I very recently got to finish the YoRHa: Pearl Harbor Descent Record manga after two years and I’m glad for that, for it is always good to consume another version of NieR: Automata, or well, a part of it. This is based on the Ongakugeki YoRHa Ver.1.2 stage play from 2014, so it actually predates the videogame in question, and it ran from 2020 to 2024, so it even predates the episodes of the anime that showed the same events. I gotta say it is actually the best version of it that I have consumed until now, partly thanks to its duration.

It is short, with less than twenty chapters, yet that is still better than the limited runtime of the stage play, only episodes 6 of the first season and 5 of the second dedicated to it like in the anime, or just the Anemone: Encounter, Understanding and Separation logs without even some cutscenes like in the videogame.

Just like in the animated series, Anemone is replaced with Lily for some reason, but without the latter’s role from the anime, her character arc and thus justification for that change remains incomplete, not that you would mind it though if you didn’t play the videogame.

Anyways, this is going to be rather short as I’m not going over the whole details of this world, something that I already did while reviewing the anime, androids fights for humanity against robots, in a far dystopian future, and this story is about an android squad storming a robot server, at first.

The reality turns out to be that what seemed to be a reconnaissance mission of a simple base, is actually a suicide mission about taking down a major enemy headquarter that’s about to deal a huge strike on humanity. Essentially, a way to portray that soldiers are sometimes (if not often) lied by their superiors on what their missions are really about, and that they’re seen as disposable forces and sacrificial pawns of sorts, further reflected on the mission being an experiment, to see the androids’ durability and behaviour during it, so they can improve on later models, and the robots even let them get far to satisfy their curiosity in turn. All of which was fairly known if you consumed its chronological sequel, the main game, or really another version of the same events.

And as you can expect from something of this franchise, the stakes are high and characters are going to face far larger and stronger armies of enemies, thus they ARE going to die, in rather tragic ways.

What makes this version better than the other ones besides its length, is focusing a lot more on its cast, both the android squadron sent from space, and the one inhabiting Earth. Every girl has either backdrops, introspection, interesting dynamics among the others, or maybe all at once. Even some, I guess, prototype Operators, with actual names in here, doubt the commands and are replaced because of it. There are even some flashback scenes showing interactions between Number 2 and the YoRHa commander, so the former’s feelings of being betrayed and actions on the other media are bigger, if they had any continuation.

Which is the main issue of this manga, the fact that it’s clearly only a small part of a bigger story, leaving stuff of its setting without much exploration and even less of a conclusion.

Also, although the characters are explored, they have different interactions with the others, their insecurities and abilities are shown, and each one has at least runtime dedicated to them, it is not uncommon for they to die shortly after being fleshed out, thus remaining underdeveloped and without a catharsis, kinda expected from such a tragic plot. They don’t even get their flowers-based names like in the anime, though maybe that’s an anime only thing, so I’d let it slide.

The only character that feels that gets proper development and a slight sense of catharsis would be the main one, and even those feel rather rushed or incomplete because, again, this is just a part of a much bigger story. Also she gets a sudden power increase near the end of the manga as if it was a fighting shounen. Even the narrative ends with a cliffhanger after a crucial point in the mission, followed just by one or two pages of the protagonist in the far future.

The manga was drawn by the same artist of stuff like Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, a battle school romcom, and Zombieland Saga, an idol comedy, not the kind of author I would expect to draw a tragic sci-fi war drama, but the artist did fine. Maybe not as raw as I would prefer the art style or brutal as I would prefer the action to be, but still well drawn, good backgrounds too, and the effects can be very interesting, darkening the whole looks at times, and the machinery for the machine life forms and the fights can be very detailed when it needs to be. The action scenes have good sequences and composition, though not that impressive, especially when it comes to movement. The girls look pretty, as you would expect from this Megumu Soramichi, given his other works, but not that different one from another, and you don’t really notice their android details in their joints or other stuff that much, probably excused by being early models, I guess.

So as a whole, this is a fast paced, good looking, well drawn, and overall polished sci-fi war drama with a somewhat interesting topic, high stakes, permanent deaths, and multiple perspectives and characters that are looked into, so I’d say it’s a very good manga as a whole, even if it misses the extra steps on characterization and a strong narrative closure.

Este es un producto argentino por lo que amerita una reseña en su idioma natal.

Al fin, después de tantos proyectos truncados a medio camino, hay una serie basada en El Eternauta, la mítica historieta de ciencia ficción argentina,y digo basada en porque como adaptación presenta muchos cambios y una actualización moderna con respecto al original, con sus pros y sus contras.

Si bien el material original al final del día es decente, hay que considerar que lo es principalmente para su época, y que tiene cosas que han envejecido de manera desfavorable, siendo la principal de ellas la exposición. La misma no solo cuenta a lujo de detalle todo lo que los personajes piensan a través de diálogos o pensamientos, sin dejar nada a la interpretación del lector y a la fuerza del dibujo, sino que incluía mucha narración metida de por medio, y recapitulaciones debido a que su publicación inicial era en forma de historietas de diario en vez del libro que hoy es tan conocido.

Otro aspecto que no envejeció muy bien es lo meta que es que su propio autor fuera un personaje presente en la historia que al final de la misma decide publicarla a modo de advertencia al público, en una forma de sugerir su posición política respecto a quiénes son los invasores, si se tiene en cuenta el contexto de publicación de la historieta, algo aún más evidente cuando salió la segunda parte, la cual se rumorea que ni siquiera llegó a ser terminada por el mismo Oesterheld.

Pero bueno, dejando a un lado mi opinión sobre el original, he de decir que esta serie es una especie de salto en producción para una ficción de mi país, combinando prostéticos, efectos prácticos, filmación en locaciones reales al aire libre durante la relativamente reciente pandemia, y mucho CGI tanto para los fondos como para los efectos especiales, que se ven bien, pero nada del otro mundo, menos en los tiempos que corren. También hubo polémica por el uso de inteligencia artificial para la serie, cosa que no detecté así que no sé si fue usada durante la filmación o para algún factor externo como la promoción o algo por el estilo.

En cuanto a la ambientación, los efectos de sonido están buenos, nada maravillosos ni súper inmersivos pero cumplen y más que bien. Quisiera decir lo mismo del resto de factores que suelo agrupar en esta categoría pero, aunque decente, la actuación en la serie sigue los estándares más monótonos casi teatrales e influenciados en su momento por el realismo italiano de una producción argentina, por lo que es su apartado más flojo, sobre todo para un público acostumbrado a consumir productos internacionales.

La música, al igual que las tantísimas referencias visuales en los fondos, está impregnada de un colorido local que a los argentinos nos deleita y cuya inclusión en nuestras producciones nos caracteriza, pero me pregunto hasta qué grado pueden interpelar y convencer a extranjeros. Es decir, algunas canciones de la banda sonora encajan líricamente con lo que sucede en escena, pero no tanto musicalmente, y otras claramente están insertadas más por una cuestión identitaria que narrativa. Hasta esto se perdió en cierto sentido en algún momento, ya que en el último episodio usaron una canción en inglés (Let It Snow de Sinatra) para complementar la “nieve” del escenario…cuando ese elemento ya casi no tenía peso en la trama. Aún así voy a acotar que el uso de la música en esta serie es mejor que en Arcane.

En cuanto a la narrativa, la serie claramente fue pensada para incluir algunos aspectos sociales históricos y/o actuales de Argentina a la par que la trama, gente en reclamo por el suministro de luz, venezolanos que trabajan como reparto para locales principalmente de comida, discusiones de consorcio por cuestiones edilicias, quiero creer que en parte debido al éxito del Encargado, cierto nivel de bullying y bromas escolares aunque sin llegar ni de cerca al nivel de obras internacionales a la hora de mostrar el tema, población china en Argentina, muy presente desde hace mucho, parejas separadas, familiares con relaciones no muy buenas, etc.

