Ah the thrill of a new anime to watch.
Hane Sakura tired of peddaling up the hill to school, decides to get an auto bike, persuaded by the eccentric club members of the bike club including the seemingly ageless Raimu Kawasaki who looks like the Stig's Japanese School Girl Cousin.
And Top Gear is something to bring up as this series is a cross between the school girl antics of K-On and the motoring shenanigans of Top Gear, the fact that it has a homage to the Stig and some of it's episodes revolve around road trips along with names of official bike manufacturers is peak Top Gear but keeps it's anime roots grounded in K-On right down to the junior member near the end of the first season joining.
No dubbing for this one, the characters can feel a little too close to K-On making it feel unoriginal but having Raimu in the cast can create some fun moments.
Final Verdict: Bakuon is a fun time especially if you like both K-On and Top Gear.
I'm going to be real with everyone, I'm not sure how much longer I can keep up this writing, while anime reviews and my story speak for themselves, some of the other features I'm doing aren't really cutting it anymore, so I'm asking what you want from my content.
I would've preferred something with substance to review on my birthday.
Akira Ono is preparing to shutdown his online game creation when an incident sucks him into an unknown part of the game, reborn as Hakuto Kunai, his character avatar which is less teen more middle aged mafia boss, dubbed the Demon Lord after easily dispatching a high rank demon and rescuing a young girl named Aku from being a sacrifice, Kunai sets to work reforging the world in a different approach to his original game. Hakuto is later accompanied by Luna Elegant of the Holy Church and a couple of select allies as he continues building a new empire starting with a bunny village and Hot Springs.
This is another we need two seasons to tell the story series, sure there are action scenes, Kunai throws in a needlessly edgy gang boss as a form he can access but there is so much filler and preparation were not seeing a payoff anywhere, Kunai is so overpowered that you forget that the Satanist cult are supposed to be the bad guys, it's a shame really as there are enough elements to have some real interest, if season 2 offers me the payoff I'm after then that's great but right now we barely touched anything.
Dub is standard but don't ask an English actor to try verbal tics, it comes of as awkward.
Final Verdict: A series that's way too slow to start, there are no stakes and were just watching some mafia dude make a hot spring.
Nothing like a good film to enlighten the creative process.
Pompo the child prodigy film producer and director is quite a household name in Nyallywood, despite her talent, she only prefers to make B-Movies, after challenging her assistant Gene Fini to edit a trailer for her film "Marine", Gene's skills at editing prompts Pompo to make Gene direct the next film "Meister" about a washed up composer whose heart is healed by a young girl in Switzerland.
Pompo casts legendary actor Martin Braddock with new actress Natalie Woodward in the two roles and lets Gene get on with it.
The film production goes smoothly initially but Gene unhappy that the film is missing a vital scene calls for one more take, threatening to derail the film, prompting an old high school friend in the banking industry to step in, with only editing left Gene finishes his first film.
If I would choose a tone for this movie, it's a bit erratic, granted all the editing techniques used to transition scenes and move everything along feel right at home in a film about making films but you rarely get a quiet moment to reflect on what you've just witnessed, thankfully the strong characters more than keep the film on the rails, Gene doesn't stress or over react too much, there are no second or third act breakdowns stalling the story, Martin and Mystia could easily have been arrogant but both are professional and really supportive, Alan could've easily been the bad guy but he ultimately saves Gene from failure, Natalie could've dominated the film as a shrinking violet but takes it in her stride and gets the job done and then you have Pompo who is the right amount of charisma and charm without being too annoying, the whole film, it's characters and even the dub were so carefully created to reflect the plot, it's an absolute triumph of a film.
Final Verdict: Pompo is the best film you could watch about the subject of film making and Hollywood using the anime style, carefully made and smartly executed, it's a joy to watch.
This features some hot takes on Idol shows.
An AiPri is an idol that performs in the virtual world incognito, a sort of vtuber take on the idol genre; Himari finds a bracelet and enters the virtual world to discover that Mitsuki her best friend is an AiPri idol, breaking a childhood promise to debut together, joined by the mysterious Tsumugi, the three form Secret Friends idol group with the overarching theme of each girl having secrets and like all Pretty series shows become the top idol.
The whole season is mediocre, the Pretty series has a reputation for being the most off the wall of the idol shows but this feels so corporate that alot of the extreme rainbow colour palette feels dead on arrival, also tell me why monologues and commentary dominate the idol performances over I don't know the bloody selling point of an idol show, the music!
How do you mess this up?
Were getting to the point now where the well for idol shows has run dry, Aikatsu knew this trying to be a live action hybrid, the Pretty series needs to either evolve or end, because every season now is less quirky fun, more corporate bull shit.
Dub is non-existent.
Final Verdict: Going all corporate has spoiled a very fun franchise, I pray this isn't the new normal.
