My final review (for now, I believe a third season is planned for down the line…) in the revamped Space Battleship Yamato series is up on Anime UK News, and can be viewed HERE. Really fun series overall!
We finally take our first dip into the varied waters that is “Alternate Universe Gundam”, or in other words, shows that aren’t part of the Universal Century timeline. While Mobile Fighter G Gundam came out first, it’s fitting that we’re starting with Wing because it’s most people’s first exposure to Gundam as a whole, including myself. This is my third time watching it, but first time watching it uncensored (as I watched on TV, then on the original DVD releases previously) but I’m also still watching it dubbed for maximum nostalgia. So how does the series hold up in light of all the other Gundam shows and films I’ve watched since? Let’s find out!
Continue reading
Okay, last Dragon Ball review for a while, but again after sitting down to watch this I knew if I didn’t review it now I’d never get round to it. The second, far longer “story arc” in this Promotional Anime feels much like one of the old Dragon Ball Z films, just longer and somehow with even less plot. Do I expect plot out of a series that exists to promote a card-based Arcade game? No, not really, but I thought I’d mention it. Let’s take a look!
Continue reading
This is the third Extreme VS. game I’ve played (fourth if you include the sadly limited PS4 reboot attempt from a couple of years ago) but the first that I brought without importing from Asia due to it getting an official English release (sadly digital only, but hey-ho) It’s actually a direct port of the Arcade game, a new game (“Gundam Extreme VS. 2”) having made this one old hat in the actual Arcades themselves. So what’s the home port like? Is there much in it for a single player? Could they have created a more Japanese sounding title?! Let’s find out!
Continue reading
I’ll get round to Gundam Wing in a few weeks, having just watched this on a whim I wanted to get the review written because frankly I’m unlikely to watch it again… So, what is Super Dragon Ball Heroes? Why, it’s a “Promotional Anime”, written right under the logo in the top left of the free online uploads of the episodes. What does that mean? It means it’s nonsense… utter, utter nonsense. It exists to give some slight visual context to some made up cards people can use in the popular (in Japan) Arcade game of the same name. Is it still fun to watch though? Well given it’s been a couple of years and I’m only now just getting round to it, I didn’t think so going in, but…
Continue reading
Time to wrap up this section of the Dragon Ball story, from Fortune Teller Baba to Grandpa Gohan all the way to the last episode of filler before the three year time skip, there is a lot to cover. In amongst invisible men getting nosebled on and devils fighting in a room adorned with a giant toilet, there is one of the best choreographed fights in the series. Intrigued? Read onwards as we wave a goodbye to the “classic Toriyama gag manga era” of the Dragon Ball series.
My next Boruto review is up on Anime UK News HERE if you’re interested. I know I’m struggling to be! (Okay, to be fair, it’s not that bad, but it’s funny to complain about repeated tropes sometimes…)
Although there is plenty of humour to be had in the next arc (that’s sort of the final part of this overall story…) this part of the Red Ribbon Army arc always feels like the beginning of the turning point towards more action-heavy story telling. Tao Pai Pai is a deadly and serious (until the end) foe, and for the first time Goku decides to use the Dragon Balls to return someone from death. Interested? Let’s have a look then, as the Red Ribbon Army arc draws to a close, but we’re not quite done yet…
How much you enjoy the General Blue portion of the Red Ribbon Army arc will depend entirely on how much you can stomach a rather outdated overly camp gay villain being the butt of all the jokes. That and how much knowledge you have of Akira Toriyama’s previous work: Dr. Slump… Interested? Well, read on!
It’s time for the Muscle Tower part of the Red Ribbon Army arc, a relatively small part of the narrative but one that managed to stick in a lot of fans-of-the-time’s minds, as Muscle Tower itself has managed to cameo in a lot of future games released in the 2000s. Afterwards is a small collection of mostly filler material, but hey-ho, I have to include them somewhere! Let’s take a look…
Hogan Reviews 