Una diferencia clave de la serie respecto a la obra original es darle una razón personal más fuerte al protagonista, Juan Salvo, para involucrarse en el conflicto. En la historieta lo hacía básicamente porque es el personaje principal, en la serie para buscar a sus seres queridos que están allá afuera en riesgo de entrar en contacto con la “nieve” tóxica. Su hija es adolescente en esta versión porque todos los personajes fueron considerablemente avejentados, lo cual tiene sentido porque francamente casi nadie de la edad que los personajes tenían en el cómic tendría hoy en día el nivel de experiencia de vida, educación, pragmaticidad y el afán de coleccionar antigüedades como los que el elenco necesita para hacer avanzar la trama.

Otro cambio importante es ahondar más en los personajes secundarios, mostrar lo que Favalli y el grupo hacen y viven en la casa y el barrio a la par de las salidas de Salvo, divisiones en el grupo, reagrupaciones, desarrollo de distintos tipos de relaciones entre algunos de los personajes, un rol importante para Favalli hacia el final de la temporada, un papel para Elena y Ana, las esposas de los dos tipos más importantes de la historia, algo de lo que carecían completamente en la versión original, y una creciente relevancia para Lucas y Omar, entre otras cosas.

Con eso dicho, no quiere vender al reparto más de lo que amerita, ya que salvo por dos personajes, destacan más como herramientas argumentales que por sus presencias, personalidades, trasfondos o desarrollos, los cuales son más bien básicos, insinuados, repentinos sin mucho enfoque, o directamente inexistentes, debido también en parte a la falta de un cierre para la historia y serie.

Otras cosas que le destaco a la tira en comparación con la original es ahondar más en la sensación de paranoia y desesperación inicial de la población. Eso ya se mostraba en cierto punto en la historieta, pero con mayor frialdad y crudeza, al mostrar a alguien volviéndose loco dentro de un grupo y siendo asesinado por el mismo para evitar mayores riesgos para el resto. En esta versión el protagonista se cruza con casi un edificio entero que quiere robarle primero y matarlo después, y un vagón de tren repleto de gente desesperada por el hambre y la sed y a la que luego vemos como cadáveres. A eso hay que sumarle todas las demás personas y animales a las que vemos morir o muertas por la “nieve” tóxica, y lo aterradoras que resultan la efectividad e inmediatez de su efecto.

Algo en lo que la serie se enfoca mucho y a lo que da mucha importancia es el tema de la cooperación, el trabajo y supervivencia colectivos, y la idea de que nadie se salva solo y se debe trabajar en sociedad, retratado en el grupo principal, otro que sobrevive a la par en una iglesia y con cierta delegación de tareas, un tercero que se organiza como un ejército, más tarde en el trabajo en conjunto de la población junto a los militares frente a los enemigos extraterrestres, incluso los alocados y violentos del edificio, planifican y actúan, justamente, en conjunto.

Otro tema importante aunque con un espacio de tiempo en pantalla menor es el sentimiento nacionalista y patriota, reflejado en la asosiación entre pueblo y ejército para recuperar conecciones y comunicaciones y enfrentar al enemigo invasor.

Y finalmente, como el mismo campo electromagnético terrestre es afectado en la serie, y por lo tanto también lo es todo lo electrónico y digital, hay una recuperación de la importancia de lo analógico y de antaño, identificados en algunas líneas de guión, siendo la más conocida y recordada, “lo viejo funciona, Juan”. Además, mediante el rol de Favalli en la tira, se rescata la importancia de la educación en profesiones como ingeniería o mecánica.

Estos temas presentes en la serie son de alguna forma el equivalente moderno a la expresión sociopolítica del original, aunque dirigidos hacia otro lado y actualizados para los tiempos que corren. En tiempos de crisis de representación, política, social y económica del país, y de individualismo, de entrega del país y territorios nacionales, y demérito de las ciencias y la educación terciaria y universitaria públicas, y de uso desmedido y dependencia de electrodomésticos y demás artículos y herramientas digitales, las temáticas abordadas en la serie son más que destacables.

Una última cosa positiva a destacar de esta versión es que Juan Salvo sea un veterano de Malvinas, una acertada actualización al personaje original y acorde al presente de la serie, una pizca adicional de identidad local para el producto, y una dimensión simbólica adicional a la nieve de la serie, la cual le da a las visiones del protagonista el componente adicional de ser un conductor de estrés postraumático, además de funcionar como herramienta argumental ligada a las memorias del personaje principal y sus viajes en el tiempo, elemento que la serie retiene de la obra original.

Ahora bien, con todas las cosas lindas que dije de El Eternauta, también hay que decir que hay bastantes momentos de vida cotidiana que están solo para relajar el argumento, la historia, el tono, el tiempo, el ritmo, los personajes. Por lo demás no aportan mucho o directamente nada y no es como que el elenco sea más explorado o desarrollado a través de ellos. También he de decir que la comedia presente en la serie es bastante mala y juvenil, e incluso es referenciada en una escena que se supone sea dramática y trágica. Y ya que hago referencia a esa escena, hay cosas que son extrañas y no son del todo explicadas, como la repentina locura de Lucas en ese momento, aunque tampoco me parece mal dejar cosas a interpretación del público, justamente algo que realmente no hacía la historieta. Y bueno, obviamente la historia todavía no está terminada, y me preocupa el uso de viajes en el tiempo como herramienta argumental a futuro, eso casi siempre es un problema porque o vuelve a la resolución de los eventos conveniente, o prácticamente obliga a los personajes a ser necesariamente reactivos frente al argumento, pocas veces proactivos.

Por ahora, El Eternauta mezcla decentemente una esencia argentina con una premisa y temas importantes, interesantes y universales, y es un progreso en cuanto a una producción salida de Argentina, así como una mejora en caracterización respecto a la obra original. Con eso dicho, la ambientación y el ritmo presentan problemas, hay comedia y escenas que no suman nada, los personajes son más herramientas argumentales que otra cosa, y la historia todavía no está terminada. Considero que merece un 6/10 por ahora, con esperanzas de que mejore en su segunda temporada.

Note: This will cover both seasons

I barely remember coming across this series by accident by looking through some list, and what a pleasant surprise it was from its premise alone. Workers from a certain company get their brains surgically separated while at work, supposedly to let them work at ease and without the stress from outside, yeah, as if that doesn’t sound like a bad idea from the get go. Well, as we will find out later, the actual people that registered from outside in the first place have several reasons to work there, loneliness, depression after losing their partner, looking for someone, lack of better options or for propagandistic purposes, to promote the process as a good thing.

Although the script is good, what really surprised me was the directing, and even more so Ben Stiller being one of the directors. Although the setting is limited to the office and a house, the characters look like normal people in suits, and the CGI used in the series is not that good, the show manages to look good thanks to a polished production and well made backgrounds, alongside constant use of dynamic camera movements, cameras on rails to follow the characters yet not looking blurry at any moment, sometimes mirror angles, lots of closeups to highlight key details that either show off the good acting or make stand out elements that will be relevant to the plot at some point, fastly interchanged quick cuts to switch from the two people sharing the same body and their perspectives, to the point that the series appeared to be fantasy during the first episode, and so on. Even the weird goo-like CGI is excused when it is revealed to be the remnant memory of black paintings done by the character who was seemingly having hallucinations caused by stress and fatigue.

Since Severance is a mystery show, it needs to have a suspenseful soundtrack, and it sure does, sometimes the music can be quite haunting on top of stressful, and the sound effects are pretty immersive. The acting is one of the best things in the series, both for the creepy looking characters with their fake smiles or their dead looks in their eyes, and the cast that technically plays two different characters depending if they are inside or outside the company, managing two different personalities and sometimes even looks very well, with the highlights being the scenes when one of them changes to the other.

As you would expect from the premise, we see characters wanting to leave, desiring to find out about their lives outside, feeling confined in their workplace and without an actual life, as they clearly are, people from outside pointing out the dehumanizing aspect of the process, and even someone who could leave trying to connect with the main character to explain something to him, and suffering the constant switch ups in his head, both on a mental and a physical level, and even people falling in love with different people outside and inside the building, and the expected consequences when finding out than someone they like inside might already be married outside.

At the same time, the series is clearly a bit of a dark satire of corporativism and office work. People are isolated from everything outside, they barely know about other departments in the same building and what they do, even less so about what they are working for at the end of it all, and they are filled with small self help rewards and places and have to do some cringy team activities for more affinity and building a healthy workplace or something, while in this setting they also get some would they be true or not facts about their outside versions to calm them and make them feel that they are doing fine, I guess.

