Katanagatari review (I hated it)

 I only watched 3 episodes. I was annoyed. I'm just wanted somewhere to rant since I have anger issues.

Ok so I saw some Youtube clip of it, so I thought I might give it ago. MAN IT WAS BORING O_O!!!!! AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

I felt like I wasted 3 hours of my life, even if I was crocheting whilst watching, so I actually did get something out of it.

First thing I hated were the unlikeable characters. Jesus Christ al' mighty. I think the little sister was likeable the most but she god biffed early on, didn't she?

The main guy, shichika is a dumbass, and the main female, togame is a ditz. They're both idiots for comedy but they're not even funny, they're just annoying. Can the girl just shut up?? Fuuuuu 

They're supposed to be some sort of a lover, but with no actual love involved. Just very blank words from shichika "that's why I fell for you." or something stupid like that. So their relationship doesn't perk your interest in romantic stories, just your dislike for both characters for their annoying traits. I might have even liked it more if the sister was there to keep their stupidity in check, but I don't know. Even with that, both characters are so annoying that I probably wouldn't have.

Terrible... terrible story telling... I understand that this is a light-novel adaptation and the novels may have been quite long, and couldn't fit well into a 12 episode series. But the first and the second episode? Was just talking... and talking... and explaining... and explaining... sigh... There's nothing wrong with talking and explaining per se, but when your reader/viewer is not invested in the characters or the stories yet, to drown them out with lore and background information that we're not even remotely interesting in, is just terrible story telling. It's not even animated for god sakes. If it's an animation right?? Use the resources to make it engaging for god sakes. "Oh and this happened. Then this happened. Then this happened..." Flashback or something!!! Am I watching an anime or listening to an audiobook?? Oh, why don't we break up the boring explanation, with an equally terrible interaction/joke between the 2 main characters huh??? WELL VIEWERS WOULD LOVE THAT RIGHT???? Fck sakes... It was always the same as well. Just shichika saying something stupid and togame getting angry at him. Like 90% of their jokes were along those lines. Subsequently, this also ruined some of the good battle scenes in the second episode. After all that travelling they fought for like less than 10 minutes, but even the fighting was broken up with meaningless conversations. The enemy had an interesting introduction that were never concluded because the theme was that shichika just wins.

I also hate that this show has such a rave review online.  

Blech 

Deadpool 2 review (I didn't like it much...)

 

(Spoiler... but like most people have seen the movie by now -_-)

I know I'm cynical and stuff, and suffer from anhedonia at times. However I still enjoy myself a bit of slapstick joke and have recently re-watched 'Airplane!' and enjoyed it. I laughed my arse off at a lot of the scenes.  And although on this Blogger, most of my reviews are negative, it's because I don't usually need to 'rant' about the good ones so I don't write about the ones I've enjoyed. Anyway, since I like slapstick comedy, I'd probably like Deadpool right? Well... I didn't really enjoy the first one for many reasons, most of which I forgot, so I delayed watching the second one. Because I almost forgot completely what Deadpool 1 was about and why I didn't like it, I thought it was a good time for me to watch Deadpool 2 to get with all the memes and enjoy the movie everyone else enjoyed. Well.... I didn't like it. I chuckled at a few scenes I think? But that was about it. Story wasn't intriguing, characters were meh, (partially because the characters I felt like I'd like were almost immediately killed off), and the jokes weren't really that funny... So I'll break these down.

Story: I don't like stories involving time travel and Marvel universe keeps pushing these in with very vague explanations of how it works. If one person can time travel, then so can anyone else. If Cable can go back to kill Russell, then so can any one of Russell's enemies? The explanation as to why Cable chose this specific time period is... none-existent. He says something vague about why he can't go back too far, because of battery power, but not why he couldn't go back a bit further, to just stop his family dying. If Russell was such an evil guy, who killed hundreds, why is Cable the only guy going back to kill him? And why did he only go back to kill him when his family died? It almost feels like Cable isn't even needed at all in the movie, except to be a very weak threat to Russell... and really, they could've come up with a better threat then a time travelling enemy... surely. Anyway, other than that... I mean the story is alright. It's a typical rescue mission. It doesn't have to be too deep for a movie like this anyway. It's just... other than that... it's just too predictable to be enjoyable is all.

