Anime

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes – Season 1 Review

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While everyone is gearing up for the big final season of My Hero Academia in the autumn Toei decided to drop a new series in the meantime with Vigilantes, which was a spin-off prequel manga than ran alongside the main manga for a lot of its run so it’s not something they pulled out of nowhere, more odd that they chose now to start adapting it right before the main show ends. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, the humour was spot on as were some of the comic book caricatures / parodies, but a lot of its run time was very “of the week” which did affect the pace somewhat. Let’s take a closer look!

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Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX Review

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While I do plan on covering a Gundam series next in the older anime reviews bit (once I’m done with the first batch of DBZ Movies anyway) a new Gundam show has aired, so let’s quickly dip into that before anything else (Also: why has Seed Freedom still not arrived on UK shores?! I really am going to have to pirate / VPN it at this rate…) “GQuuuuuuX”, pronounced “Gee Qwucks”, is a Gundam show created by the Evangelion team that’s set in an alternate Universal Century Timeline where Zeon won the war, but about halfway through the series it takes an even weirder turn continuity-wise…

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Riding Bean Anime UK News Review

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Believe it or not, we actually got some review discs sent to us at Anime UK News, so I’ve dusted off the old AUKN template to tell you my review of the 80s OVA “Riding Bean” can be viewed by clicked HERE.

It’s a fun homage to cheesy 80s action films… well, given it was made in 89 I guess it was trying to cash-in on the current trend of cheesy action films… Either way, it’s good fun!

Dragon Ball Z – Saiyan Arc (Episodes 30 – 38) Review

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It’s time to wrap up the first story arc in the Z portion of Dragon Ball, although unlike the other story arcs in the series this ends by going straight into the next one, with several plot-threads not resolved until that arc’s ending. Still, the fight between Goku and Vegeta is iconic within anime circles in general let alone Dragon Ball, so let’s have a good look why!

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Dragon Ball Z – Saiyan Arc (Episodes 21 – 29) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

After a long stay in filler land we return to the actual manga source material for more Dragon Ball Z Saiyan Arc… for the most part. This is DBZ after all, there are still some filler added, but at least we get a majority manga stuff section this time. The Saiyans Nappa and Vegeta arrive on Earth and waste no time tracking down the heroes of Earth, but what’s this? The side characters get the spotlight because Goku can’t make it to the battle? Shocker! Let’s take a look…

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Dragon Ball Z – Saiyan Arc (Episodes 11 – 20) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

It’s time for ten straight episodes of almost entirely filler as the Saiyan Arc grounds to a stop for “not catching up to the source material” reasons, something that actually stops for the most part after this, adopting the “making each episode agonisingly slow” method instead. Having said that I have strong and very happy memories of watching some of these episodes on TV when they first aired (two episodes a day, it has to be said, and some of these filler stories were cut entirely) so I don’t mind some of these stories purely with nostalgia goggles on. Let’s take a look!

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Dragon Ball DAIMA – Episodes 13 – 20 Review

David Hogan2 Comments

My review of the first 12 episodes can be found by clicking HERE.

Quick dive back into currently-airing anime but sticking with Dragon Ball, the latter half (ish) of Dragon Ball DAIMA has now aired and its time to look at how the series ended. It’s a very odd one honestly and it sets up something of a new continuity going forward rather than sliding in between Z and Super. It also has some extremely lazy writing and some very odd plot thread drops that makes me think that maybe Toriyama didn’t finish his draft for the finale before he passed… Well, either way, let’s take a deeper look.

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Dragon Ball Z – Saiyan Arc (Episodes 1 – 10) Review

David Hogan3 Comments

It’s been a long time coming but after covering the whole of the original series it’s time to finally start covering Z. This is definitely one of those things I put up thinking “doesn’t the internet really need someone reviewing such an iconic series in 2025? What’s left to say?” Well… nothing really, but after covering the criminally under-looked original series I wasn’t going to leave it there! So let’s take a look at the first 10 episodes, because the Saiyan Arc is so comparatively short but I still wanted a consistent four-ish parts. Thanks to pacing issues future arcs will have higher episode chunks, I have no doubt…

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

David Hogan2 Comments

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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