We also see the antagonists logically watching over the protagonists, prohibiting them from leaving the office, retrieving chips from brains of people that were going through a reintegration process to basically unify their brains once again. But I also have to point out how they let important people without constant watch and harm themselves, and how weird it is for them to let them be nearby people that know their outside selves, why would you risk your whole system like that? Eventually we get an explanation and repercussions, but you would think there would be countermeasures beforehand or quickly implemented after the fact, and also the chip retrieving scenes can be a bit weird, as definitely are the other departments that are found throughout the season, and what the heck was that ritual room and scene even about?

As the second season begins, we see the antagonists reforming the office, logically separating the team but uniting it once again for the sake of completing the project at large, new work conditions and places for the sake of preventing the finale of the first season to happen again, with even stop motion videos, also proving how powerful and untouchable the company really is, and the new floor boss supposedly checking on the mental wellbeing on the workers, while simultaneously dividing them from the inside.

Unlike the first season, we get more shots and scenes and events and story on the outside, exploring the time between the two seasons, the team besides the protagonist getting fired and trying to redo their outside lives before coming back in, and even suffering discrimination for going through the severance process while trying to find new jobs. Also now the team is divided for good after a certain event, and the new floor boss is reprimanded for letting things escalate to that level, which is more logical than how things were happening in the first season.

For the psychological side, we see the protagonist suffering from the same confusing episodes of memories switching as the character from the first season did, and even the same physical consequences, which raises the tension after we have seen what happened to the other guy.

There’s also an almost whole flashback episode to explain the situation of one of the main couples and how they got to the chronological beginning of the story, recontextualizing the plot, their motives and their interactions up until that point, exploring new themes, and a much needed look into what the company intends to do with this process, even if that ended up raising more questions as well. We also finally get to know the origins and the beginning of the severance and how the company has been affecting entire towns for who knows how much time with almost even religious arguments and followers.

There’s even a bit of an existential aspect in the season, as both sides of the protagonist confront themselves near the end and the inside points out that the outside basically asks for him to give up on the little everything he has in his life, even he himself as a whole, for the sake of the person who created him and only decided to reach him in times of need, and isn’t he right about all that? Easily one of the best moments of the series.

The atmosphere is as good as it was in the first season, if not better, and the production went up a notch with more general shots, more variety in settings and backgrounds, more dynamic movements with even more action scenes, and no more weird looking CGI. Unfortunately the directing wasn’t as varied and interesting as it was in the first season, and the pacing is quite slow in the beginning, and quite fast near the end, making some events feel convenient and hurried as a result, thus this entry is not as entertaining and well written as the one before it.

And I have to point out the weak points in the story. Why is the cabin not being monitored at all? Why is the company letting such a valuable woman go her way with such ease with all the potential risk she means for them? Why even have outside activities at all, with, again, all the potential risk that that means for the workers and even a very important person for the company amongst them? Why is the security in this company so bad that it is basically composed of just one guy? Would the plan of the protagonists even work against such a huge and powerful company?

And there are things that just feel weird for the sake of being weird, the whole backstory about the creator of the company, the whole goat department, their outfits, some lines of dialogues feeling cryptic or weirdly written just for the sake of sounding mysterious, the whole thing that are doing with the Cold Harbor file and all, like why? Because corporations are weird and evil?

And I have to say that a good portion of the focus on this season is dedicated to slice of life and romantic moments that are not as interesting as the psychological, sociological and philosophical aspects of the premise and concept.

I hope the third season gives an actual closure to the characters, resolves the loose ends about what this corporation even does and how it does it, they actually take actual measures about all the mess at the end of the second season, I hope for the series to stop having weird for the sake of being weird moments and scenes, and show the consequences once it is known outside what happened on the inside.

Basically I want the series to end on the next entry, because otherwise the show would overextend its welcome, drag itself unnecessarily just for the heck of it, and eventually decline in quality as a result. I rate the first season with an 8/10 and the second with a 7, thus a 7.5 for the whole thing for now.

Note: This will cover both seasons

Never thought I’d be covering Star Wars of all things, in part due to being so famous and talked about there’s close to nothing to add to the discussion about it, and part due to not having much material to work with, the original trilogy is a fine action adventure space opera and that’s pretty much it. Plus I’m mostly unfamiliar with this universe, I did watch the prequel trilogy, some episodes of the 2000s cartoon, Rogue One, and Visions, if that counts, but that’s about it.

Speaking of Rogue One, it was a fine movie, definitely more serious and slower and kinda more boring than its chronological sequels, at least on its first half, but by fleshing its cast slowly, bothering to give an explanation to one of the weakest aspects of the movie that started it all, and literally going out with a bang, made it a worth watching experience on its second half.

So, for whatever reason they came out with a prequel about one of the protagonists from Rogue One, years later, and after the character’s role in the franchise was over, which doesn’t sound like a good idea in the least, but since the reception about it was largely positive and the series was considered to be the best Star Wars thing in a long time, eventually I was curious about it, and although I did not enjoy the first season, knowing that the show ended on its second season without dragging unnecessarily made it worth to watch the second season. As it turns out, Andor is the best Star Wars thing that I watched in my life.

The premise explores a part of this universe regarding the Rebellion, yet nothing about the Jedis, the Siths, the force and anything like that. No space magic, no fancy lightsaber fights, just politics and occasionally some shots here and there. I’m sorry the focus is on politics? Half the reason why people didn’t like the prequels? What’s going on?

Well the answer is simple, it turns out that dealing with politics interests people as long as multiple perspectives from both sides, intense plotlines and characters whose drama you care about are happening at the same time.

The series does not start that strongly though, and its pacing is definitely slow, even more so for what one would expect from Star Wars. Initially we see Andor as a wanted man with just enough information, but a lot of it is missing, and it takes a little while for him to connect with the actual plot and join the Rebellion. Once he does, it’s interesting to see how everyone distrust him for possibly being an enemy spy or something, and when he finally takes an active part on the strikes against the Empire, is actually caught, and his actions end up harming his close ones and town, every action leads to consequences.

The series slows down a little once again in the middle while he is imprisoned, and it has some silly bits here and there, but exploring that setting and coming up with believable ways for him to escape, while taking its time for the characters to be convinced, plan the escape and actually set it in motion, made it overall well written and thus was worth stopping the plot for it. The finale ends up with him actually joining the Rebellion for real, and shit getting real, though it can’t be denied that things take a quick and abrupt turn on the last episode.

The second season also starts slowly with Cassian being stuck with a bunch of idiots, which translates to more silly bits here and there, but luckily unlike the first season, the rest of the cast actually tries to move the plot forward, partially thanks for all the buildup and following their lives a little on the previous entry. Once the series finds its pacing it becomes great, with permanent high tension and consequences everywhere and for everyone, as both sides have spies and double agents constantly watching the other, and lots of characters actually die with close to no plot armor to be found. The rebels die in battle or being captured or are removed from the plot, the people from the Empire die in battle or due to their own incompetence or as punishment for either messing up or failing to meet the expected results. I’m sorry, am I watching Star Wars, or Legend of the Galactic Heroes?

And throughout the season we see the Empire constantly watching several townsfolks in search for rebels, even infiltrating them, and mining the needed material to build the Death Star, a secret to even most of its staff. Meanwhile the rebels also infiltrate the Empire, killing their own members when they are about to get caught, finding the traitors amongst them, and also having differences among their own files. At the same time we follow another political aspect through the perspective of Senator Mon Mothma, such as a political marriage, and political deals with other congressmen, while being pressured and eventually chased by the Empire.

As for characters, I can’t say I remember everyone with their names at all, but the way everyone is cautious and their relationships with each other made them a very good cast. Mothma was more memorable here than in whatever movie I saw her in, Andor has a good arc of reluctantly joining the Rebellion by accident or not wanting any part of it and desiring peace instead, to becoming such an active member of it, even going as far as risking his own life to save key members of it. Then we have Kleya with probably the best backdrop in the whole series, Dedra trying to manage her position on the Empire and her personal relationships simultaneously, Syril going through the same things yet also being a spy, and dealing with his overprotective and meddlesome mother, and Luthern definitely being the best character of the show, being the brain behind the whole Rebellion and an infiltrator at the same time.

