long time ago when I was still burning anime onto DVDs.

Monster starts of off as a Fugitive clone with Dr. Tenma getting framed for Johan's murders with a cold, calculating detective in pursuit. The doctor of course does emergency surgeries and saves people he meets along the way while he tries to pursue the monster Johan.

THE GOOD

+ Amazing animation. Looks like Urasawa Naoki's manga come to life. You know how anime usually have good first two episodes before the animation goes bad? Doesn't happen for Monster. Quality is consistent throughout and I was thinking no anime that does not sell toys won't get this budget unless it is Netflix.

+ Urasawa Naoki is great at creating terror and delving into the psychology of the characters. A lot of scenes gave me the chills. This is the mangaka who created Tomodachi in 20th Century Boys and he has created another scary villain in Johan.

+ The episodes will often start off with a seemingly unrelated character or situation and bring it back to the main story.

+ Great supporting characters especially Eva, Grimmer and Suk. I would say one of my favourite things is that the supporting characters get treated like main characters. They don't exist just for the sake of the main character Dr Tenma and have their own wants and needs.

+ The world building is excellent. I say this not because the story is based on the real world but the world feels real because of all the little details and the characters behave like complicated people.

+ It is a philosophical discourse on identity. How much does having a name matter or even memories to establishing one's identity.

THE BAD

- The pacing is very slow and can be painfully so. I think the story could have been told more efficiently in 50 episodes. I started to fast forward  during the second half of the show.

- Some of the cliffhanger tropes are overused, especially with the slow pace which make things a bit repetitive. 

- How a Japanese man accussed of being a serial killer can travel so much across Germany and other parts of Europe without drawing attention everywhere is amazing. There is one episode where a cop said that he mistook Dr Tenma because of race.

THE MEH

= I don't know what to think of the ending. Not as satisfying with an ambiguous ending and we should have been shown that dinner.

SUMMARY

I think Monster is very worth watching because there are very few anime like this. Monster is the type of anime you can proudly show non-anime watchers. I don't think an anime like this can be made today. Very watchable with pacing issues. Please watch it on Netflix to support good anime!

Japan 2023 Day 12 and 13: Fukuoka and Psycho Pass Providence

JR Hakata City official Vtuber. I am not sure I like this era where vtubers are becoming mainstream that I am in now. It was time to time one day trips and explore Fukuoka.

I missed the Eva Crossing Expo. I felt like I still didn't know left from right in Fukuoka because I was staying in Tenjin. On a sad news front, Gee! Store in Tenjin is no longer there. Gee! Store not being able to survive tells me there are not enough people into subculture there which is sad.

Went to this retrogame store called culture arts which was basically an apartment on the 3 floor. I wonder what the neighbours think about living next to a shop?

Floor map on the front door.

Plenty of Saturn games but could not find Shin Shinobi Den which I was looking for this whole trip.

Went to Genkaimaru for sushi. Magurozukushi for only 990 yen.

Went to Mandarake and actually found quite cheap copies of the two Fire Emblem games on DS but unfortunately I have already bought them for higher price.

I don't really buy figures anymore that this Kusanagi Motoko got me tempted. If it came with a Bato figure I would have definitely bought.

Yatais /stalls along the river. If you have played Yakuza 5, you would know what it is about.

Queueing up at Hakata ramen issou.

Very effin good tonkotsu and I added some wanton topping. Worth going all the way to Fukuoka for this.

City lights and you can see Canal City way in the back.

There was live music and plenty of food.

Village Vanguard with Lum what looks like Lum pillows? I was looking for the old Street Fighter stickers at every Village Vanguard I come across but couldn't find them. All Village Vanguards have similar stock but they also have very different stock.

Signed Hachimura Rui pictures.

Another Mugiwara store. How many are there in all of Japan?

Snoopy Town shop.

Marvel shop.

I have been thinking about the KFC Garlic hot chicken this whole trip. Normally the rule is do not eat fast food when in Japan except there is no hot and spicy in Melbourne and this was for supper.

