Rumble

 A while ago while scrolling through the Netflix catalogue, me and Noshi stumbled upon this 2021 animation movie about monster wrestling.

 

So kaiju and wrestling, what could be wrong?

 

Well actually, not much, this is trulky an enjoyable film.  Of course, with the topic being wrestling, half the WWE has some voice role in it (Becky Lynch, Roman Reigns, ...) but also other sports illumini like Charles Barkley (yeah, the Dream Team one), and the main lead is for Will Arnett.

 

The movie is basically of a franchise threatening to go away to another town and arena after they have been betrayed by their star.  To that end, the daughter of a legendary coach, Winnie, goes out to find another monster, and finds it in the son of a former legendary beast, Rayburn Jr.  Who is used to getting paid for losing on purpose in an underground wrestling ring.

 

Together they start training, but ise very, very unorthodox methods making them a laughing stock, yet keep winning.  When the city is about to sell the lifework of her dad, they challenge the ruling champion (the monster that betrayed them), and defeat him eventually.  Not only saves this the city, but it also brings the belt and the franchise back to it's glorious home!

 

So yeah, it is a bit of a predictable story of course, but it is great fun.  Salsa dancing wrestling moves, a heartwarming coming of age story, and a great finale match for certain with all that typical wrestling drama in it.

 

Sit down and have a watch, the movie is worth it! 

Dead Mount Death Play

 Time to return to some action fantasy anime to watch, and that is the first season of Dead Mount Death Play.

 

A 12 episode series that aired in 2023, involving a necromancer god, killed in ancient times and now resurrected as a young boy in modern day Tokyo.  

 

Maybe they should have added the comedy tag as well, as it tries to make funny scenes and jokes, but fails imho, and detracts seriously from the horror intentions...

 

Guess that's a sort of reverse isekai then?  Anyways, Polka Shinoyama is trying to adapt to this new physical body,  and is tracked down by a girl who had just murdered this new body.  Whome he then kills and returns as a zombie in his service.

 

Now, what follows is a series that has some high intensity action, as Polka is part of a criminal family and people are out to get him.  On the other hand, there are two excentric police officers who are trying to resolve crimes caused by people who appear to have special powers, and run amok in the city.  This gives ground for an enjoyable series... had it been only that.  As I said at the beginning, the (attempts at) humour do a lot of discredit for the series in my personal opinion, resulting in my intrest slipping down rather fast on this one.

 

Never the less, there are some intresting arcs in the story, like is the holy crusader who defeated the Corpse God also back in this world?  Why are they exactly so focussed on taking down Polka, and what are those police officers really up to.  Those are questions that will be probably answered in the second season, and I'll watch that as well for certain this year, but it won't be with great enthousiasm I must say, as I found it all rather bland so far.

 

But, who knows, I might be proven wrong in the second cour... 

You and I are Polar Opposites

 Time for some slice-of-life comedy anime, the traditional ones of popular class girl and nerdy boy...

 

Except this one has a twist!

 

The series is not a 12 episode run-up to how this unlikely pair gets together, but instead right from the get go the popular girl, Suzuki, confesses her feelings to the nerdy boy, Tani, and they start dating.  The fun thing this creates is what usually happens in a second season of this sort of anime series: the path of a developping relation as a young couple.

 

Let's say it skips the intro season as such...

 

The series follows the regular cute adventures as such of the young couple, but also how their totally opposing personalities of an extravert and an introvert start to come closer to each other, even if it at times causes some misconceptions between them.  It also put the focus at times on their group of friends, and how they struggle with starting feelings for others.  This brings the group along all the traditional events in these sorts of series, like summer festivals, school trips and the likes.

 

So all in all, this series isn't that revolutionary for the genre, yet in a way it is.  Due to the protagonists already being a couple after episode one, it lifts some of the restrained boundaries you usually get as two people grow towards each other, yet don't seem to realise they love each other.  These two are very much in love, meaning while the settings for the events are the same as in all other romantic series, the dynamics are different.  And that makes it fun to watch without feeling like just another "more of the same".

 

Fun little series for sure and worth the watch! 

Anaconda

 When I saw the trailer of this "reboot parody" of Anaconda, with Jack Black fleeing from a snake with a living boar strapped to it's back, I just wanted to watch this movie!