Characters: I like Domino. She's new, she's cool. I also like the Colossus. But that's about it. I thought I'd really like the new introduction to all these different characters of the X-force. It probably would've put a bit more balance to this 'Deadpool is so cool and he's the main character' narrative that they push onto us so much. But they just do the same thing as 'The suicide squad' movie. "Haha you thought those characters were going to be interesting and enjoyable?? GOTCHA. They're all dead. Isn't that funny?" No. Now we just have to go back to Deadpool making all the breaking-4th-wall jokes again with the predictable storyline. So when Domino survived, it was nice. She wasn't pulling the whole, smug-cool character thing either, even though her superpower was luck. She just went with the flow.

Oh, and can I just take the time to rant about Yukio? and her cliched Japanese thing going on?

Of course the first asian they put in is a stereotypical Harajuku style, cutesy, ditzy girl with those bangs, straight hair and neon highlights that most Japansese people do anymore. And her superhero outfit has to scream 'Asian' right? (And it pisses me off that the outfit looks more like it's based on a qipao, cause chinese and japanese are just too similar right??) Like obviously all Asians are FOBs and they dress like 'Asians' *eyeroll*. I mean, I guess I can't complain with a movie that had so many other sterotypes like yakuza spa scene, Colossus being a stereotypical(??) Russian and I understand that pretty much all previous Marvel movies, like Wolverine are like that... Otherwise, I like Yukio as a character btw. 

Jokes: Anyway, I just wanted to point out that I found most jokes to be a bit boring. I didn't like how breaking the 4th wall itself was supposed to be the joke. Like when he signed a cereal box with 'Ryan Reynold', the constant looking at the screen and saying stuff to the audience, the whole end credit with the wolverine and ryan reynold with his green lantern script. It became rather annoying, as if the writers were constantly poking me, pointing out to the screen and saying, "Hey look, I'm self-aware. Aren't I cool and funny??" It stopped being funny after the 10th time you did it. Ok I exaggerate, it stopped being funny after the 1st time you did it. 

The youtube channel below also didn't like it. Which was nice, since I don't want to be the only one who found the movie a bit 'meh'

Deadpool 2 Sucks. - Rendan Lovell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMJBbuv7Ko8&ab_channel=RendanLovell

Weathering with you review

It's true. I don't enjoy anything anymore. I'm old and jaded and have too much lingering thoughts of doubt and negativity. Whilst I don't like that about myself, I just wanted to let this out of my chest, "Weathering with you was average"

Well... I didn't like it. It was a great movie visually, but the storyline, character development and themes explored were all 'Meh'. The good visuals eventually felt like they put a shine filter on their dull picture. 

As a love story, it was good. There's a good build up between 2 characters. The problem is that both characters weren't very likeable for me. They were just a bit too juvenile, meaning they made rash decisions, bad choices and had a lot of selfishness. And whilst Japan where collectivism is embraced a bit too much, a bit of selfishness is a good thing to be promoted here and there, for other western societies where selfishness has increased to the point where it does hurt other people here and there, it's not pleasant seeing it promoted like this.

I didn't like how it played out the theme of climate change. So one of the message everyone seem to always talk about when talking about this movie is that, "climate change is affecting the younger generation and we shouldn't sacrifice their happiness for our temporary happiness." And that message on it's own is great. The problem is how the movie played it out and disconnected the message from the viewer completely. The climate in this universe is not necessarily man made. It hints to us that it MIGHT be, but that's where it ends. and whilst the current climate change that we are facing should be fixed by all of us, for example buying less from companies that pollute, importing less goods and travelling less etc, this movie never gives the viewers any of this message. If the movie started off with a clear message that the climate change in this universe is man made and that humans were the ones that were sacrificing little girls to stop it, it would have connected a lot more to the universe and reality we live in. But it doesn't. Instead, it shows climate as this mythical weather creature living just above Tokyo and the sacrifice is not necessarily done by the community, but magical entity just choses a random girl and as she prays, she magically starts to disappear. That takes away the selfishness of people completely. I guess the old grandma at the end talks about how Tokyo used to be under the sea about 200 years ago, but literally no explanation is made as to why they made Tokyo dry and built a city there, or whether it was actually humans sacrificing girls to make it or not. I mean to us, as audience, it now has become a complete fantasy world, devoid of real life connection and the girl just seems selfish to not disappear with the weather creature or whatever, since they just put a whole city underwater. People would've no doubt lost lives because of this (with flooding, poverty depression etc). 