You can just order online, come to store and enter pin number to unlock door.

Tastes exactly like hot and spicy! Yum.

Day 13, last day in Fukuoka. Got up early and went to Don Quixote for luggage shopping. I love that Don Quixote are 24 hours open. Probably spent half and hour deciding on a bag. Found the one I wanted but they did not have white.

Decided to walk to another Don Quixote. You can see the army of scary crows eating at rubbish from last night's yatai.

The other Don Quixote was much smaller and did not have big luggage though it did have some Sega shirts. Went back to the first Don Quixote, bought my luggage and wheeled it back to hotel. Luggage bag was around 12990 yen including tax exemption. Muji luggage bags are more than double that price so I hope my cheaper bag can hold out for 10 years.

Went to a Book Off near Hakata station that I had missed for more game and manga hunting.

Just a few of the 500 types Rem figures in Japan and I am not exaggerating.

Went to Nagahama number one in Hakata station.

I think this might be the best tonkotsu I have eaten this trip.

I should have bought this Sora no Kiseki from Surugaya because that was the cheapest I had come across.

I have the Eternal Arcadia guide book and I am sure it wasn't that expensive.

Was waiting for my tax refund when I took this picture. Why would you have Dhalsim vs Blanka on a SF2 Visa card. Who chose this over Ryu vs Chun Li/Ken/Sagat? If Surugaya is at a Marui you have go to a refund floor and they have 2% for 'handling fee' so you really get 8%. Other Surugayas they do straight away and take a picture of your passport and exempt the 10% and some don't do tax exemptions at all.

Went to Canal City.

A lot of people lining up.....

for DVDs?

Main reason was the ramen stadium. Good thing there was no entrance fee.

Tried tonkotsu tsukemen Ando because I have never had a tonkotsu tsukeman.

I didn't like it and I think tonkotsu and tsukemen don't mix very well.

Second reason was to go watch Psycho-Pass Providence. Loved the first two seasons. Could not finish season 3 which made it a bad idea.

Played a bit of House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn to kill time until movie started. Should have played it after and finished the game. It was 200 yen to start and 100 yen to continue.

Psycho Pass acrylic stands. I like the action in the movie and that we have Akane and Kogami back. I was a bit confused on the story because I did not finish season 3 and could not remember a lot of details. Season 3 characters are involved but not much. The ending of the movie is very big for Akane.

The Gundam base at Canal City.

Shopping haul from Surugaya. Guardian Heroes at 2400 yen was too cheap to pass up. Most places selling over 6000 yen.

Two books from Shining Force 3. One day I will finish all 3 Shining Force 3 games in a row.

Last night in Fukuoka. I only remembered on this day that I forgot to go eat at Hacchan which I had eaten at the Shin Yokohama Ramen museum. Unfortunately all Hacchans were closed on Sunday so I lost my chance and they don't open early on Monday.

Japan 2023 Day 8: Berserk Exhibition in Fukuoka

Woke up next day to see Sakamoto Yuji and Koreeda on tv promoting Kaibutsu. The weird thing is that the trailer for the movie shown in cinema has the actors explaining the story. It feels like the producers are worried the general Japanese audience would not be excited for the movie if it were a normal trailer. You have some of the greatest talents in jdorama/movieland in this Kaibutsu, if your average Japanese cinemagoer can't get excited, then there is no hope. The Japanese government should sponsor me to fly back to Japan next month to watch the movie!

Took train to Shin Osaka so I could catch the Shinkansen to Hakata station. One new change for Shinkansen is that people with oversized bags ie over 160cm must reserve their seats so that the bags are put at the back of the seats instead on the overhead sections. 160cm means the total length of the 3 dimensions of your bag.

The trailer for Creed 3 was Michael B Jordan saying how much he loved anime including Naruto.

Eating gyoza from 551 Horai. It is my tradition to buy something from the Shin Osaka store every time. I regret not buying the 551 Horai shirts from Uniqlo though because it is limited to Osaka and is cheap.

Off to Shinshin for lovely tonkotsu.