 

So when it hit Netflix earlier this month, me an Noshi sat down for hopefully some laughs.

 

Now, the original was an okay action horror starring J-Lo and Ice Cube, and this is like the 7th movie in the franchise (meaning I didn't saw the five between the original and this one...), and serves as a reboot that is not a reboot.

 

A bunch of friends are not happy by the way their life has gone, and decide to chase their childhood dream of making a feature film, a reboot of Anaconda.  One of them claims (Paul Rudd) that he aquired the rights to the franchise, so they set out to the amazon rainforest to make a new entry in the franchise.  Which soon starts to go down as their snake is killed during filming, and while searching for a new one things go bad, as the beast is huge!  Add to that a beautiful illegal gold smuggler, government agents chasing her and by extension them, and you have the recipy for some fun hours of laughs and action.

 

Except the movie doesn't deliver at all.  The scene from the trailer is about the only one in the whole movie that I could laugh with, for the rest not even a giggle.  Surely, the cameo's of Ice Cube and in a lesser extent J-Lo are fun additions, but basically the only funny thing for the rest was the end title screen and what happened to the characters, so that is saying something.

 

It does have some nice action sequences, zero horror scenes and near nothing is funny, so it is right to say that this movie failed to deliver on a lot of it's promises, and to be honest, even Jack Black fails big time in this thing.

 

Just avoid it, and let the very first original movie be the only one you might vaguely remember from this franchise... 

Apocalypse Hotel

 We found our mojo again, and binging anime is back on the menu after a year of slacking mostly!

 

And the first one to catch up on, was Apocalypse Hotel, a fun and innocent series that came out past winter season. 

 

And the adventures of the robots running Gingarou Hotel where perfect to get back going, with it's positive vibes and lovely bright pastel colours.  It takes place in the far future, where humanity has fled Earth into outerspace due to a condition called the Inforunium Pollution, making the air poisonous.  But the hotel keeps running on robots, let by Yachiyo as the manager and going through a daily routine for no customers.  Then one day an alien books a visit, but after that it takes another 50 years before a family of Tanuki refugees takes semi-permanent residence in the hotel.

 

This family (who are, slightly put, perhaps a bit disfunctional) slowly integrates into the hotel, the daughter even joining the staff and eventually running the hotel as Yachiyo goes to outer space to advertise for humanity that they are open.  While they go through a lot of happy (and sad) moments together while catering for both the hotel and the guests, a human finally arrives.  It turns out the air is still making them sick, but they can visit for short periods thanks to a cure that very first guest left behind all those years ago.

 

This is just one of those anime series that gives a good feeling over it's 12 episode course.  It's innocent, though it does deal with family issues like marriage, birth and even death, but generally puts a good feeling smile on your face.

 

Certainly a fun accidental discovery for this year! 

Creamerie season 2

 Picking up exactly where season 1 left off, with the betrayal and the truth what happens to men, it's time to see more of this weird series.

 

So we sit down for 6 more episodes of absurdity...

 

... and I'll never look at the term "milkman" the same again. 

 

In this second season, they not only escape Welness, but look for the promised sanctuary for men.  They find this, but learn that it is run by amazonian women who have rejected weapons, and a bunch of men who are drugged all the time, basically forming a hippie community.

 

They travel to the capital instead, and the Prime Minister believes their story.  However, the claws of Welness run deep, and when they are framed for the assassination of the PM, they need to flee.  They end up in the Underground, where men and women party together, in a secret tunnel network where the law can't touch them.

 

But the Welness leader is elected the new PM, and Bobbie and the girls set out to kidnap her, which results in the end that she is tossed overboard as "team Creamerie" sets off to better places where Bobbie and others can live in peace.

 

So yeah, while short at 6 episodes once again at 22 minutes, the absurdity once more runs high in this. It's still good fun, but the "shock value" of the first season has worn off unfortunatly, and it feels as a bit of much of the same on the joke front.  Still, a nice binge for an evening, but it will leave you with a bit of an unfulfilled feeling once the final credits roll in my opinion.

 

Still, it's okay... 

 

 

 

 

Creamerie season 1

 Roight, time for something odd that I watched...

 

This is a black comedy web series, made in New Zealand.