Another thing I hate about this movie is that; Nothing is explained well.

Gun. What?? Where did it come from? Why is it there? Why didn't Hodaka throw it away? (it was just a random plot device for no reason at all)

Run away. Why was Hodaka so desperate to run away and put pain on his parents? It shows a glimpse of his face being roughed up back when he was in the island. I mean, if he was bullied... like... that's it?? There were no clear conclusion as to how it went after he went back, like did he grow as a person and was he able to manage his life back in the island after all the things he went through? Like did his parents even exist?  What was the point of that scene where two girls interact with Hodaka near the end? 

Lastly I just wanted to say the character development was piss poor. I guess I'm a sucker for feel good movies where people have developed in some way in the duration of the movie. Like a big incident happens and people become more loving, caring, or brave etc always gives me a great after taste because it gives you the sense that you also grew with the movie. But this one... I... didn't get any of that. None of the characters felt like they were better people because they went through all that. Even that middle aged single dad dude. He was a wishy washy slapstick character who loved his daughter, and in the end of the movie, he was more or less the same, except I guess it hinted that he became a bit more loving?? I don't know, didn't even feel that, it felt about the same. The main 2 characters were all wishy washy and a bit selfish saying, "hey look f*k the weather and everyone else", and in the end of the movie, they were exactly the same.

Anyway, I just wanted to rant all that. So now I'm ranted out.

I feel like that youtube video below explained other dislike points very well.

Weathering With You Is Bad | Tenki No Ko | 天気の子

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG4OFxcqdZw&ab_channel=IbaraAkai

Free guy review

 

Director: Shawn Levy

Aww... I was looking forward to this movie... I didn't really like it. I mean, it was alright and if I turned my brain off I probably could have just enjoyed the action, the awesome CGI and the few actually funny jokes here and there. But... I guess my expectations were just a little too high. The story base idea was awesome. NPC becoming a bit more sentient and falling in love. The whole thing was just a bit too devoid of reality to enjoy. 

I'll simply list the things I didn't really like about the movie.

• Humorless cheap jokes.

Most jokes felt so cheap and cliched. I understand they wanted to appeal to gamers, so they had a few gamer moves, like tea-bagging and jumping around everywhere, that brought about a few chuckles. Other jokes, like having a streamer living in mom's house and complaining about cleaning his 'socks' was probably funny for children and teens (mind you that probably was the target audience). Otherwise, for the most parts, none of the jokes were memorable, or very funny. 

• Poorly written characters

Taika Waititi's character was written so... hmm... well I guess 'cringe' is the only word I can think of to describe it, that it didn't really end up being 'funny'. His over the top acting really did not align with any realistic characters in the game development that I've seen. Like I get it, he's supposed to be a character that thinks he's cool, but everyone hates him because he's not actually cool. That's supposed to be the joke. We're supposed to laugh at him. I guess I'm just out of touch... I just... didn't really find it funny much.

Background characters were just all weird in-between being wall-flowers and an actual impactful character, like Mouser had more potential to be a memorable character, but nope. In fact, there were just way too many famous background characters that no one actually stood out to be awesome. John Cena bit was funny I guess? Jack sceptic eye, I knew so I had a "hey its, _____" moment. But those were really it. Buddy was the only cool side character I can think of but his character was so one-dimensional and plot driven, that he wasn't a good NPC or an actual sentient being like they tried to portray. 

• People acting... not like people? Not aligned with reality? I'm not good with words

This is were the misalignment between reality and fiction became so wide that it was hard to enjoy. I mean, I'm a human, I like thinking of realistic human reactions towards a situation. I have no idea why they thought, 'oh every news would talk about good guy right?? Youtubers and stuff as well.' I just... don't get it. There's good characters in games all the time. Good NPCs as well.

