Anime

One Piece – Wano Arc (892 – 929) Review

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One Piece Wano Arc Part 1

So a bit of a big leap forward in terms of One Piece reviews on this blog, but that’s Crunchyroll UK finally getting streaming rights for you! Yes, I’m covering a batch of recently-aired episodes (stopping at the point where the pandemic stopped the series, though it has resumed before this has gone up!), obviously this isn’t the end of older One Piece reviews as given I do them in batches of roughly 30 or so episodes, these new episode reviews will only be once or twice a year! SO the Wano Arc sees the crew finally arrive in the long-teased country, with the large looming shadow of the even longer teased Kaido in the background. Let’s take a look at how it starts!

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Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2202 – Part 1 Anime UK News Review

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SBY 2202 P1

Thanks to a certain pandemic the sequel series to the one I only just reviewed (or rather, my review for only just went up) is already seeing a release in… I’m just going to put 2202 to save me typing all that out again. It’s hard to judge as it’s only half the story, but I’m liking it so far, even if the way to get everyone back into space was a bit iffy. You can read the review by clicking HERE!

Dragon Ball: Red Ribbon Army Arc (Episodes 29 – 34) Review

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Dragon Ball Red Ribbon Army Arc Pt1

The Red Ribbon Army arc is certainly the longest in the original series, though it can be easily split into narrative chunks that make up the whole, as I have done here! (and as FUNimation did, using their weird individually titled “saga” method) That being said, to keep the Muscle Tower part of the story self-contained I’ve had to separate these six episodes on their own, which is a bit… odd. Oh well, let’s take a look at a mostly filler-filled prologue!

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Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Anime UK News Review

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Space Battleship Yamato 2199

I actually wrote this review back in February for its early March release, then a certain pandemic happened and here we are at the end of June and it finally sees its release. My review of Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2199 can be viewed HERE. It’s a really good space opera with a very high budget! I hope the sequel can live up to it… though I hear otherwise…

Dragon Ball: 21st Tenkaichi Tournament Arc (Episodes 14 – 28) Review

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Dragon Ball 21st Tenkaichi Tournament Arc

Now I’m not currently covering Gundam, and no longer covering a Dragon Ball series for Anime UK News, I thought it would be the ideal time to continue my deeper dive into the original series. So after the original 13 episodes we enter a training sequence (featuring the debut of Krillin!) followed by a Tournament arc, two staples of the Shonen genre still in their infancy here. This is also where Dragon Ball was still more leaned towards comedy than action, so how does that blend with a martial arts tournament? Well…

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Altered Carbon: Resleeved Review

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Altered Carbon Resleeved

It’s funny putting up the review for this after my review of Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, as a lot of the things I said in that review I’d already put in the notes for this one: I don’t generally like CG animation and only watch it if its attached to a franchise I enjoy, this Netflix offering has cheap and stiff animation (though this time it looks a lot more stylised, compared to the bland look of GITS) and so on. That being said, Altered Carbon’s two seasons fall on either side of the good and bad spectrum for me, so let’s see how this effects it as the tie breaker!

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Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Season 1 Review

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GITS SAC_2045

Now, as a rule I dislike CG animations. The only time I’ve “gotten used to it” and able to enjoy it is with the help of a franchise I’m really into (Star Wars, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy), so I of course gave the new Netflix Ghost in the Shell series a go, especially as it nostalgically reunited the original English dub cast (this being one of the series I watched dubbed on TV first, and they do a good enough job that I “stick to what I know”) but sadly unlike a lot of the series / films I mentioned above, this seemingly had very little money thrown at it, and it often comes across as cheap and bland. Does the story cover for this?! Well…

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Mobile Suit Victory Gundam Overall Review

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Victory Gundam Overall

On the Japanese DVD releases of Victory Gundam there was a special interview with creator Tomino himself which was titled with a quote from the director. It read “Don’t buy these DVDs because you should not watch them!!” Turns out I should’ve listened to him… Well, apart from these were Blu-Rays, but you get the point. When the creator of the show tells you not to watch it, you know you’re in for a “treat”. Victory Gundam was the one series I’d never watched (until AGE came along, which is now the new one series I haven’t watched!) due to its reputation and length, and I can safely say now I’ve watched it, I WON’T be watching again. So let’s take a final, overall look at Victory Gundam, then try and forget about it…

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