 

In this 6 episode season, the world has no more men.  They all died to an unknown virus, and now the women rule the world through Welness, an organisation that runs a balot for the surviving sperm.  And then three friends, Alex, Jaime and Pip, find a man in their stables of the dairyfarm.

 

Now, this series then goes to trying to get him, Bobby, out to a safe place, which of course throws the lives of the women totally on it's head.  Blinded by ambition, one betrays them, and they are caught by Lane, the head guru of the cult like Welness.  And no, no-one convinces me it is not like that already in those wellness spa's today.  And then they discover it is all a plot, orchestrated by Jaime's ex-husband, to capture and masturbate men like cows for their seed...

 

The series ends on a cliffhanger for the second season, and to be honest, while not the greatest of things I ever watched, it is so intriguing that I know I'll have a look at that as well pretty soon.  Just because, it is a refreshening weird thing...

 

And a warning to all men! 

Dear Santa

 It's the holiday season, and that means christmas movies!

And what do you get when you let the man in the house pick the movie for the evening... yeah, Jack Black.

 

Liam is a soft, but dyslexic, 6th grader whose parents are having marriage issues due to the death of his little brother and their move to another town.  Adding to that, he doesn't dare introduce his friend Gibby, and makes a fool of himself in front of his school crush Emma.

 

Hoping for the best, he writes a letter to Santa, but misspells it instead as Satan, who appears before him amazed he actually got a letter.  Liam does still believe though he is Santa, and he grants Liam three wishes in exchange for his soul.  This helps Liam getting a date with Emma to a Post Malone concert, for which Satan even provides VIP tickets.

 

 

Gibby though points out his mistake, but Liam can't get out of the deal anymore.  Returning home, his parents have enlisted the help of child psychologist Dr Finkelman, but Gibby and Satan interrupt his interview to bring Liam to the concert.  There he is called on stage together with Emma, but when Liam notices Gibby's disappointment due to his huge overbite, he uses his second wish to make that better.

 

Going with Emma and Gibby to the christmas carnival, his parents steal him away and bring him to Dr Finkelman's clinic, fearing his fantasies are getting out of hand.  But a nurse who was at the concert shatters the theory Liam might be delusional, and his regretful parents begin to reconcile.  Liam misunderstands them and sneaks to Santa's motelroom to use his third wish, to keep his parents in love forever.

 

Back in Hell, it is revealed Satan is actually a low-ranking half demon under trials to become an anctual one.  Here he is chastised by Lucifer for granting two unselfish wishes to Liam, making the soul deal invalid, and he will be banished.  He says his goodbye's to Liam and confesses his act, and tells him his parents made up on their own, so he used the contents of Liam's letter to make up for the third wish.

 

 

When christmas arrives next day, his brother appears, resurrected to celebrate the holidays with his family in their new home.  Liam gets a call from Gibby, who has convinced Emma to give Liam another try, by telling her about his brother's death.  This causes Liam to panic as to how to explain his ressurection to her though...

 

A fine fun, innocent christmas comedy, definitly better then the Hallmark stuff they shove down out throats this period, and worth a watch with the family.

Red One

 December is christmas movie month, and as I try to avoid those Hallmark romatic drama's it was time for something else.

An action movie with Santa's bodyguard!  We actually saw this movie right at the beginning of the year, but I saved it for publishing until now to give YOU inspiration for that funnier thing to watch next week during christmas eve, ain't I great!

Callum "Cal" Drift, played by the Rock, is the commander of ELF, the organisation tasked with guarding Santa Claus.  But he has become desillusioned with humanity, as now more are on the naughty list then aren't, and as such asked to retire after one more christmas run.  

But the day before Christmas eve, Santa Claus is kidnapped from the North Pole, after it's secret location was found and sold by con-man Jack O'Malley (hello Captain America).  Jack is brought in by MORA, an organisation handling mythical creatures, and interrogated.  He has to team up with a reluctant Cal to go out and find the man he sold the data to, bringing them to Aruba.  But the man is just an inbetween, as the real kidnapper is the Christmas Witch Gryla, who is working together with Santa's brother Krampus.  