I also don't get why they thought everyone would start loving NPCs and just like watching them... It's not what games are about. Yes, we don't have to kill them, but we don't just watch them. Even in Sims people have made pools without an exit to kill them off since the beginning. This is not human behavior. In fact, we have the animalistic instinct within us to want to be a strong dominant creature, that there will be heaps of people wanting to kill these 'NPC's that are sentient or whatever. 

• Computer and programming. This is how it works... right?

I haven't learnt much programming. But even I knew that... this is just not how computers, programming works... Like one or 2 of those features, I would've been like, "oh it's just a part of the show" and laugh it off, but when they're doing something like making a bridge out of a building... or breaking servers and the bridge starts to collapse?? or NPC's just all getting sentient without overloading the server data... it's just... what?? And no just, 'delete the character file' anymore. They have to send in another macho Ryan Reynold character to combat it instead.

sigh... I don't know... 

• Seemingly forced on romance...

I guess since they can't really Date off Molotov girl and Guy, so Key's will hint he was in love since the beginning and Millie just happened to not know and just ship them together at the end. It just seemed a bit forced and it just makes it less enjoyable. Especially since we're never going to find out what happens to Guy in the end. Just live in the never ending NPC world??

Anyway, I'm tired and I don't want to think about this movie anymore. It's a good movie to see with kids I guess? Got a lot of good action and I seem to be the only one who didn't like the movie, so oh well. 

I guess I'm an SJW in anime community now

Well, I was more of a social justice warrior than I thought I was.

I didn't know I would enjoy NOT seeing overly sexualized characters for once. I've always liked the Shonen manga genre, probably because of that aspect. Obviously, most Shonen manga still does a lot of fan service and along with the non-sexualized female characters along side of sexualized ones, but because it's targeted towards teens in a positive light, it showed mostly 'normal' girl characters.

Some examples of non-sexualized girls include

When I say sexualized, I mean it in a real broad and general sense. Having big boob doesn't necessarily mean the character is sexualized. Women with big boobs are normal. It's how they're dressed and the angles the author focuses on that makes a character sexual. Claymore has nudity, but it's not sexual. 

For example, I wouldn't say Orihime from Bleach is a sexualized character, even though her boobs are big, because the focus in most scenes are not on her breasts or her butt. She definitely does have fan service moments where the author deliberately puts her in revealing outfits and shifts the camera focus to the breast and butt, but for the most part throughout the first few arc's (I haven't seen Bleach after the first 4 major arcs) of the manga, she's a normal likeable character with personal growth and independent for most parts from the main character. 

Rangiku Matsumoto on the other hand, I'd consider as a sexual character, due to the constant focus on her junk. 

You don't even have to have big boobs to be sexualized. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/gsmkgu/dragon_maid_sexualizes_children_doesnt_get_enough/

https://youtu.be/Buv3TA7dvdE

By the way, I should also add that I don't think sexualization is bad at all. For the most part, media is for enjoyment and having 'fan service' does bring joy and excitement in men. There is nothing wrong with that. Also in some anime and manga, the same applies to male characters as well, but just in a different sense as women and men have different taste in general. 

But the reason why I'm writing this is that, 'action' manga for teens have been dominated as 'shonen' for some time. It marginalizes a whole half of the population. There are many women who enjoy action, adventure type manga, with exciting battle scenes and character strength growth. Even the manliest Shonen manga 'dragon ball' has a female fan base. One of my all time favourite manga is Hunter x Hunter and I'm not the only female here who does. But straight female viewers have repeatedly been pushed out by a lot of action manga's emphasis on fanservice and sexualization of female character. We have boobs. We know boob 'physics'. It doesn't move like that. When High school of the dead came out, I actually was interested in how they'd survive, but I just couldn't get pass all that bouncing huge badonkadonk that was in your face. And the added harem that the male protagonist got. Same thing with Onepiece. I've watched up to about 300th episode, but the boobs in your face always... annoyed me. I guess especially since buff men showing their peck isn't my thing (and I'm assuming that's a bit of a fanservice for women). Same thing with Fire force. When sexual harassment is a punchline joke... it's off-putting... (I gave up on the show btw)

