Author: David Hogan

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War (Episodes 27 – 40) Review

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The adaptation of Bleach’s final story arc fully reaches the point in the manga where Tite Kubo clearly began to rush and the story suffered greatly as a result, a few long-awaited Bankai being the only real highlight, but is the anime any different? Well, yes! Kubo has had a direct hand in the creation of this “cour”, more so than the others, showing how he clearly knows how weak the original is and has sought to improve it, and improve it he has! Plus one of the long-awaited Bankai was still adapted (the other will land in Cour 4) and adapted really well, so bonus point all around! Let’s take a look…

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Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Review

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To tell you the truth “Skeleton Crew” wasn’t something I was looking forward to, from its vague announcement to the first trailer and beyond nothing really clicked with me. I knew I’d give it a proper go because I love Star Wars and about half way through the series I realised that I was actually enjoying it, and then by the end it was up there with the higher end of live action Star Wars programming. It’s just pure fun, not bogged down in continuity (not that I don’t love continuity references…) or serious story telling (not that I also don’t love that either!) and instead just tells a good family adventure story. Let’s take a look!

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Doctor Who: The Doctor and Carnacki Review

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“The Doctor and Carnacki” is a three-story anthology release featuring the Seventh Doctor meeting Thomas Carnacki at three points in his life, an interesting concept… if you’re familiar with Carnacki. Sadly I wasn’t, and in looking him up I was surprised to find that he is actually a fictional character from the early 1900s but unlike say, Sherlock Holmes who is fictional within the Who-niverse Carnacki here is just a regular character. I mean, whatever, makes no difference to me (literally!) but it was an interesting choice. Sadly though my complete lack of knowledge or enthusiasm for Carnacki kind of cuts the whole possible excitement of this boxset in half and so I just get a trio of Seventh Doctor stories with no catch, but did I get a GOOD trio of Seventh Doctor stories? Well…

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Alien: Romulus Review

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I’ve been looking forward to finally watching Alien: Romulus for a while now, so I treated myself to the 4K Blu-Ray over Christmas, and you know what? It lived up to my expectations, thanks to my expectations being that it would be a pretty by-the-numbers Alien movie but shot and acted really well. I’ll admit I didn’t see quite how much it “borrowed” elements from the original four films coming, especially in the ending, but I can’t say I didn’t have a good time watching it. Let’s take a look!

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Doctor Who: Once and Future – Coda: The Final Act Review

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Remember “Once and Future”? The big 60th Anniversary run of stories that ended up being almost entirely disappointing nonsense with little thought into the writing? Well, this is the “Coda” to that story, an epilogue with one more special crossover, in this case The War Doctor and The Fugitive Doctor. The latter has an interesting premise if your brave enough to run with it (a pre-Hartnell Doctor from the Dark Times either working for the shady division or running away from it) but for the sake of this story it’s actually just two Doctors who are more inclined to violence than the numbered ones accidentally at odds with each other, and you know what? It was really fun, perhaps the highlight of the whole Once and Future storyline… which isn’t saying much, but still! Let’s take a look.

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Dragon Ball DAIMA – Episodes 1 – 12 Review

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Dragon Ball DAIMA (is it all caps? Not sure, I’ll go with it…) was originally just a 40th Anniversary celebration mini-series, but sadly it’s now turned into Akira Toriyama’s swansong with the franchise after his passing last year. So does it work as both? Yes! DAIMA has Toriyama’s old sense of fun adventures with the odd childish gag here and there that he loved to write so much, but it also has added a lot of lore and continuity to the franchise to give it a little bit of a kick as it enters its 41st year. What will happen to the franchise after DAIMA is up in the air, so let’s just enjoy the start of this full stop at the end of the original creator’s run, shall we?

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Doctor Who: Time War – Uncharted: Reflections Review

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“Doctor Who: Time War – Uncharted: Reflections” (bloody hell, enough subtitles for you?) is the latest Eighth Doctor Time War offering, continuing the adventures of The Doctor, his great-grandson from another universe Alex and Cass, that one off character he met right at the end of his life that has been retroactively made into a companion I guess he forgets. It’s an odd mix, but even more oddly it really works! Reflections is a really fun four story set, with each story building nicely from the one before it. Let’s take a look!

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My Top 10 Games of 2024

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I knew going in that 2024 might be a bit more of a lean year game-wise, but thanks to games like Star Wars: Outlaws just disappointing me (to the point of an extremely rare giving up halfway through and selling it scenario) and the latest Assassin’s Creed game, normally good for an early Top 10 placement, getting delayed to next year it’s more lean than I’d imagined. Plus due to its length and having already played through a similarly-lengthy Atlus RPG a few months earlier I haven’t played Metaphor: Refantazio, nor have I played Astro Bot, two games that dominated most Top Games lists elsewhere. It’s so bad I’ve thrown in a few compilation re-releases to make up the Top 10, something I really didn’t want to do but a “Top 7” just sounds weird, so… Hey-ho. Also every game this year is either a sequel or a remake, so either I’m getting old and refusing to look into new things or the business has really gotten lazy… Either way, let’s take a look!

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My Top 10 Doctor Who Stories of 2024

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For the first time in many years I haven’t actually gotten around to listening to all the Big Finish releases this years, thanks in part to falling behind due to the new website/app disaster from a few months ago. So if any of December’s releases end up being better than my Number 10 pick… bugger. With that being said it’s also been a few years since we’ve had a year with a full Series of Doctor Who airing, so at least there’s a greater pool of stories to choose from! Let’s take a look…

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My Top 10 TV Series/Seasons of 2024

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It’s been an odd year for TV for me, thanks to playing a lot of long-form games and having a lot less free time in general there have been shows I’d normally have watched but I never got round to, like the second seasons of Arcane or Squid Game (though that only coming out a few days ago meant it never really had a chance…) That being said, there were still some shows I enjoyed but didn’t make the cut, like Agatha All Along or Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, so I guess it can’t be all bad. Also reminder: this is what I’ve enjoyed the most, not necessarily what has contained the best acting or anything like that… With that out of the way, let’s take a look!

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