Jack and Callum are captured, but thanks to Jack's fast thinking they can escape after trying to appeal to Krampus for reuniting with his brother.  They reveal to him that Gryla actually wants the magical power draining snow globe, the Glaskafig.  She wants to rid the world of every child that has been naughty, but as she tests it on Jack and his son Dylan, the two grow closer to each other in their imprisonment.  Becoming "nicer" that way, the globes break as Zoe and Callum find the hideout thanks to a tracker inside Jack.  They free ms Claus and the security staff, and in Santa's old workshop retrieve Jack and Dylan.

Gryla is stopped by Jack and Callum, aided by Krampus who came to make ammends.  Santa recovers and seals the witch in one of her replica Glaskafigs, as everyone prepares for the Christmas run as time has now ran short.  Jack and Dylan are invited to come along, and during the run Callum sees the inner child of Jack, bringing him back from his plan to retire.

So this was a funny movie, a bit of action, some comedy and cool snowman henchmen, not to mention the fantastic "Red One taking off" scene after Santa spend a day in the mall talking to children.  

Will it win an oscar?  Of course not, but neither would those Hallmark monstrosities and at least this doesn't leave you with stomach pain even before you have to overeat yourself at the christmas dinner table...

eVil Sublet

Sometimes you have to take risks, and especially with movies you want to watch.

 

So when Noshi asked what film I wanted to see, I just answered "the 7th on the 3rd page" of our streaming service.

 

Having no idea what that would be, it turned out to be eVil Sublet, a low budget horror comedy.  And since it was the 1st of november, that was perfect in theme as well considering it was All Saints that day.

 

And this movie was both scary at times, with the blink of an eye ghostly apparitions in the appartment, as hilarious (right from the opening scene).  The story is about an apartment that is being rented out for a rather cheap price, as it turns out numerous suicides, murders and lethal accidents transpired in it. 

 

Reena and Ben move into the appartment, but soon Reena starts to see and "feel" things, like doors opening miraculously, or upstairs neighbours they never have seen before, and apparently the place is said to be empty.  When they go to a funfair, Reena has a strange encounter with an orange masked man, and this draws the intrest of paranormal medium Lorne.  Together with his partner Ned he seeks her out, wanting to help her from danger imminent.

 

They discover the appartment demands three deaths from every tennant living there on the contract, and that Reena and Ben have been framed by the previous owner to become the sacrifices so she can live there in peace.  As Ben is off to a convention, the manifestations increase, and Reena starts losing it.  Ben returns, just as Lorne intervenes as well, and they manage to overcome the ghostly inhabitants by framing the original owner and making her the third required kill.  From then on they can live in peace, together with the ghosts, in the place...

 

So this movie had some great laughs, and was a good fun low budget production, certainly worth checking out if you are into these "labour of love" projects... 

 

The Naked Gun

 So after all those decennia, a new Naked Gun was released on the world, starring Leslie Nielsen and Pamela Anderson.

 

While I was sceptical, I did sit down in the hopes of some good slapstick and dirty dad jokes... and curious about how they would manage to actually do those in this woke era of history.

 

Well, I was not disappointed, yet I was.  In the first half of this (short) film, I regularly laughed out loud (the OJ Simpson joke for example), while from halfway onwards, generally when the "real hunt for the bad guy" began, I found the level of jokes drop enormously.

 

Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr, son of the legendary character of Leslie Nielsen.  He stops a bank robbery, but the actual plan was that is was a distraction so that the PLOT Device could be stolen.  But as his over the top behaviour causes legal issues, he is sidelined by his chief.  When he investigates the car crash of Simon Davenport and gets approached by his sister Beth, they link the robbery and the crash together.

 

The boss of Davenport, Edentech's owner Richard Cane, is behind both, wanting to use the PLOT Device to return humans to their basic aggressive nature and he and a select few wade the anarchy out in bunkers, to establish a new world order afterwards.  Drebin is framed for the murder of a journalist that worked with Davenport, and he finds comfort in the arms of Beth (and all the innuendo from the first movies is implied here as well).

 

Drebin becomes a target for Cane, who tries to kill him with his electric car, but he escapes, capturing Cane's henchman Gustafson and bringing him to confession.  He plans on dropping the PLOT bomb at the New Year's ball MMA event, and they fail to disarm the device, turning the crowd violently on each other.  With his father's spirit appearing in the form of an owl, he manages to confront and capture Cane, while using the PLOT device to calm the crowd.

