Anime

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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Gundam: Requiem For Vengeance Review

David Hogan6 Comments

I should have been thrilled when I heard a new Universal Century set Gundam series was being made but it soon became obvious it was a CG show, which rarely hits with me, and then as more and more trailers came out it seemed less and less like Gundam and more like generic “hoo-rar” American army stuff with UC era mobile suits in it, the often super realistic CG only serving to make things even less appealing as it crossed over to the uncanny valley. At six episodes it didn’t over-stay its welcome at least, but I’m glad the recently revealed new Gundam show “G-Quuuuux” or however you write that insane title shows this extremely Westernised take on Gundam isn’t a new direction… Let’s take a look!

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My Hero Academia – The Final Arc (Episodes 144 – 159) Review

David Hogan1 Comment

We’ve reached the final story arc in My Hero Academia, but due to its length we’re only getting the first half this year, which is fine. Beats the olds ways of filler, anyway! Due to this being a final battle though there isn’t going to be a lot of plot to talk about, instead a lot of action. There are two good dives into the heads of long-recurring villains though, so that’s always fun. Let’s take a look!

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One Piece – Egghead Arc (Episodes 1086 – 1122) Review

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Here I was waiting around for a good break to do the first batch of Egghead Arc reviews and One Piece only goes and stops entirely! … sort of. Yes, after Episode 1122 fresh One Piece anime episodes are on a break until April, a new re-edited version of the Fishman Island arc airing instead (given I just covered the original earlier in the year, I won’t be covering that on this site…) So what better way to find a break in the story than use the break in the story! Let’s take a look at the first chunk of episodes from the first arc of the “Final Saga”, shall we?

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Anime UK News: Halloween 2024 – A Look at Wicked City

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I don’t normally post the join “look at this season / review this season” articles we do at Anime UK News as it tends just to be a paragraph or two on stuff I’ll end up reviewing fully any way, but for Halloween this year we all picked something to cover for one article and I picked the old “classic” Wicked City… sufice it to say I doubt I’ll be giving it a proper full review any time soon, so if you want a couple of paragraphs of my thoughts on the film, plus some great picks from other staff members, click HERE.

Happy Halloween! … Remember that year I had enough free time that I reviewed all the Hammer Horror Draculas in a row? *Sigh*… those were the days!

End of Evangelion Review

David Hogan1 Comment

It’s time to, well, bring an end to my look at the original Evangelion series with the big film finale, not that it was ever actually planned to exist (Hideaki Anno was happy with the more… unconventional ending of the TV series) and frankly that shows. While it has the visual spectacle and great soundtrack you’d expect from the series it also doubles-down on the more downbeat aspects of the series, especially putting poor Shinji through the wringer, as if Anno said “You want a different ending?! Well here: have THIS!” and projected how unhappy he was onto his own characters (he apparently tried to take his own life at one point, so… yeah.) It makes for interesting, if uncomfortable viewing, but does it make for good viewing?

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Neon Genesis Evangelion (Episodes 14 – 26) Review

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My review of the first half of the series can be found HERE.

The second half of Neon Genesis Evangelion is a hard one to crack. It has several episodes that are a bit more “introspective” which some fans try to spin as completely intentional but the creators themselves have admitted it was born out of necessity due to running out of budget and time. The most obvious example of this is the final two episodes, which when I first saw it back whenever it aired on the Sci-Fi channel I was pee’d off at how… nothing it was, but what about now? Has mentally maturing and being armed with the knowledge of what the ending was supposed to convey made me go easier on it? Let’s find out, with once again a “warning” that this is a very surface-level review, so no deep dive into religious themes and analysing every scene, I’ll leave that to those more engrossed in the series…

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Neon Genesis Evangelion (Episodes 1 – 13) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

As promised (a while ago now, stupid busy summer!) it’s time to finally tackle this behemoth. “Neon Genesis Evangelion” is not only massively influential but it also has thousands of pages, podcasts and videos analysing every frame, slight story nuance and every potential reference, meaning I didn’t know whether to really bother reviewing the series in my more casual format, but you know what? It would be weirder if this site never had Evangelion on it at all, so now I’ve watched the official blu-rays its now or inevitably later, so may as well be now! The first half of the series is undeniably great, which won’t take any of you by surprise, so let’s take a look!

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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Review

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Time to cover more Spring 2024 anime with the latest Demon Slayer season, though if you thought my review of the previous one was a bit harsh, just you wait! Yes, sadly the Hashira Training Arc was just a small handful of chapters in the manga to prepare for the finale but Ufotable decided to take those couple of chapters the stretch them out for nearly 10 hours before announcing a trilogy of films to cap the series off. So in order to make the most money they couldn’t actually start the final arc at all, so it’s no wonder this “season” was so poorly padded! Oh well, let’s take a look…

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