When manga like Kimetsu no yaiba, or Promised neverland, or Jujutsu kaisen came out, I realised I... really enjoy not seeing so much fan service... And it really isn't like the female characters aren't attractive or likeable. In fact, the fan community has already sexualized a lot of the characters for their own enjoyment, but for the most part, I can focus on the story, the development of characters and the personality of characters a lot more, when their "personality" isn't their big bouncy boobs (I'm of course, making a reference to the song "personality" by Johnny Mercer & The Pied Pipers (1945), made popular by the game Fallout haha). Plus liking a character feels a lot more inclusive as well since the focus of the character isn't just their breasts.

I guess one of the reasons I don't like about these sexualization, is the disconnect from reality. I work at a high school. Last year students can wear mufti. There are a few dress codes about how much you can reveal, but for the most part, majority of students like wearing 'normal' cloth... Some students have more mature body than others and when they wear tight clothing, it does seem revealing, but how they dress shows that they're not showing it off, or doing it for sexual attraction or attention. They like being stylish and follow the latest trend. They like hanging out with their peers looking nice with pretty makeup on, but really, even just by walking around the city area, most women don't like getting a huge focus on their breasts. So when anime zooms meticulously focus on the boobs and how they bounce, it almost feels like someone's ogling at my own boobs when I wanted them to focus on my... I dunno, pretty makeup? hahah I know men sometimes have this argument that it's a compliment, but here's the thing, sex have different meaning for men and women and whilst being desired by strangers can be a good feeling for some men, it's usually not the same for women. I've recently read a post on 9gag talking about how men imagine having sex with most women they're friendly with if they're around their age. That was... a bit disheartening to know. 

https://www.cbr.com/fire-forces-tamaki-bad-treatment/

https://thebackcatalogue905473583.wordpress.com/2019/10/14/fan-service-ruined-fire-force-for-me/

Here are some other articles on how ogling is not really pleasant for women

https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/study-links-ogling-with-vulnerability-to-sexual-assault/

https://theconversation.com/sexually-objectifying-women-leads-women-to-objectify-themselves-and-harms-emotional-well-being-120762

https://www.tommiemedia.com/diversions/new-study-highlights-the-effects-of-%E2%80%98ogling%E2%80%99/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/06/01/science-columnist-tells-student-bothered-by-breast-ogling-prof-put-up-with-it/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-brains-see-men-as-whole-women-as-parts/

What we do in the shadows TV series review

 

I loved the movie 'What we do in the shadows' by Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi.

But when I heard they were making a tv series, I kind of had my doubts. I guess even the movie itself was not a masterpiece of comedy like airplane or scary movie series, but it was like a nice 1~2 hour dose of brand new kiwi style humour which I like. Kiwi style humour seems to be a bit more of a milder version of british humour with a lot of awkwardness and quirkiness added to it. Kind of has a 'napolion dynamite' feel to it, but way more british haha. In any case, it usually isn't overtly sexual or violent in nature and I know 'what we do in the shadow' has vampires, there were lots of blood and a few scenes where people were actually impaled or had their heads chopped off, I still wouldn't call this completely 'violent'. 

In any case, this mild form of humour when it's not in a concentrated form like in a movie, ended up being a bit boring. I don't remember loudly laughing in any of the scenes. Maybe a few chuckles here and there? There definitely were a few cringe moments where it was awkward, not funny and just their exaggerated mannerisms seemed like they were trying too hard. 

Overall though, it wasn't a bad watch. The characters were well chosen and well portrayed. I loved how there's a new energy vampire and collin was both confident and awkward at the same time. I had a few chuckles like I said, and there weren't many cringe moments to ruin the experience.