 

So yeah, for me it was great fun until the part of the romance between Drebin and Beth, only to have it watering down like a melting snowman after that (pun intended).  The owl sequence was silly but not in a funny way, and while Neeson does the job as the new "Police Squad top agent" the movie was, well, enjoyable but not memorable like it's predecessors. 

Blame the Game

 Saturday evening movie, and Noshi selected this german comedy on Netflix.

I guess that is something else, or she choose it on the trailer of two guys playing ping-pong naked...

When Jan, a modest bikestore owner, starts dating the higher class Pia, he is invited to game night over at her friends.  Finding himself suddenly thrown amongst the rich, but also their petty personalities.  We get the rich housewife, the childish husband, a lesbian who can't get over her ex, and the freeloader brother.  Rounding out the group is max, Pia's ex who is invited by the husband to try and get them back together.

They all look down on Jan, and slowly start to get under his skin with Max's constant boasting and challenging, slowly making Pia the prize goal as their masculine hormones take over.  From Trivial Pursuit over a game of above mentioned naked ping pong, the two go at each other ever more competively, much to Pia's chagrin.  

And then there is Jan's friend Alex chasing an escaped parrot...

Needless to say, this was a pretty mediocre movie.  It did extract some "ha's" from my part, but I guess that is my little inner juvenile hunour streak playing up.  It's okay to watch on a lazy evening but it won't be a movie you'll remember long afterwards.

Buddy Daddies

 Time for some light-hearted, fun anime this time round, or so we hoped when we selected it from our immense MAL Plan to Watch list as the next series to go through.

Centering around a formed family of two hitmen and a little girl that accidentally ends up with them, as they assassinated her father, and Kazuki telling her he is actually her dad to protect her from the truth.

Kazuki is a con artist while his roommate and partner in crime Rei is a hitman.  Steered by their handler Kyutaro, as a 4-year old girl called Miri intervenes accidentally in their latest job.  They find out their target was her actual father, after Kazuki had told her he was it to save her.  Never having met her dad, she believes him and stays with the two hitmen.  Kazuki goes in search of her real mother, but when he tracks her down she is a down-on-her-luck backroom bar singer, who hates her daughter for being always happy.

Kazuki and Rei decide to keep Miri with them, as they need to mingle their job with parenthood, something they know next to nothing about.  Rei also starts bonding with Miri, as he held this off due to his own abusive childhood, and the two become her Papa's.  They find a daycare for her, allowing them to do their job (more or less) still while she is at school, though this also needs some adapting from Kazuki to have her blend in and make friends.  But once settled, she is happy at the daycare, and they decorate a spare room into a real room for Miri.

When babysitting her, Kyutaro quickly realises the two are becoming attached to the girl, but doesn't mind as long as it doesn't interfere with their work.  Karin, the former sister-in-law of Kazuki, comes to visit to return all the money he has been sending her, but in the meantime Miri develops a fever leaving Rei in a panic attack, but he pulls through on helping her.  Rei is summoned by his father, a the head of a major crime organisation who wants his son to become his successor.  But a job he does for his father leaves him disgusted instead.

As Miri competes in the daycare's sports event, her mother reappears, wanting to spend some time with her daughter before she will die of throat cancer.  It turns out Kyutaro needed to call her, as Rei's dad had threatened to either kill Miri or his son ascends his place.  They take Miri on a last day of fun activities before returning her to her mother, but learn Rei's dad send an assassin anyways.  Kazuki rushes there, finding her mother fatally wounded but managing to save Miri.  Kazuki wants to send her to a safe orphanage, but Rei stops him, vowing he will solve this.

They go to the Organisation, where they take out the prime assassin before Rei confronts his father, crippling his own arm so he can never be a hitman again and allowed to walk out.  Reaching Miri's daycare christmas party just in time, they decide to change their life.  Ten years later, they run a diner together as Miri goes to high school, living happily with her two Papa's.

Darn, this was one good series, and highly enjoyable.  Miri immediatly grabs you with her personality, and the reformation of two criminals into father's is a very lovely journey to watch.  Definitly highly recommeded anime!

Plus-sized Elf Specials

 After the fun series, it is time for the two specials: Muffin Top Lovers and Calorie Lovers.

These bonus episodes where released on the Blu-Ray after initially being aired on the streaming service.