Production wise, the series is very good for a tv show, everything looks polished and although a bit repetitive, the backgrounds can be quite absorbing, and the special effects are good both when it comes to practical and CGI. Since a lot of time there isn’t any action, the series can be quite static to look at, and without very interesting camera angles, and there’s an overabundance of human looking characters compared to actual aliens, so the designs are the least inspired and worst aspect of the series.

The sound design is as good as you would expect from Star Wars, both for the returning iconic sound effects and for the newly introduced ones, the music is very good but perhaps not at the level one would expect from something out of this franchise. The acting is good, definitely better than any I’ve seen from the movies I’ve watched from this IP, but I didn’t find it impressive or anything, just quite good.

The finale sets up Rogue One very well, though not as much as to become repetitive about what it’s already shown in there, and gives another dimension to Andor as a character, making his dramatic outcome in the movie even a lot more tragic.

If I were to criticize something about it, there’s pacing issues and the beginning and some other episodes weren’t as good as I already said, there are some last moment saves here and there, and Bix was disregarded very dirtily from the plot. Showing a character struggling to take action due to trauma is fine, but completely removing them from the plot altogether in such a way that they don’t contribute anything to it is a completely different thing, the writers basically turned her into a housewife, and not even a very good one at that, as we are made to know that Cassian is a better cook than her.

Nevertheless, as a whole, I didn’t enjoy this series because of its pacing, comedy, and the universe it belongs to not interesting me much, but it was otherwise strong and much better than I hoped it would be, and one of the best series I’ve watched in a while. I’m nowhere near enough to notice if there’s any major plot hole regarding the continuity of this franchise, though I remember seeing Mothma on some movies so maybe there are some chronological incongruences around her, which would mean a writing issue, but for what it did as a whole, it was a great one. It kept things going, had permanent consequences without bad writing, fleshed out its cast, wasn’t rushed, didn’t mess up in its second season like quite some shows that I watched recently did, and it didn’t overstay its welcome. I score the first season with a 7/10 and the second with an 8/10, which would round the whole thing at a 7.5/10, pretty good stuff.

Note: This will cover both seasons

Well time to review a third videogame adaptation in a row, but this time about a game I didn’t even play nor watch playthroughs of, so the comparisons I might make with the original will be very little and thus won’t be a very important part of this review and my criteria about the series.

The first season of The Last Of Us proves that you can make something great even out of a generic premise. To its core it’s a by the numbers zombie apocalypse show with all of its usual elements, but on closer inspection its execution makes it worthwhile without needing to be something very special.

First of all the production is very good, even more so for a tv show. The series combines both real locations, practical effects and animals with computer generated images, blending both really well and somehow even managing to confuse some people. The show is more drama than action oriented yet the most thrilling scenes and the fighting moments are well choreographed, filmed and portrayed, with no blurry camera motions or similar annoying stuff. For a little bit of negativity, that also means that the series can be a bit static at times, and the characters look normal and not exactly like their videogame counterparts, if that matters, while the infecteds don’t have a very distinctive design.

The atmosphere is also good, with a properly somber and kinda mysterious soundtrack that still knows how to sound epic when needed, and the sound design is one of the best aspects of the show, with every single sound effect adding to the intense mood of the series, every shriek, every grunt, every step, transports you into there. The acting is also very good from everyone, something which would be somewhat missed on the second season.

The initial premise is based on an actually existing fungus. Whether it would be even near to cause something remotely close to what it does in the show is debatable, and it sure was when the first season came out, but it is a nice addition.

As it is usually the case with post-apocalyptic fiction like this one, the focus eventually switches to show how humankind deals with the situation, which normally causes two types of reaction, Those disappointed by the lack of presence of a monster threat, and those that praise the look at human behaviour under such dreadful situations. I happen to belong to the second group because I think people fighting off zero dimensional monsters can only get you so far before the action becomes repetitive and the thrills stop being, well, thrilling.

But it’s not like the infected get sidelined for the sake of the human drama, the show knows how to balance the thrills with the sociological themes, not undermining something in the favor of the other thing, despite clearly focusing on one genre. Another positive aspect is how the superhuman threat remains consistent. There are several types of infecteds, each one looking and acting in a certain way, despite sharing common characteristics, and the rational humans know how to react to them and fight against them because of that. Besides, unlike other zombie type of fiction that I’ve seen, the infecteds in here do not change their capabilities in strength or speed nor their behaviour for the sake of the story plot-armouring the humans.

The other aspect is very well handled, showing humankind organizing and working in groups to survive instead of becoming crazy beasts or anything of the sort, which is not that uncommon for monstrous hordes invasion type of stories. Even amongst the most paranoidal and evil characters, they stick in groups to fight against the infected, as well as other humans, cooperation is key to survive and live, even more so during the apocalypse.

Since I normally review animation, I think it’s worth mentioning that live action series have the advantage of 40 minutes to an hour of runtime per episode, thus even characters that appear for just one episode can get explored and be fleshed out, and that’s certainly the case here. But obviously the characters that are most looked into are the two main ones, from their pasts, their losses, what they can and can’t do, their weird father-daughter dynamic they build upon throughout the season.

What I appreciate is having an experienced, veteran, middle aged lead, who is knowledgeable about different topics and how to defend himself, and the way he teaches stuff to the coprotagonist. She on the other hand is obviously important as a plot device for being immune, and adds a bit of humanity, morality, light mood, and yet still a traumatic past that forced her to be able to fend for herself, and yet can’t simply overpower everyone she comes across. Unlike power fantasy stories for teenagers, the little girl here will certainly struggle and see herself bested by the antagonists they face here and there. Even Joel himself will have health issues that will make him suffer at times.

And I appreciate how there are actual stakes in the series. Obviously the main leads won’t die, but their partners and friends sure will, and their families are going to be in need of rescue.

Another good aspect is that the protagonists will sometimes have to antagonize other innocent people trying to survive just like them, with the final episode being the most famous peak of gray morality in the franchise, at the very least the best handled moment with that intention.

For the negatives, how many zombie stories do you know that have actual endings? Yeah, this one is another case too, though there’s an explanation here, and a sense of closure and catharsis along with it, plus the outcome will come back to bite the protagonists in the ass, which is always welcome in a sequel.

Then the seventh episode, Ellie’s flashback, which adapts the DLC of the first game, was certainly introduced weirdly into the narrative. But worst of all was the third episode, which yeah yeah I know it was one of the most popular and beloved and highly rated, something that I never understood.

First of all, it adds nothing to the plot, because the characters aren’t seen ever again, essentially meaning that the episode was a waste of screentime. And I know that the couple was very cherished by a lot of people who in turn cried with them and whatnot, but all I saw was one man trespassing the house of another, asking for a shower, clothes, food and even a piano piece, then jumping onto him for sex and to stay, to later pretend to change the other man’s life. I don’t see how any of this is romantic nor adds anything to the narrative.

But besides those issues, the first season of The Last Of Us was the best I could ask for a series of its genre and kind, with both a sense of thrill and good drama, sociological aspects, stakes, and characters that are looked into. Even the lack of an ending is excused and there’s some sort of closure at the end of the season. I rate the first entry with an 8/10.

Unfortunately, just like it happened when the videogame when it came out, according to its reception, the second season was a huge drop in quality compared to the first. Not in terms of production though, which remained just as good as it was in the first season.

I wish I could say the same for the atmosphere, but even though the sound design and the music keep the same level of quality, it is not exactly the case for the acting.
Everyone did a really good job, except for Bella Ramsey, and I don’t understand why. She killed it during the previous entry, so why does she underperform here? I don’t know, maybe it’s a directing thing, but she certainly does not emote much during some scenes, and lacks a bit of needed intensity for some other moments, even more when you compare them with the videogame, and that’s an issue when the character she plays is the protagonist of the show.

Regarding the script, the main problem is how silly some moments are, probably in part because of a lighter mood. Downtime scenes are needed to make the audience care about the characters, but it’s not like they are being fleshed out here. Also, the cast is so used to fighting the infecteds, there’s not the same sense of thrill, which makes sense of course but it’s a natural course of any zombie story if they last for more than needed and why they stop being entertaining after a while.

