This past week I've been catching up on one of my favorite shows for a long time now. Adventure Time started in 2010 on perhaps the best childrens' channel of date, Cartoon Network. This show means so much to so many people, including me. Why is that? Is it the diverse and interesting cast of characters? Wonderful music? Its progressive tones? The utter refusal to be condescending to young viewers? All of the above, unsurprisingly.

Earlier in the year I wrote about the progressive nature of a lot of childrens' cartoons nowadays. When writing that I only briefly mentioned Adventure Time among many others as being mature for their target audience. Nickelodeon's The Legend of Korra, Disney's Gravity Falls, and Cartoon Network's Steven Universe. It seems like it all started with Adventure Time. It mentions past same-sex relationships and even seems to deal with sexual identity if you analyze certain characters enough. What does this all mean. Not just that new and upcoming creators are brighter then ever but that they are fundamentally changing up the process in which the audience takes in their creations.

For this example I'm going to, obviously, use Finn from Adventure Time. When the show first started, in 2010, Finn was twelve. Now, 2016, he is 16. Okay, so the aging between the show and the characters aren't entirely one-to-one but that isn't exactly the point. Just think of the implications of having the characters in a show age the same as the audience. First of all, the show grows with its viewers. This means that the themes presented in the show itself can mature with the audience – at least that's the plan. At the start of the show, the plotlines were relatively simple. The Ice King is bad and he steals princesses. Finn and his magical dog Jake need to save them. Rinse and repeat. Right? No. Later in the series they give some backstory to Finn. He was an orphan, abandoned in the woods until Jake's parents saved him. Later still, Marceline the Vampire Queen gets some interesting stories as we learn about her complicated relationship with her father. Somewhere in the between we get some hints at the setting of this show. A post-apocalyptic Earth? Yes, really. The Land of Ooo is actually the aftermath of 1000 years of nuclear fallout. How do we know this for sure? In a Christmas episode where we learn of Ice King's tragic backstory as he witnessed the downfall of civilization and went mad (and immortal) in the process. That's only the beginning. I haven't even gotten into the masterful story craftsmanship that went into Finn's relationship with his father. The minds behind Adventure Time knew their audience and capitalized on the fact that they grow up and used it as an opportunity to keep the show interesting for the same audience that the show was originally crafted for, but older.

This show asks a lot from its audience. To the everyday viewer, every episode might just seem like a fun adventure for the whole family to enjoy. To a more inquisitive viewer, however, one can get a lot out of a single episode of adventure time. When talking about the deepness of this show I like to use the episode "All the Little People," one of my favorites. The episodes starts off with a surprisingly human conversation in which Finn asks whether it would be better to date someone who is exactly like you or your complete opposite and then goes on to ask if BMO and Ice King would make a good couple. Jake is perplexed by the latter but has an intriguing explanation for the former. He answers that love isn't about science and compatibility but that its really random of who will like who or the "pumps-'n'-bumps" as he so eloquently puts it. This sets up the entire theme for the episode. After this short exchange, Magic Man sneaks up and puts magic bag inside Finn's pocket. They discover that in the bag is miniature versions of a lot of citizens of Ooo. Back in the tree house, Finn starts interacting with them by putting them in various situations and spending days upon days just seeing what they will get up to. It turns out, Jake was right. Not only did the little people get into all kinds of strange relationships but the miniature version of Finn starts cheating on every girl that he goes out with. This causes the real Finn to step in and make everything right and, after a miniature dance party, the episode ends. This is a deep episode. It's funny and interesting to young kids but has a deep message that not many shows will dare to do. 

Before Adventure Time not many shows tried to do anything as new as this. In the 80s most cartoons were mostly about selling toys and in the 90s, while a lot of these shows were extremely creative they rarely had any deep morals while being entertaining. The 00's were special to a lot of people for its unique comedy but I believe that right now is when we can truly get excited. This show almost single-handedly changed the landscape of cartoons for years to come. It's been six years since the premiere of the show and, though I don't think anything can beat the Lich arc of a few years ago, it still shows no sign of stopping. Though I'm usually against television shows dragging themselves out until they become dry and uninspired (al a Spongebob) if this show keeps pumping out content like this then I might be okay with getting a few more years of it.