In the first special, Muffin Top Island, the girls are invited by Tomoatsu and his boss, Akiho, to a secluded island resort.  But while the girls are trying to enjoy themselves, mysterious things start to happen, like Laika being pulled down in the sand when she tries to capture a tentacle.  Later, they have a barbeque, a kraken emerges, responsible for the misschief caused so far.  The girls face off, but their powers are insufficient against a creature of that size.  

But Gonda, mad that the beast tries to ruin their island experience, angrily attacks it with her flaming dragon breath, inadvertently burning off the other girl's swimsuits.  The girls see the beast retreat and tend to Tomoatsu, who is in shock after witnessing Gonda's attack...

In the second special, Calorie Lovers, Tomoatsu finds himself in an alternate high school romatic comedy setting, surrounded by the girls all vying for his attention.  This even goes as far as Oeda, their teacher, trying to seduce him and the girls all pouring water over themselves to expose their breasts after they see him offer his jacket to Kusahanada.  It turns out he promised to marry one of them back when they where children, and they all still swoon over him for that.  But a new diet supplement has started turning people into zombies which shifts the romcom to a zombie survival... and it all turns out to be a nightmare imposed on him by Satero, and while she is defeated by Kuroeda, he wakes up finding both girls naked on top of him.

So, two more episodes in the trend of the original series: quite funny and quite ecchi, so I wasn't complaining hehehe.

Plus-sized Elf

 Time for some comedy fantasy anime, as Plus-sized Elf is one of the series I had marked down to watch during summer season.

 

 

And eventually watched it during the winter season... but that doesn't stop me to watrch a lot of oppai, as this is definitly a series in the ecchi comedy category.

 

Tomoatsu is a massage employee at the Smiley Boar, who gets an extremely obese client one night.  This woman, Elfuda, turns out to be an Elf that travelled here through a gateway to explore, but got addicted to french fries.  As a result, she can't return as the portal works on weight of those that traverse it, and together she goes on a strict work out and diet, allowing her to return home.  Only to be encountered soon after, and plus-sized again, as she couldn't miss the fries.

 

In a convenience store they meet Kuroeda, who seems to be a Dark Elf and immediatly engages in a weight related rivaly with Elfuda, and asks his help to be able to fit back in her garbs that allow her to use magic.  They also help out Alraune, who suffers from back issues, and an ogre that resides in the sauna of a spa, Oga.  Further adventures bring more and more mythical creature girls (a mermaid, a werewolf, etc...) seeking out his help, and soon he is training a whole harem of girls who loose their tops easier then their weight.

 

 

Tomoatsu himself though suddenly starts to gain weight, and his techniques don't seem to work.  Kuroeda and Elfuda summarise he is under a spell, cast by a satyr called Satero in order to feed of his avarice.  As a result the mythical beings start a schedule of staying with him overnight, as satyr form a strong bond with their prey, and can protect him that way. 

Satero keeps bugging Tomoatsu though, but when they drive her off and go to a private gym Oga meets a woman called Hitome, a cyclops and natural rival of ogres, resulting in a fierce sparring between the two.  Akiho, his boss who has a crush on him, gives them access to a yoga room, Satero observing before fleeing in embaressement from the suggestive poses.  Kuroeda brews a potion shrinking him to child size, which was actually a mistake as it was supposed to be a weight loss brew to make his job easier, and luckily the effects wear off soon.

But another mysterious elf has travelled through the portal, following Elfuda.  This turns out to be hard as nails aunt, coming to check in on her as she hasn't visited her mom in a while.  She subjects Elfuda to a hard regime, causing her to losse weight and get back in shape, but Oeda, having aquired a taste for icecream, now can't return herself.  She must follow Tomoatsu's regime now herself...

This was a fun, and ecchi, series with some great gags in them.  While not a classic to be, it is worth the watch though for some innocent giggles.

Aggressive Retsuko: We Wish You a very Metal Christmas

 With the holiday season upon us and the challenge nearing it's end for this year, it is time for a christmas special.

And that is the Retsuko's We wish you a very metal christmas, one of the last things I needed to watch on my list.

It starts with Haida having a dream about Retsuko in hospital, before waking up sweating.  But Retsuko have found a new intrest, and becomes addicted to likes on her social media.  She goes to great length to ever get more validation, from deserts at start coached by her collegue Tsunoda.