I said that but when it comes to humans, the main characters are outclassed almost every time. There have been complaints about the way Joel is written in this season, and although I was not having issues with it, that changed after the flashback episode, he should have been more cautious to remain consistent to how he used to be. And Ellie is a lot worse, she was more capable as a kid than as a young adult, though I guess it makes sense because she was fighting common people before, and actual militia now.

Also, I did not expect this show to have plot armor, not because of the infected, Ellie makes use of her immunity consistently and several times, but something always happens to prevent her being killed by other people. And I have to point out that some characters were saved by out of nowhere last moment saves.

Although there were moments when they were fighting off infecteds, it seemed to me that these were considerably less than in the previous season, and I didn’t understand why they let them advance so much in the second episode before attacking them, but it came out alright I guess.

Another issue is the lack of sociological themes, since the main cast already established themselves in a somewhat secured place, they no longer interact with other survivors in any way. Instead they are trapped in the middle of a war between two messed up armies, which is never fully explained to the audience. I mean it’s understandable for the protagonists to be clueless about it because the conflict does not concern them, so why would they know anything about it?, especially when they are trying to avoid it, but we as the viewers are almost just as lost to what’s going on because the focus of the narrative is not there. It seems that part of the plot will get on that in the next season though, so maybe we will get an actual explanation about it.

But at the end of the day the worst aspect of the season was the romantic elements and the way they were introduced in the plot. Was it really necessary for a pregnancy to be revealed after such an intense episode and scene? Was it necessary for it to be immediately followed by a sex scene? Why are the characters talking about a three way parenting? Does the guy even know? Is he being cuckolded? And it’s all so silly to be thrown in the middle of all the seriousness, it clashes a lot with the rest of the show.

Oh, and what was that final scene and cliffhanger at the end about though? A tease to a switch in the narrative for the next season, maybe?

Not everything is bad or undercooked though, at the end of the day it wasn’t really a bad season, there were some good scenes, moments and episodes here and there:

-Like I said earlier, the aftermath and consequences of the finale of the first season coming back for the protagonists is an interesting setup.

-Despite how the narrative treats him, the cuckold guy is very rational and one of the best characters introduced in this entry.

-Dina is also fine besides her conflicted emotions.

-Ellie accidentally killing off two people and what resulted off of it afterwards was probably the best scene in the whole season.

-The series begins to build the whole theme of revenge, reflected on how most of the town is against Ellie and her quest for vengeance after the second episode, because it could probably be a disaster for them in the long run.

-Abby does not seem to be that bad of a character, refusing to kill those she considers innocent, though she remains fairly unexplored.

-There’s a flashback episode just like in the first season, and it recontextualizes the whole of this one, mainly the drama between Ellie and Joel, to the point I ask myself why didn’t they just start with that one instead.

As a whole, the season was a big drop in quality compared to the first, but still had some good stuff in it, making it possible for the third and hopefully last one to save the series, but as for this one, I can’t give it more than a 5/10, dropping my score of an 8 for the first to a 6 for now for the series as a whole.

Note: This will cover both seasons

Just like the first series was not an adaptation but instead based on different games, the Nocturne spin-off sequel is based on Symphony of the Night, but even more so, Rondo of Blood, while also featuring an older version of the protagonist of Harmony of Dissonance.

The setting changed completely to 19th century France, around the same time as the French revolution. If you played the games you will instantly notice one major change around Anette, who was not only raceswapped but also wrote in a totally different way, to deal with the theme of slavery and tie it with the theme of freedom of the setting and time period themselves.

I don’t exactly remember if it was the case with the games, but the whole cast was changed from the experienced fighters from the previous series, to reluctant and traumatized teenagers in this one. This change would normally translate to more explored and better characters, but the reality is that the cast here is not handled in a very interesting way.

And the cause of that is both that the amount of episodes is quite low compared with the first series, and the pacing is very weird, sometimes too slow and sometimes too fast. Thus half the first season the heroes don’t know jack about what’s going on, have to learn what to do from older generations and introspect about their pasts, while the plot is taking place somewhere else.

Yet at the same time, in just a few episodes, Ritchter the protagonist is capable of besting the big bad when he couldn’t do much just some episodes earlier, the final showdown really kinda comes out of nowhere and goes by quite fast. At least the fight and animation themselves were quite good, even though I was not as impressed with them as I was while watching the previous series. I will say though that the demons in the show look heavily inspired by Devilman, but done a lot better here.

Oh and there’s a bard in the main group for some reason, only there to provide some tracks to the background music and then be turned into a demon. Since I mentioned the music, I might as well talk about the audio department, and as usual I don’t have much to say about it. Good music, good sound effects, I only watched the show in Latin American Spanish this time, so I don’t know the original, but the dub is also good.

Unfortunately the second season is everything that was said about Arcane season 2 and more. The characters remain boring and don’t go through any major changes in this season, as everything that was there to explore about them was dealt with in the previous entry it seems, and let me tell you that the cast ended up being very blank because of that.

Ok there’s some emotional and psychological focus on Maria I guess, but it’s handled quite poorly. Her capabilities, the very nature of her powers, and her personality from edgy to pure again are all changed literally from one episode to another. The show tries to tie her arc with her mother and her conflicting hybrid nature, but she too can feel inconsistent and without a lot of focus to her to matter much nor help the writing of her daughter much.

Wanna talk about Annette? She’s just a literal plot device in this season, just a catalyst for an ancient entity whose powers are boring and add nothing to the battle choreography.

The bard is still there, now as a demon, but still only just to sing, only to somehow overpower a seemingly more powerful and older demon with relative ease and no explanation in the final episodes.

There’s betrayal on the villain side just like in the original series, but over here had very little build up, the character in this case wasn’t nearly as interesting and looked into as Carmilla, and his contribution to the final showdown was minimal.

There are issues with the theme exploration as well. The French Revolution seemed to be a big part of the themes in the first season, yet over here they ended up being just background decoration. And also, two side characters had a theme of racism and homosexuality going on, but they are either barely mentioned or don’t get enough focus as the previous series, or even the first season of this one.

The characters are still inconsistently capable. They keep messing up in juvenile ways, because they are inexperienced teenagers and not seasoned veterans like the previous cast, yet they also somehow overpower not one but two major villains in the final episodes.

Speaking of which, the finale of the previous season is undone for no reason. The major villain from the first season was killed at the end of it, yet revived in this one, had her backdrop story shown in a hurry, and revealed to become the major villain again in the most predictable and underwhelming plot twist ever. This also translates to not one but two disappointing final showdowns against two major villains, both taking place in a hurry in just the two final episodes. And although the animation was spectacular, I have to say that I wasn’t nearly as impressed with the battle choreography and the abilities of the characters, as I was with the original trio from the first series.

I don’t know if Nocturne is gonna get a third season, there was some stuff left a little bit unresolved to excuse it, but as it is now it’s a very inconsistently paced and underwhelming show that needed more episodes to flow more naturally and have better writing and theme exploration, which is a shame because superficially there are elements for a good story in it. I give the first season and the series as a whole a 5/10, but the second season deserves a 4/10.

Note: This will cover the whole series

Now that I got my warmup with Arcane out of the way, it’s time for a review about another videogame adaptation I actually wanted to write, the Castlevania series based on Castlevania III, bits from Symphony of the Night, characters from Curse of Darkness, Simon’s Quest and Rondo of Blood, and elements from Lord of Shadows, but not really adapting any of those titles.

I find it important to clarify that, as many fans of the franchise didn’t like the cartoon because of its many differences with the videogames. Again, the show is based on the IP, not an adaptation of it.

The second thing to clarify is that the series is not anime, or at least not in a traditional sense in the West. It’s based on a Japanese IP, and has a Japanese dub, but was mainly produced in the US, by American studios, and its original version is in English. Part of the staff that animated it did work on anime though, so that’s why it is included on some anime databases, but technically speaking that would make it an anime-inspired cartoon at most, despite the label Netflix uses to classify this show with.

Even though I said that, the series can be compared with the likes of Hellsing for its vampire hunting and religious elements, or JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure for similar reasons, plus a similar narrative of a family fighting off vampires or people influenced by them for generations.