Would I watch it again? Maybe. It's why I'm writing this blog right? haha Maybe in a few years time, I'll see this blog and go 'oh yeah. I should rewatch it' and sometimes rewatching something seems to be better than watching it the first time.

bioshock infinite review

I didn't like it as much as bioshock 1 or 2, even though the quality was much better than 1 or 2. Maybe I did enjoyed it more than bioshock 2?? but that was about it. I guess this was another game that showed that storytelling and ending was just as important as game play.
Bioshock 1 was about the conflict between personal choice and 'destiny' the players were forced to perform most of the game play to continue the story, but in the end of the whole game, the players fought against someone who has guided their narrative, insighting that players indeed at least had some choices in life, like going against fate. There were also different outcomes for what choices you've made, which was to save or use the 'sisters'. These aspects made the game engaging. As humans we desire to stray away from the idea that our life is a preset linear course by some deity. Most players saved sisters, simply as humans we liked helping each other to a certain extent. We enjoyed seeing that helping each other was indeed the correct choice.
Bioshock infinite... hmm... had a message about choice, but to link it with multiverse theory and consequences, it became way too complicated to involve character choice and lead to multiple endings. Bioshock infinite, without the ending and the general storyline, is a great game. There are engaging gameplay with skill sets that is fun to build. There is no one right way of defeating an enemy. You are forced to be creative with your limited ammos and weapons in hand. I died so many times fighting this universe version of big daddy, handyman, and I was annoyed to hell. But I realised that the environment and the new gameplay made it possible to fight these things without a huge hurdle. The skylines, elizabeth as support and the surrounding obstacles made the map more engaging rather than just forcing you to hide and shoot most of the time.
The reason why I didn't enjoy it as much, was due to the story and the ending. You know how some mysteries are like a knot. there's a bit of annoyance in untangling them, but ultimately, when you do untangle them, there's a good satisfaction and you see the whole picture nicely. Well this one... it was like, "Hey!!!! Multiverse. That's it. The end". It was so unsatisfying that I felt deflated after the game, thinking, 'where's the rest of the game???'. I won't spoil the game. Although not as challenging as time travelling concept, the multiverse concept is still a hard one to implement into a story without some sort of a plot hole. Comstock's abilities to predict the future was very vaguely constructed. Since it's poorly constructed, I guess it's way easier for the creators to say, "oh. Just cause." and move on, but that makes it all the more annoying. Same thing with tears. Because the idea of tears were... hmm... weirdly formed? Opening tears seem to do different things depending on what the writers wanted. Whilst that's handy for the writers, it's again, one of those things that just annoys the players invested in the story because all mystery answers seem to just be 'hey, all these stuff happened, because of magic.' I'll give you an example of how the narrative of 'tear' changes. It's treated like a window sometimes, where the tear occurs on one side, but the other side is unaware. It's treated like a doorway some times, where people can go through. It's treated like a universe shifter as well, where opening a tear basically changes the whole universe everyone is in, or if it doesn't fit the narrative, only a few people are transported when the tear is open. Elizabeth's abilities range from, being able to open a tear in any part of the world, to only that specific part of the world they're in, and being able to open a tear in a different universe, to a tear in the same universe. Honestly, I have no idea why she didn't just escape to a different part of the world when her abilities grew, according to the game, due to her age. I also don't understand how comstock didn't really see this happening to this extent and made better plans as a prevention.
This one is like the most minor complaint, but you know those particles that are meant to be stuck in space to create the floating city? Well, if they're moving with the earth's rotation and orbit around the sun, they're not really 'suspended' are they now? They're just levitating against gravity in a location above it's original location, isn't it?? Whatever. We'll just conclude it as another 'magic' moments where scientists can magically control the particle location as they please.
Also, if we stick with the multiverse theory that keeps the person coming in or out to different universe, completely unhinged, the ending makes no sense. No sense whatsoever. Nothing should've disappeared. (that's a small bit of spoiler).

All in all, I probably won't be playing the game again. So I'll give this like... I don't know... 6/10?

Oh... and I found out that.... there was another game... Bioshock infinite, burial at sea -_-... SIGH...

actually, I'll spoil it

I still hate the ending of bioshock infinite, because it goes against the idea of multiverse. Booker dying should just create another timeline and another set of universes, rather than erasing all the other universe. If the Elizabeth's that we see time travelled within their own universe, then we should've seen a different booker, rather than travelling with the same booker and he turns into the young booker. Also just like the luteces, elizabeth should not have disappeared, but stay in a state where she exists and doesn't in order for her to murder her own father, but also not being born at the same time.


More update, I just found that the DLC game, bioshock infinite, burial at sea, basically states that.