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Reviews
Arcane: League of Legends: Finally Got the Name Right (2024)
Season 2 Act 1 has brought Arcane back with a vengence
The pacing of this episode was bonkers in the best way, not wasting any time at all. An excellent use of a music montage with great visuals shows the passage of time of cait vi infilitrating zaun, within this segment it also shows how zaun has been suffering from the toxic air without losing runtime from exposition. The episode was also just filled with loads of payoff and yet of course nothing is resolved.
Episode 3 is just a masterpiece, easily a top 3 episode of the show. The jinx vi fight was incredibly satisfying and worth the wait, the music choice blew my mind and it gets better the more i watch it. Ive rewatched just that segment multiple times it just never gets old. The fight doesnt really play out like a brawl but its heavily stylized to fit with the music and wild rift scenes, which i thought absolutely worked here. Its easily the 2nd best fight of the whole show after ekko vs jinx. It just feels so epic.
Cait vi jinx sevikas arcs have all been handled really well, since going into that fight they are all looking for different things. Cait wants revenge. Jinx wants to die. Vi wants all the chaos to end and is clinging to cait who she views as her final ally. Sevika wants the undercitys independance and to protect jinx.
This is a sign of good writing, since the fight didnt accomplish anything except for them to all unleash their emotions on each other. If the episode was just centered on this it would already be amazing, but the episode expertly juggled the subplots of the wild runes and ambessas plot for the hextech weapons. The writing is so good since so much is established in just 3 episodes but it all flows so well together.
I also really loved how vi and cait have developed this season as opposites of season 1, and the scenes where they embraced and brokeaway were extremely emotional. Their arcs are going in completely opposite directions which is great to see narratively.
With Arcane being able to replicate its jaw dropping season 1 with the first act of season 2, its definitely in the same league as the peak of the tv animation medium. Avatar, AOT, Full metal alchemist brotherhood. It just has to keep up the momentum for the final 6 episodes, and then it definitely has an argument for being the best animated TV show ever made.
Arcane: League of Legends: Heavy Is the Crown (2024)
An almost perfect start to the second season
Im so glad this season started off with a bang. S1 was (alongside AOT S3 and Breaking Bad S5), my favourite ever season of a show. I was worried this season wouldnt be able to capture that same special feeling.
The music montage after the intro was beautiful, followed by really good character interactions between cait vi and cait jayce. They easily could have made this an aftermath episode but it established a lot action and storywise, not just focusing on the explosion itself but even furthering viktors storyline and the upcoming war in an efficient way
The entire episode does not let up on the dark and atmospheric tension. The action sequence close to the end was especially exhilarating. Cait and Vi also have some amazing character development in different ways by the end of the episode.
A big disappointment was how they handled the aftermath of jinxs explosion. I wished they had shown us the destruction and characters pov in real time, but it cut to the aftermath and the destruction was much less than expected. There is potentially an explanation for this but as it stands this felt really underplayed.
Overall this was definitely better than episodes 1-5 of arcane bar episode 3 of course. The pacing was on point and the cinematic feel was really well done. If they keep this momentum and dont jump the shark story wise in the remaining episodes Arcane will secure its legacy as one of the greatest shows ever made.
Arcane: League of Legends: Watch It All Burn (2024)
Very fun and much needed buildup episode focusing on Zaun.
This episode contrast to episode 1 focuses on the undercity and the power struggle between jinx sevika and the remaining chem barons. The opening music video featuring all this was especially entertaining. Every arcane episode you can at least expect a really cool music video you can replay over and over.
Sevika and Jinx especially have some really good character moments that ensures their characters stay evolving and not stagnated. The final fight of the episode was ultimately the lowest stakes fight of the whole show, but definitely one of the funnest and funniest. It was much less about choreography and more chaotic, which makes it really unique compared to other arcane fights.
This episode also furthered viktors storyline, the pace at which his storyline has gone in just 2 episodes is very surprising, yet doesnt feel rushed. Of course the show is called Arcane, and his plot really seems to be the driving force behind the magic storyline in this show.
I really hope we see more development and radical change in jayces character, since vi cait viktor jinx sevika have all gone through a lot of development but jayce is still very cookie cutter good guy in bad situation as he was in s1.
Overall great episode, not as impressive as the movie like quality of episode 1, but still felt very fast paced (in a good way) despite being a buildup episode.
Shingeki no Kyojin: Night of the End (2022)
Good dialogue, but the worst manga adaptation in the show so far
In a chapter all about character interactions, their emotions and expressions they focussed on furniture and trees for so much of the episode. The most important interactions between characters happened off screen.
It feels like production collapsed or they became lazy because this episode focused on still shots of tree branches for so long instead of animating anyones facial expressions, which is a shame since this episode was finished ahead of schedule. Multiple pages of manga happened offscreen and even dialogue cut.