Fenneko warns Haida about the pitfalls of social media, something he doesn't believe will happen to Retsuko.  With christmas approaching, she goes to a special restaurant out of the precinct to take pictures of a limited menu.  Realising she hasn't got anything to do on christmas, she spends her evening working at the office alone.

Watching the pictures of others on social media, she gets frustrated at not scoring the likes she actually hoped to achieve.  Faking a picture of seemingly having dinner with someone, Haida gets drunk, but Fenneko quickly deducts it isn't really from a restaurant but at the office.

Haida rushes over to the office to find her, but she has already left.  Having soba with collegues, and other dates not going well either, she ends up with Haida as her friends leave them alone.

So, in a typical Retsuko fashion this was good for some sniggers, even though perhaps not the best of the whole series, it is still enjoyable to watch.

Breasts are my favorite thing in the world volume 1 - Wakame Konbu

 So, a series I got the first volume from thanks to Noshi during our Eindhoven trip in august.

And the title, well, it has a point... so let's see what this is all about then!

Well, going by the title, it won't be a manga about ping-pong... 

Chiaki has a serious fetish: boobs!  And especially those off Harumi, who is well endowed and helps her to keep her obsession in check by letting Chiaki fondle them every so often.  Chiaki claims she loses all het strength and be good in anything if she doesn't get her daily dose of fondling, and not even for the sake of sexy things, she is just obsessed with them.  But as she is rather small chested herself, she can't resort to, as she calls it, being self-sufficient.

Chiaki is also the most popular girl in school though, the one all the girls have like a crush on, as they want to be like her.  That's why Harumi is from another school, to keep the secret safer.  But she also wants more and more, like a breast sandwich or even have her take her bra off to prevent the markings in her face.  Trading cell numbers with Harumi at last, she decides she actually wants to be a bra, feeling her bare breasts.

 

 

When Harumi skips some meetings, Chiaki starts to unravel in her performances, even trying to fondle herself in the process to unsatisfactory results. Luckily Harumi returns right before her important archery tournament.  But Harumi from her side is wondering wether she is developping feelings of love for Chiaki.

 

Chiaki takes her out for lingerie shopping, insisting on buying it for her out of thanks for all she does. But then they are almost caught when trying on each others bra's by Kana, a first year under Chiaki's wings at school...

Nope, this was not my thing at all.  It had 9 chapters, and nothing happened but some fondling, and the gags weren't even funny.  This is one series I won't get the other volumes for at all.

Spy X Family season 2

 The cutest "pretend family" is back in the second season of this comedy / espionage series, as Operation Stryx continues.

Although this is now season 2, and what was labelled before as season two has been retconned into season 1 part 2, just to take note...

When Yor is shot in her butt during a job, she is hurting so bad Loid thinks the plan might fall apart as he has no idea what happened.  He takes her out on a date as a result, being trailed by Anya and Franky.  When one of the surviving gangsters spots Yor, he wants to kill her but Anya prevents this.

As Bond goes to look for Loid to help him on a mission, motivated by avoiding a homecooked meal for him by Yor which he believes will kill him, Damian and his friends go on a picnic trip with a teacher, showing how deep their friendship actually is.  

Yor's brother Yuri is tasked with gathering evidence and arresting Franklin Perkins, a former journalist turned anti-government propaganda creator, while Anya struggles with school just as hard as Franky struggles with romance.  But then Yor is recruited to play bodyguard to the last surviving member of a crime syndicate and her infant son during a luxury cruise.  A cruise where Anya and Loid are also on, as Anya won tickets during a raffle in the shopping mall.

During the cruise, Yor and The Director discover the plan has been compromised, as they have to save their charge from various assassins.  As they move to second class deck, Yor runs into Anya, who saves her, making Yor believe Anya doesn't realise it was her.  In the meantime Loid tries to take on the role of a father having fun.

Yor protects her charge from various assassin's, but the top of the batch prove to be more of a challenge.  She overcomes the odds, unknowingly aided by Anya once again.  In the meantime, Loid defuses a set of bombs planted on board by one of the assassins.  The ship is set for the rendez-vous for the family, as Yor gets a bit of off-time from the Director to spend with her family.  Even though exhausted, she goes to great lengths to give Anya a fun day out, making Loid realise this and feeling proud.  But the vacation comes to an end and they return home, telling about their vacation to coworkers and classmates.