The series takes place in 15th century Romania and follows Trevor, a reluctant hero belonging in the long line of the Belmont family of vampire hunters, doing what he was trained to do more because of things happening around him than he willingly jumping into the action. That is my way of saying that he kinda bumps into the plot than moving it on his own.

The other main characters, the elemental mage Sypha Belnades, out for protecting her close ones and as payment for being rescued by Belmont, and Alucard, son of Dracula and thus the one character with emotional stake in the series, are thus more interesting than him.

As for the antagonist himself, we see him being feared yet wanting to live his life on his own, slowly falling in love with a human woman and thus becoming more accepting of them, before turning against them after being accused of being a demon and his wife of being a witch, and getting attacked.

The production is very good. The artwork is constantly solid with no quality drops, the character designs were fairly updated from the videogames but more or less kept the essence from the originals, the style is both anime inspired but also fairly grounded. The backgrounds are also done well but kinda limited on this first season, and the special effects are overall good but the weakest part throughout the whole series. The motions are good but the show did not get to show off much on this first season.

I can’t say much about the audio department, it wasn’t particularly remarkable. Good sound effects and typical epic, fitting soundtrack I guess, the opening was very short, simple and boring though. I struggled with the voice acting not because it was bad but because of the accents which made it very hard for me to listen to the original version, so I switched to either Japanese or Latin American Spanish, both of which were good, and had some differences in script from the original.

The first season was very short, clearly just to see how well it would be received and to form the main team and present the series, but it is overall fine for what it is, I rate it with a 6/10.

The second season has some silly comical bits here and there to show the dynamics between the two male leads but it is mostly more serious, and starts to develop the main romance of the series, while also and more importantly advancing the plot. The pacing is not the most engaging, as it takes several episodes of planning and magical stuff for the heroes to find and attack the villains, but having the villains’ castle being hard to approach makes it more believable in my opinion.

Obviously you can’t have an entire season with just that, so this one focuses a lot on the side of the bad guys, introducing characters and elements from Curse of Darkness and showing differences amongst them in personalities, loyalty, bloodlust, ways of fighting and hunting, and a betrayal taking place underneath. We also see the main villain remembering times of peace and what his loved one would have wanted, as well as having a sort of emotional reencounter with his son, mellowing down basically, and thus partly responsible for the internal conflicts between his followers.

The action was incredible this season, with the differences amongst the fighting styles of the main trio against Dracula’s army, with Belmont and his whipping, Alucard combining super strength and flying swordsmanship, and Sypha and her mixed elemental magic. The problem is probably the pacing, as the built up fight happens in a very fast manner, the battle choreography and animation were great, it just happens very quickly.

The final showdown is more drama oriented than action oriented, and although that might have disappointed some viewers, I appreciated this approach and its build up throughout the whole season, which even has a sense of closure and catharsis at its end, despite the story remaining incomplete.

The production went up a notch on this entry, with the improved motions and special effects for all of its action. The characters introduced in this season, such as Carmilla and Isaac, were redesigned from the videogames, and honestly for the better, even with the raceswap that was done to the latter. Hector looks almost the same as he does in Curse of Darkness, but he was tremendously changed as a character. I wish he was more like his original self, but even as he is, he is fine, and the others were done far better than in the videogames.

I think there were some short musical references to the soundtracks of the videogames, but I otherwise didn’t notice many differences in the audio department.

As a whole, this season was a bit faster, had more of a plot, looked into the characters more, and had very good action and production. It's a notable improvement over the first, and the best season overall, so I give it something between a 6.5 and a 7/10.

The third season was a step back in quality all around. More static and with a bit more questionable CGI, thus worse special effects, plus the newly introduced characters don’t have very interesting designs, thus the visuals are worse as a whole. As usual, the audio department didn’t feature many major changes, though at least half the season is quieter and more monotone, thus it is the worst in here as well.

The story takes an actually interesting approach, as it bothers to tap into the aftermath of the ending of the second season and what the “new” antagonists plan to do, as well as their backdrop stories. Unfortunately the actual plot is very talky, very slow, does not progress much, focuses a lot on secondary characters and places that won’t matter much in the next season, making it feel like it’s on sidequest mode for most if not all of its duration.

It also falls for the usual with Western adult oriented cartoons, there’s need for sex to be on screen to show that the series is indeed adult, while the scenes provide nothing to the plot. To its credit, one sex scene was about a character manipulating another and turning him into her slave, even if somehow the audience has seen it as romantic, and another one was just an excuse for some people to try and kill a major character. But nonetheless, none of them felt justified to be there.

A weird thing about this third season was its theme exploration, as themes of feminism and patriarchy are introduced through the backdrop story of the main villain, and although explaining a character does not equal to justify them, in this case it felt like this particular character was being victimized, while otherwise being horrible and a big threat to humanity as a whole. Dracula was decently and shortly explored, this new villain, not really.

As a whole the third season was by far the worst one in every way, worse visuals, the most boring audio, little and very slow plot, and the writing and theme exploration weren’t really there, so I can’t rate this one higher than a 5/10. Meaning, it is still not really a bad season.

As the fourth season starts, you notice the necessity of the stuff shown in the third season. Although there are some inferior, boring, slow and mostly uneventful episodes, for most of its duration, it’s dedicated to the action, showdowns and epilogue of the story. Slaves turn against masters, villains are overpowered in epic fights, Alucard completes his character arc and unites people for safety and eventually even battle, and even a secondary character from the third season sort of develops and gets a catharsis. Also the last episodes are almost fully dedicated to a big battle against many demonic creatures, and even death itself.

It would be the best season if not for the actual ending, filled with a short and a bit disappointing final battle, plot armor to save a main character from a certain death, and even some previously dead characters being revived out of nowhere for a forced happy ending and even going against the whole point of the series in a way if you ask me. So yeah the actual finale was pretty bad.

Which is a shame because it was otherwise doing fairly well and even the production went back to being slightly better than the one from the previous season, minus some weak special effects here and there.

As a whole, this season could have been the best one if not for the actual finale of the season and the whole series, but it is still worth the watch and better than the previous entry, so I give it a score of 6/10.

As a whole, the Castlevania series may not be as well put together and exciting as the rule of cool anime I compared it with due to pacing and ending issues, but otherwise connects its themes with straightforward action fairly well, maybe aside from the third season, so I think it’s worth at least a one time watch, as long as you don’t expect it to be a direct adaptation of the games.

When you hear about a League of Legend-based series about Piltover, with the crazy marksman Jinx being chased by the huge mechanical gloves wielder tomboy bruiser Vi and the overly exaggerated British sniper Caitlyn, announced at the peak of the hype around Cyberpunk 2077, what do you expect if not mindless action?

Well, as Arcane proved, turns out that was not the intention, as instead there was a lot of focus on the emotional connection between the characters, the basics of the way the arcane magic from the setting works, a theme of fusing magic and science, and a sociopolitical conflict between the rich and developed Columbia (from Bioshock Infinite)-like Piltover and Zaun, the poor and contaminated slums below it, and surprisingly without victimizing nor demonizing neither side, as there are gray characters on both sides of the conflict.

The first season shows engineers Jayce and Victor (this one originally from Zaun) learning to canalize arcane infused magical crystals on weapons and tools, which may help as a resource for Piltover, enforcer (policewoman) Caitlyn and gangster and former prisoner Vi working together to find Jinx and other criminals, so the conflict between the cities does not escalate further, part of the higher ups from Piltover wanting to leave Zaunites alone, and even early in the story one leader of misfits, Vander, containing the gangs back there with the same objective. And as the emotional core of it all, the conflict between two separated sisters, confronted about a tragic event in their past.

Although the cast in general is fine, the best handled characters are Silco, a major gangster developing toxic weapons and monsters with a gas that Piltover releases over Zaun, to use them back against the city, and Jinx, whose crazy antics were changed from the videogame from maniacal to traumatized, with seemingly a personality disorder, constantly having conversations with another version of herself, or completely alone, flashbacks and illusions of people from her past, and being hurt for all the loses and abandonment in her life, plus seeing her sister working with those who were their enemies their whole lives.