Shingeki no Kyojin: Thaw (2022)
Seriously the best mappa episode ever
This episode is literally the definition of anime elevating manga. The manga chapter is pretty great with a decent 5 page mini action scene dealing with leftover titans.
The anime took that and x1000 on the action, hype and music. It was seriously so perfectly executed they made this episode even better than the first 2 action episodes of s4 part 2.
It really brought back the hype and nostalgia from the first 2 seasons with the OST use and how well the ODM gear titan action was.
Final Space: Hyper-Transdimensional Bridge Rising (2021)
Every week, emotions on emotions
The episode brings so many forgotten characters and storylines together and links them to the main story in an amazing way. Forgotten characters are given more depth and the way theyre brought back to service the narrative is just amazing writing.
Shingeki no Kyojin (2013)
Seasons 1-3A 9/10. Season 3B onwards 10/10
This is possibly the most intricately plotted story told in the modern day. Just rewatching the show again everything makes an insane amount of sense and the foreshadowing for events that occur seasons later is mindblowing.
The show sets up mysteries, and pays them off in ways youd never expect, but make absolute sense. There are barely any flaws in this story whatoever, constantly delivering on action and story payoffs.
The only thing i can think when watching seasons 3 and 4 is how does the author continue to pull this off again and again.
Final Space (2018)
Amazing show. Season 1 9/10. Season 2 8.5/10
Such a good series. You can finish season 1 in a day. Amazing story with epic moments. Season 2 is a bit more episodic and has some weaker episodes but it has just as good highs as season 1 and when it does focus on the story its just as good.
This is a well written story with distinctive characters, good character development and relationships, and surprisingly emotional beats.
The story that follows is actually really original and unique relating to sealed away dimentions, titans and outer space adventures. The characters and story are just amazing and i cant wait for season 3 to drop.
Yakusoku no Neverland: Episode #2.9 (2021)
Anyone whos saying ignore the manga fanboys is wrong
I havent even read the manga. I watched the anime first and was blown away by how good the first season was. This season has been a complete letdown and so much of the runtime has been nonsensical and pointless.
When i realised that they literally cut out the 2 arcs worth of storylines and characters it all started to make sense, and existing moments were cheapened too.
Episodes 1 and 8 are the only properly entertaining episodes but the story itself has been completely ruined by plotholes and streamlined plot/characters, especially when you realise how much better it was in the manga.
If you are calling people manga fanboys because theyre not content watching one of the most intruiging stories be butchered into a hollow mess then you dont really care about the quality of the anime anyways.
Shingeki no Kyojin: Guides (2021)
Symbolically feels like the uprising arc but for our main characters
This episode was perfectly paced and maintains intensity throughout despite being an actionless episode. Its an important plot driving episode that kick starts a lot of the conflict between factions and characters.
There is an issue that the iconic coat scene couldve been animated better. The way the animated it looked inferior to how it was in the manga and even the trailer.
But it was still a great scene and the episode overall was extremely interesting. Get ready cos every episode from ep 13 onwards will be insanely good.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
To this day one of the most impossible films to pull off
This film is an achievement unto itself. Unlike any other marvel movie, this deserves to be praised for bringing around 25+ popular characters and putting them all in a cohesive narrative thats unlike anything that came before it.
At least 20 movies filled with characters and storyline nuances were successfully kept intact here yet the main character was the villain that had barely had any screentime previously, yet was written in a way that you could empathise with him and tied him into prior events like the new york invasion.
The movie itself is structured perfectly, from the perspective of Thanos putting him in a heroes journey making him go to different locations to collect the stones from different heroes weve come to know, and pairing different combinations of heroes in an insanely well written way so every character stood out and had an iconic moment to shine.
All in all the scope of this film is beyond anything that has come before it and even more so than Endgame, but they kept the narrative grounded and paced it perfectly. And the ending of the movie is one of the best endings ever. The best superhero/ comic book film of all time after The Dark Knight.
Shingeki no Kyojin: Chronicle (2020)
A disjointed but useful recap before season 4 only if you dont have time for a rewatch
This should just be watched as a refresher if youve forgotten a lot of what happened when you first watched the show and need to rewatch the key events for a better understanding.
Dont watch this if you havent watched the anime, it skips all the fights and clumps parts of important scenes in a sequence like an info dump with no sense of cohesion for a normal movie.
It isnt really enjoyable to watch as it doesnt show any sequence of events properly and is just trying to jog your memory on every important scene that took place.
The pacing of the anime is near perfect besides the female titan arc so the animes the ONLY way to experience the story. This movie just saves people from searching "attack on titan recap season 1/2/3 on youtube"