 

 

While both Anya's classmate Becky as well as agent Nightfall, Fiona, vie for Loid's attentions, he takes Bond out for training, resulting in saving a stuck puppy from a burning house, and capturing the arsonist.  Loid admits Bond is part of the Forger family, as they go home to enjoy their evening.

 

And now we have to wait when the Forger family returns for their next mission, and their goal to complete Operation Stryx succesfully, something that to be honest has been put to the side a bit in these twelve episodes.

 

But it remains a good fun show to watch for sure!

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S Special: Japanese Hospitality

 An anime I discovered thorugh Noshi, I think series is awesome fun and well, cute.

So after watching all the seasons, all that remained was the special episode after season 2, Japanese Hospitality.

Taking place after Kanna's trip to the United States, the friend she made there, Chloe, comes over to Japan.  Meeting up at the airport, the group is taking her on a sightseeing trip along Tokyo, "expertly" guided by Tohru and joined by Kobayashi and Ilulu.

 

Starting out in Akihabara,  they travel there by train, meeting with Fafnir and Aida to play a VR game and get some gachapon.  As they need to go look for food, they meet up with the foodie of their group next, Elma.

Returning home, Saikawa runs in on them, and they soon befriend each other as well.  They show her their school, going for a swim in the pool there.  Back home the girls pass by Ilulu's store for some japanese candy, before going to the summum of japanese hospitality, traditional dressed fireworks play during a lqte night bbq on the roof.

This was a fun special episode, that showed a lot of the typical japanese activities and cultures in a fun style.

Ghostbusters Frozen Empire

 After the succesful Afterlife, a new Ghostbusters movie arrived with Frozen Empire.

And even more then in the first one, it brings the new and old generation together.

Three years after the Summerville incident, Callie and her boyfriend Gary, together with her children Trevor and Phoebe have relocated to New York to aid Ray Stantz and Winston Zeddemore in reestablishing the Ghostbusters.  But after capturing a ghost, their long-time rival Walter Peck, now mayor, threatens to shut them down, forcing them to remove the still underage Phoebe from the team.

Upset, she meets the ghost of a girl her age, Melody, while playing chess in the park.  As Ray and Podcsat collect cursed objects, they are approached by Nadeem Razmaadi who posesses a strange brass orb.  The PKE meter goes of the scale when he tries to scan it, while a cold wave eminated from it damages the Ghostbusters HQ ecto-containment unit, which is dangerously close to full capacity.  Winston takes the orb to the privately owned research center of dr Lars Pinfield, but they can't extract any spiritual energy from it.  Trevor and Lucky visit Nadeem, and together with Peter Venkman discover he has latent pyrokinetic powers.

Ray, Phoebe and Podcasts learn from a research librarian the orb was used millenia ago by four mythical firemasters to trap Garraka, a phantom god who sought to conquer the world by using the power of fear itself.  Nadeem's grandmother belonged to the bloodline of on the firemasters, one of whom prevented the ghost to escape the orb in 1904.

Peck uses Phoebe's involvement to shut down the operation, and Phoebe in turn flees to the research center to extract her ghost for two minutes from her body and interact with Melody.  She learns Melody is involved with Garraka who has promised her afterlife if she aided him.  Using Phoebe's body, he can escape his prison and goes to reclaim his horns to augment his powers.  Garraka begins freezing the city, set out to free the ghosts locked in the containment unit at the Ghostbusters HQ.  Both generations gather to defend the unit, aided by Nadeem who attempts to master his power still.

Garraka overpowers them, but Phoebe, who enhanced her protonpack with copper alloy as this turns out to be the god's weakness, is aided by Nadeem and Melody who has been betrayed by Garraka.  Together with the veteran Ghostbusters they can trap him in the containment unit, as Melody reconciles with Phoebe before passing on into the afterlife to her family.

As the city thaws, the Ghostbusters are hailed as heroes again, with Peck forced to reinstate Phoebe and support the team...

So, this was an enjoyable film, though not as hilarious as the previous instalment I must say.  Never the less, it is great to see them in action, as this is a generational franchise and remain great family moment movies.