To that can be added an almost impeccable production. The artstyle is distinctive, the 3D models, places and backgrounds are well rendered and show no issue whatsoever, the character designs were updated for the better from their originals (besides Viktor), the motions are polished, the facial expressions are impressively detailed, and the special effects are also very good. The audio department contains incredible sound effects, good enough voice acting at least in English, Spanish, Latin American Spanish and Japanese, and some references to the music from the videogames, but suffers from a not very good soundtrack with even Disney’s Phill Collins era of excusing exposition with the weak lyrics of easygoing songs.

Besides that, not everything in the first season was good, as the runtime sometimes suffered from slice of life moments, silly comical bits that clash with the overall seriousness, some unnecessary scenes which stalled the plot, and the lack of an ending. But nonetheless, if you just stick with the first season, it is overall a solid watch.

Unfortunately, there’s a notable drop in quality in the second season. Not in terms of production though, as the audio kept the same level and the animation was just as phenomenal if not better thanks to having some different and distinctive visual styles during some scenes.

But what was undeniably worse was the script. To be fair with it, the overall story is good and it does start well with Zaunites rioting and Caitlyn dealing with her loss from the first season and turning it into a class-based hate, beyond a personal one, even telling Vi she’s “one of the good ones”. Besides that you have Jinx helping other Zaunites and making them rise, the sisters sorting things out, the lesbian pairing becoming canon after more than a decade, Noxians displaying the invasion they were cooking over since the beginning, an anticipation and buildup of the Black Rose group, a look into Mel’s past, objective and family situation, and even metaphysical aspects with a sort of multiversal closed loop at the end of the series.

Unfortunately, too many things are happening at the same time, and in such a short time, that you can’t help but feel that the pacing is rushed or the amount of episodes is short or the runtime is poorly handled. Caitlyn becomes a dictator and snaps out of it after a montage; she breaks up with Vi, gets together with someone else, then helps Vi again for her personal gain despite going against her whole plan, and then gets back with her, out of nowhere. Silco is revered as a hero of the people for… reasons, Jinx becomes his successor of sorts and liberates Zaun, out of screen, Vander turns out to be alive, his past and relationship with Silco is revealed, introducing issues with what was previously established about the kids from the first season, the sisters sort things out out of nowhere, a whole episode is dedicated to what if scenarios in another timeline, wasting runtime that could have been dedicated to what it is actually happening in the plot.

Also there’s another unnecessary sex scene, not as long as the one from the first season but even more awkwardly introduced in the series, there’s some silly comedy here and there, there’s a whole invasion, war and Zaun and Piltover uniting out of nowhere to fight a bigger threat, and that was the end of their decades worth of conflict, and the metaphysical aspects are presented and resolved, all of these last things taking place in one and a half episodes.

Also, regarding the death of characters, some people complained about their lack of impact and how little the characters ended up matter in the plot, while players of the game complained about the canon inconsistencies. Personally I think no death is confirmed on screen, every character can get back to life one way or another, and the canon of the game doesn’t matter one bit because they can always rewrite it for the third or fourth time and call it a day.

But down to it, it is true that every interesting aspect introduced on either the first or the second season got a rushed and lukewarm resolution in the end. So although I had this series rated positively for a while, I no longer can turn a blind eye to its many problems in the second season, and have to lower my score to the point of considering the series not worth the watch, at least not beyond the first three episodes of the second season.

Well Ave Mujica is here and compared to the prequel I’ve got to say that I appreciate how it is more straightforward, directly showing more about the main character and where she comes from instead of trying to be half mysterious as MyGO!!!!! was in its beginning. I still can’t excuse her personality and how she deals with things, but I can at least understand why and how she does the things she does.

In comparison to the previous entries I watched, the tone here is far more serious, being almost entirely focused on that mood and without mixing it with comedy as much as its prequel, and I actually think that the themes it was going for were very interesting. Right off the bat, Ave Mujica attempts to deal with the world of girl pop bands in Japan, and how their members have to hide a good part of their private lives, and in general how there can be different artistic visions amongst their members.

But there are also discussions between them about their different goals, whether it is more important to pursue what you want to do out of your art or what the audience wants out of you, as well as if it’s better to follow a performance in a prepared way or be spontaneous, both for the sake of spectacle, and so you can make it big quickly.

Besides that, there is the character Nyamu, who wants to become successful as quick as possible but gets perplexed at the actual talent of Mutsumi, so she wants to improve herself and ends up rejecting those opportunities. That other girl tries to keep up with her famous persona and the expectations others have about her, from her fans to the band, and is worried about doing the proper thing for her group and standing out for herself and not as someone from a famous family of artists. She gets mentally pressured to the point of developing a split personality and faking the public persona that was always expected out of her, with even full episodes of psychological immersion included.

Unfortunately, good intentions mean nothing without good execution and I can’t exactly say that there’s one in here, as events happen in rather quick succession and somewhat quirky ways to feel as serious and well explored as the writing and tone clearly intended, and as organic as needed for them to seem properly written.

The series takes off right from the ending of the previous one, and I have to say that for a band that refuses to use their connections, they sure form, get famous and get to have a big concert very fast. Unlike the toxic MyGO!!!!! though, you can see problems within this band right away, as half the members don’t have any connection and some of them disagree with the supposed leader on what to do. It could have been interesting to see how the protagonist deals with other characters being as proactive as her, instead of people that just do what she wants, and I expected her to have a character arc revolved around her realizing that she just plain sucks as a leader, and friend.

But just like with every other plot point in here, things happen very fast, with most of them getting no more than one episode or even half of one of runtime before moving to something else, so the handling of them end up being treated rather superficially and leaving a lot to be desired.

Even when something gets a more appropriate runtime dedicated to it, like that one girl having a mental breakdown, the writing of it can come off as corny and melodramatic, as serious theme exploration gets replaced with generic teenage drama and tearjerker moments. Yes, it’s a show about teen girls but that doesn’t excuse stuffing it up with themes and topics that aren’t going to be properly explored.

And for how proactive the characters seemed to be, eventually the MyGO!!!!! girls have to step in to help them with their problems and move the show forward, so the series end up being dependent of its prequel and its main group of the previous one, despite being released as their own things.

The teen drama also even replaces the music as the main focus of the series, and if you have read my other reviews about pop idols/bands shows, and even Hibike! Euphonium, you know how I dislike when that happens. I will at least admit that stuff that happens in the anime excuse the interruption of the performances and their replacement with enough downtime for the characters to deal with their personal issues, but I still found it disappointing that the teen drama took over the main point of the show completely. By comparison, MyGO!!!!! also had a lot of that, but the music was never sidelined as hard as in here.

At least in here the characters are straightforward, but somehow even more toxic than their predecessors were, and I wish their whole conflict wasn’t about generic teen drama where they yell and cry on screen to each other for classic emotional manipulation full of tearjerker moments, and simple by-the-numbers resolutions.

It’s hard to write about the rest of the characters because the vast majority of the show is about they overcoming their problems, thus doing so would result on heavy amounts of spoilers. I will at least say that Uika has yuribait moments that would make KyoAni proud, and a cheesy telenovela worthy backdrop story that’s not even shown but told. I know that I sound like a broken record, but again, they didn’t get enough focus and when they did it felt way too rushed and over the top, partially for coming up too late in the story. And Umiri is just there to be the professional one of the team and really nothing more. She is revealed to be the token funny girl, which was a surprise, but nothing of real substance behind, she is given a backstory that’s supposed to be sad but she doesn’t seem to care about it, so why would I? And her emotional breakdown later on wasn’t the least convincing.

The audio aspect in this anime ends up being disappointing because, although I prefer this band’s theatrical gothic rockpop music over the jpop made by MyGO!!!!! and the gothic jpop of Roselia, there are just a few full performances, only one up until the 10th episode in fact, and you can hear that song on the opening. Aside from that there’s the ending and I liked both but it’s a shame that there is such a shortage of songs from a music anime, especially one with such a cool aesthetic. The voice acting is still weak, even when some of the Ave Mujica members have actual experienced seiyuus behind them and there’s one song on one episode that purposely sounds like shit because the girl singing it can’t stop crying on stage and screen. The reason for that is that other characters, including the returning MyGO!!!!! cast, still sound inexperienced and not natural or not with enough nuance behind their delivery. The sound effects are there, whatever.