I am ready to eat real tonkotsu everyday for a week in Kyushu!

The main reason for the timing of my trip was the Berserk Exhibition in Fukuoka. The exhibition has been going around the country the past 2 years and was last in Sapporo. My problem was there was no official news of it being in Fukuoka 5 months before except for one website that said it would likely be coming to Fukuoka around April and May. 

Branded to enter the exhibition. I booked my trip for the first 3 weeks of March and it was only after the Berserk exhibition twitter confirmed the Fukuoka dates that I could start to contact friends to see if they could catch up.

I was staying in Tenjin and the exhibition was close by. You could not take pictures for most of the exhibit.

If there is one fictional character I hate, it is Griffith. I love Berserk. I could reread the manga and rewatch the animes again and again.

Prime 1 Zodd figure is amazing in real life. I have seen a lot of pictures but when he is in front of you, its something else. The writing says "unescapable death will come for you!"

I wish I had the money and the room to house these figures. "Death will come visit you"

Incredibly amazing. I wanted to see Prime 1 statues in Tokyo and google told me there were at Marui Shinjuku but obviously there are no longer there.

The Art of War figures.

Art of War for a long time was the only company making Berserk statues but their prices are just crazy.

Casca Prime 1. Before the shops at the end there was a video running with Miura sensei being interviewed. It was sad because there hasn't been any videos of him until this exhibition and now he is gone.

There was also a table where fans could draw and leave message and a did a quick sketch of guts and said I came from Australia for this and thanked Studio Gaga and Mori for continuing the manga.

I was getting emails from blogger last night telling me more than 10 posts have been put behind a warning for readers. This picture might end up getting a warning.

There was a scary set up of the eclipse with the 5 god hands and it was creepy as hell. Too bad pictures were not allowed and they have people watching.

You have no idea how many hours I have spent thinking about whether I should get this Prime1 Guts when it came out years ago but I never pulled the trigger. I have watched every youtube video of this statue.

Too late now but he is just amazing in person.

Skullknight statue. I think this was Art of War.

Giant Zodd that a lot of Berserk fans have seen online.

Prime1 Isidro. His face looks a bit weird. The Prime1 interpretation is different from the manga but Isidro doesn't look good. 

Prime1 Schierke looks better.

Nothing more peaceful than a village of Pucks.

Dragon slayer at the entrance of exhibit.

The t-shirts were crazy expensive. The Prime1 shirt on the left was the cheapest at 3000 yen but unfortunately the L size was more like an S so thanks for wasting my money Prime1! Get your bloody sizes right. The middle one is a long sleeve shirt 5500 yen and the Zodd t-shirt was 4400 yen.

Two acrylic dioramas. They were 3850 yen each.

Doranki, Berserk magnet a set of pins.  The Griffith pin had two images depending on your angle looking at it. Wished some of the goods weren't so crazy expensive especially the Vanquish collaboration stuff and 4950 yen Puck shirts. The entrance fee was already 1700 yen. Very expensive being a Berserk fan and I spent 26760 yen total.

When people think about Fukuoka, its the river, bridges and yatais (stalls).

Unfortunately I had broken the handle for my luggage bag. I tried super glue from Tokyu Hands but it was no use. Super glue can't hold up 30kg. I was always gung ho about carrying my luggage up stairs instead of looking for escalators or a lift. I guess the bag finally paid the price.

Went to Surugaya and was staring at Soviet Strike. I don't think its a good game but that is a good price. Didn't get anything in the end since I would be Fukuoka for a week.

Went to Yakitori Makotochan near my hotel for dinner.

They have an interesting order system where you have to write your order on a paper and give it to them. Fun for me and luckily the guy could read my writing. You can see at the background the grill where the guy is grilling the yakitoris. If you have seen Konya wa Konoji de S2, its the same style yakitori place.

I ordered tempura and this appeared. 

Yakitoris, torikawa and butabara (pork belly). I am so effing hungry right now and I just had lunch.

Went back to hotel, not this one pictured, read up on Takachiho and booked some buses.