Shonen Jump! 50th Anniversary mini-Marathon Starts next week!

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Yes, another marathon announcement, and yes it will once again not be daily or on any fixed timetable. To celebrate Jump!’s 50th Anniversary I wanted to do a “Top 10 Jump! anime debut arcs”, but soon realised I’d only seen 8, and a couple of those weren’t great (for example JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure would become great, but that first arc isn’t something I’d put in a “Top” anything…) Once I finally accepted that I wouldn’t be able to watch the HunterXHunter or GinTama debut arcs in time to actually do the marathon I settled on doing a Top 5 instead…

It’ll start next week with Yu Yu Hakusho, and then will cover Bleach, My Hero Academia, One Piece and, of course, Dragon Ball, but in what order?! You’ll have to find out, though the answer may surprise you, given we’re purely talking debut arcs here, not overall Top 5!

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Doctor Who: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster Review

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DW Crimes of Thomas Brewster

That’s right, just three stories later (in the audio / comic companions debut story marathon) and we’re back with a story ending in “of Thomas Brewster”. This is also the first of three stories in this list that the companion debuting doesn’t actually become a travelling companion until later, as yes, this is the debut of the frequently annoying Flip… It’s actually funny listening to it, how clear that the story wasn’t written with the character becoming a permanent fixture in mind. With all that being said, let’s take a look at “The Crimes of Thomas Brewster”…

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The King of Fighters: Destiny Season 1 Overall Review

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KOF Destiny

Is a CG animation created in China an anime? Well, it’s closer to anime than cartoon based purely on “anime is an animation from the East, cartoon is an animation from the West” line of thinking… Anyway, regardless, King of Fighters got an adaptation, and for free too! (Why it took me so long to actually watch it I don’t know…) All episodes were uploaded to SNK’s YouTube channel, which makes this rather hard to review because I don’t want to be too harsh on the production values given it’s… cheaper nature. Beyond production values though, is it worth a watch? Has it managed to create a storyline for a game (King of Fighters 94) that hardly had any? Let’s take a closer look!

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Doctor Who: The Marian Conspiracy Review

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DW Marian Conspiracy

The audio and comic companion debut marathon reaches one of my favourite companions and an era of Who I’m looking forward to revisiting: Evelyn Smythe. The kindly older lady is the antithesis of what you expect from a companion, but she works so well alongside the Sixth Doctor, and her being responsible for his eventual softening is really well done. So let’s look at how it all began with The Marian Conspiracy…

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Doctor Who: The Shape Shifter & Voyager Review

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DW The Shape Shifter and Voyager

In terms of companions created for the comics, you don’t get more well known or infamous than Frobisher. The shape shifting “Whifferdill” who ends up enjoying the form of a penguin is certainly amongst the most unique companions! It’s almost a shame that I like to do these comics in batches of two (when they’re not too long, anyway), because as note-worthy as Frobisher’s debut story is, Voyager is a comic masterpiece, full of amazing imagery, beautifully written prose and some great scenes and characters. I may be covering this double bill as part of the Audio/Comic Companions Debut marathon, but Voyager deserves the most attention! Let’s have a looksie, then!

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Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (PS4) Review

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Dissidia FFNT

Dissidia was released at the start of the year, close to Dragon Ball FighterZ and during a time I was still playing Assassin’s Creed Origins, so I passed on it. I had fun with the demo, but I wasn’t convinced it was “must buy”, and it seems I was right, at least at full price. A few months ago I picked it up for £15, and more than got my moneys worth, but I think at £40 I would have felt it lacked in content too much. In any case, let’s have a closer look at the game…

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Doctor Who: Red Planets Review

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DW Red Planets

The main range of Doctor Who audios gears up for a marathon run of Seventh Doctor stories, starting with a return to the Doctor-Ace-Mel combo that has so far been… well, pretty poor. Is this an improvement?! Well, it’s certainly an improvement over “The Silurian Candidate”, but talk about damning with faint praise! Seriously though, Red Planets is a good story with some fun ideas, but never really kicks into second gear. Let’s take a closer look at any rate…

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Doctor Who: The Eye of the Scorpion Review

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DW Eye of the Scorpion

Eye of the Scorpion introduces us to Erimem, the should-be Pharaoh who ends up travelling with The Doctor and Peri (yes, the Fifth Doctor and Peri, which is a rare combo nowadays!) It’s also very nearly a pure historical, though the run of Doctor/Peri/Erimem has several actual pure historicals, so if anything it having a sci-fi element in its plot is more note worthy… Anyway, let’s have a look at Eye of the Scorpion then, shall we?

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