Same thing with the visuals, they didn’t change at all from the previous series, they are ok-ish, the CGI can look very plastic at times, but eh, it is what it is.

As a whole this was the most interesting out of the three BanG Dream entries I followed because it was the most ambitious, and I appreciate the early slight improvements over the writing and characterization compared to the previous show. Unfortunately, the execution and the pacing became a lot worse as the series went on, and ended up leaving a lot to be desired from what it could have been, ending in the same old meh result for a third time, leaving me with no real interest to follow another one.

Disclaimer: Consider the possibility of this review containing minor spoilers.

Chi. Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite, or Orb: About the Movements of the Earth, as it came to be known in English, is the dark horse anime from last and this year, coming out without any hype behind and being one of the best and most praised, despite remaining relatively niche.

To start with, it is important to say that it is one of the most serious anime in years. It has a little bit of comedy and action in it but they are so briefly in the show, especially the former, that they might as well not count. It easily enters into that list of anti-anime or non-anime shows for people that is not into the medium much because of the typical idea they have about it.

With that said, Orb is clearly not a show meant for a mainstream appeal, status and audience, it is a serious, heavy on dialogues and slow burn type of a series for an acquired taste. Every arc starts in a just ok way and it takes its time in presenting characters, their beliefs and ideologies, setting, and plot points that change over several time skips in the anime. Once it gets to the points it tries to come across and the payoffs for each new part, the complete whole is something to be recognized and appreciated.

Another backlash that the anime might have is prioritizing concepts and themes in its story over character appeal. Not to say that the characters are bad, but they are not exactly memorable and it is clear that the main focus of the show is on something else.

And of course there always will be criticisms about the historical accuracy of an historical show. I can not speak for that but apparently the anime has been clarified to be a sort of alternative history type of series and setting, so that aspect can be excused up to some point.

Other minor issues are how some lines can come off as corny for some, and that there are some inferior episodes and scenes for how unbelievable and exaggerated they can be, with the bridge scene from the fifth episode being the lowest point of the anime. Other not very believable aspects include, for example, two characters being scholars that normally would not have been.

Despite those points, this is a legitimately worth watching anime, and of course not just because it has a serious tone. First of all, some of its dialogues can be semi philosophical and very good, as characters discuss their perspectives on how to live a life, whether a Heaven or not exists, if the accepted cosmovision fits the perfect universe created by God or not; if Heaven is perfect and pure and Earth is impure and rotten, or they are complementaries making a complete whole; whether or not it is worth sacrificing your life for a cause and idea, how knowledge and information can transcend time and entire lives, the importance, passion and appeal behind books and writing in itself, if the church has become a dogma that defies God’s message, if one truly is ready to search for and face the truth even if it contradicts one’s knowledge, and many more topics that get entire episodes dedicated to them, and not just through dialogues.

The themes are also explored through the plot itself and the character arcs, the cast can get their entire lives shaken and even put at risk for coming across certain knowledge, proceed to question everything they knew up until that point, change their whole perspectives of life, and even come to sacrifice themselves in order to protect what they believe or know about and prolong through time the results they get.

As can be deduced from the previous paragraph, Orb is also an anime with actual stakes, as it does not hesitate to kill off important characters on situations they can not logically survive, so no plot armor in it.

Also, there are not that many scenes of astronomy in it, but the few of them that exist are done well enough to explain the logic and studies of the characters and how they come to find about and develop the idea of heliocentrism.

And contrary to what could be believed, Orb is not anti-religion, it is anti-dogma, as most of the important characters are against the church not for being non-believers, but rather for standing against the church tainting God’s teachings and the world itself as an extension. And even though it shows cruel acts and scenes, the anime is properly dark and never becomes cartoonish in any way. It achieves that by keeping the sides somewhat grey, not every priest is bad, even some inquisitors mean well and question their doing, and not every heretic is a passionate intellectual either, some even go on a rampage killing believers just because.

Another thing to point out about the writing is how it plays out the card of ironic twist of fate. A dead character can remain influential decades afterwards, the main antagonist that wants to preserve the status quo and protect his close ones loses everything and even is one of the reasons for that himself, somebody might doom a relative while trying to save them, an elitist with a superiority complex ends up in the need of relying on others, a girl belittled and looked down by everyone ends up being a leader, and more such cases.

The characters are not exactly memorable, I couldn’t name any of them without looking them up, don’t have the most elaborate personalities, and don’t get much development. They are still quite good thanks to proper fleshing, well founded personalities, solid backstories for everyone, changes of perspective thanks to the ironic writing, and they leave the story with a feeling of catharsis. Just for the sake of being a bit more specific:

-Rafal, an orphan guy living life doing what is expected of him to have it easy, desperately gives in to his passion and does the most illogical thing.

-Oczy, a former fighter and I guess assassin for hire or something, with not expectations in life, ends up putting his own life on the line for heliocentrism even against a far stronger enemy. He also starts working as an assistant or even a servant of sorts, yet yearns for learning and ends up being the most important character for preserving the theory. His whole world got turned all over the more he got involved and found a purpose along the way. What I did not understand is that he seemed to have an academic past, as shown on flashbacks, yet did not know how to read and write? I guess I am missing something about him.

-Badeni, for both a main character and a priest, he sure is not considered to be a good person. Selfish, arrogant, classicist, elitist, has a superiority complex that makes he sees himself as some sort of chosen one by God to achieve big things and not needed anyone else for nothing. His whole character arc is realizing the exact opposite, as he ends up being the stepping stone he so did not want to become.

-Jolenta, a scholar girl scammed and belittled by everyone, although just for a few episodes, with no hope of being allowed doing anything, and with a close connection to the main antagonist. Ends up being a teacher and even a heretic leader after a time skip. Her character arc is one of the best, most ironic, bittersweet and cathartic aspects in the whole show.

-Draka, the last protagonist of the series, a proactive girl that wants to defy the status quo of her community by making them compete with each other, and an ambitious person with a case of early stage capitalism. It is interesting to see how determined and quick thinking she is in trying to survive and make a profit, yet ends up developing an emotional understanding of another character that no one else did.

-Nowak, the main antagonist of the show and one of the best in years in the medium. Strong, good fighter, cruel, intimidating, smart, observer, sharp, wanting to protect his family in his vision and fighting against the revolutionary ideas that might trip the world itself, while preferring not to hurt people themselves. Even at his worst, oldest and most depressed state on the last arc, he is still the biggest threat. His conclusion on the story might be the biggest payback on the whole series and yet incredibly cathartic and it sure felt satisfactory to watch.

-Albert Brudzewski. The only actual person of the show, a man conflicted about whether or not pursue knowledge thanks to the polarizing views he was educated with and the character the last two episodes are focused on as he comes with a position on his own.

The ending of the series leaves you rather indifferent, the themes and dialogues in it are fine, the catharsis for the last important character is there, but it feels weirdly tacked on in the story. It is rather confusing, as it is unsure whether or not it deleted the whole plot up until that point or if it treated it as a what if scenario or not, the timeline became a bit convoluted and ambiguous, to the point that many believe the series pulled off as troll alternative timelines type of twist.

As for the production, the series looks good, with ever-solid artwork, backgrounds, and actual dark scenes in a retro style. The character designs and figures are good and stand out by being not generic nor repetitive, but are also a bit simple. The animation is good for the few and brief fight scenes, but the series can be very static for the rest of the show. The special effects are overall good but there is some weak CGI here and there.

The sound effects and music are good but they do not excel, the BGM can be immersive but also quite repetitive. The opening and endings have this odd relaxed feeling to them that fit well with the slow feel of the show but I am not entirely sure if they go well with the content and setting in it. At least on their own they are fine, are well directed, and feature visual changes in them reflecting the changes across the different arcs of the series. The voice acting is serious, mature, the voices fit every character perfectly, but the performances lack a bit of nuance for them to really shine, the cast did nothing wrong, it is just what they have to work with.

As a whole, I maintain what I wrote about it at the beginning of the review, Orb is definitely one of the most worth watching anime shows from last year, and the beginning of this one. But I must also say that the ending left me a bit disappointed, and for a while made me think that it was as bad as the one from Dededede. Finales are hard to write, even more so if you are Japanese it seems.