Monday, July 04, 2016
This spring season of anime was a little disappointing to me on the whole. I didn't get around to every show this season but the ones I did get to didn't really grab me. About four weeks in to the season I went on MyAnimeList to see what the most popular ones of the season were and I was surprised at just how much praise that My Hero Academia was getting. I didn't get on the band wagon right away because I've gotten really bored of super hero films and shows but I thought I would give this one a try. I was not disappointed. My Hero Academia is clever, fun, and really gripping right from the start but still not quite what I wanted from it.
Art by DeviantArt user corphish2
The premise alone originally got me into the show. At first it may seem like a generic super hero romp but it is surprisingly more than that. In this world the superpowers are known as Quirks and, contrary to most other hero tales, the ones who don't have a power are the odd-ones-out. This is interesting. I've seen enough X-Men to be able to sympathize with the ones who are considered freaks with their powers. In this world the ones who don't have a power are considered outsiders. After the first episode I wanted to see where this story would take me considering the differences that it fundamentally has with other super hero stories of today. In that aspect, I was disappointed. I suppose it's my fault as the name of the show is My Hero Academia - with an emphasis on 'Academia.' If I had taken this in mind I could have predicted that it would have the generic "school of heroes" set up. That set up, though not special, appeared at first to be uninspired but dang I just love these characters so much.

I've always been a believer that the setting doesn't carry much weight as long as the characters are relatable. This brings me to our main character, Izuku Midoriya. Izuku is quirkless i.e. he doesn't have any powers but he still strives to be a hero and even idolizes the so-called 'Symbol of Piece,' All Might. Because of his powerless position the other students make fun of him and he even develops a rivalry with a bully with a fire-based quirk, Bakugo. Izuku wants to take the entrance exam to the highest ranking hero-training school available but he can't pass without a quirk. This all changes, however, when All Might himself saves Izuku from a villain which leads to the discovery of All Might's grand secret - he can only do hero work for three hours a day. All Might explains to Izuku that he is looking for someone to hand over the reigns of 'Symbol of Piece' to so, after some rigorous training, All Might gives Izuku his powers of super strength and sends him on his way to take the entrance exam. You could consider this entire paragraph as a spoiler but this all happens in the span of the first four episodes.

The animation of My Hero Academia isn't the best I've seen this season but it is still very good in its own stylistic way. Thick lines and varied character designs make for a very memorable art style that accentuates the themes that the show is going for. The designs of the different heroes are especially great. There is a certain hero that goes by the name of Mt. Lady who only shows up in a couple scenes in the very beginning but her character design is so memorable even all these weeks later after finishing the series. All of the students eventually get their own hero costumes that do a good job of making them look cool while also giving them a lot of personality, not that they didn't have any before. I especially loved Asui, a frog-girl with (you guessed it) frog powers; Momo, who's powers were never fully explained; and Ochako, who has the power to make any object she touches lighter. One character that I was really hoping had a great design was Bakugo. The suit that he ends up with does fit with his explosive personality but it looks stupid. He just put grenades on each of his hands and, at least to me, it looks uninspired.

The music... I can't say much for. I think I liked it but I couldn't pick out a certain track over the others. Such a shame considering how great both the OP and ED are. The OP, THE DAY, is an aw-inspiring anthem that pumps me up for the show every time. The ED, Heroes, is always a good ending for almost every episode. Overall the sound isn't great but it does what it needs to which I can appreciate.

My Hero Academia is probably my favorite anime of this season with its good action, great characters, and wonderful designs and art.

My Hero Academia is thrilling!
Sunday, June 26, 2016
I freaking love Pixar. The company does churn out a few duds here and there I don't think that any of their films are bad. With that being said, however, their sequels worry me. Monsters University was pretty good but I couldn't even finish Cars 2. Needless to say, I was cautious coming into Finding Dory. They did not disappoint as this film might just be just as great as the original.

Finding Dory isn't about finding Dory. It's actually about Dory's quest to find her long lost family. I don't want to go into it too much in fear of spoilers but let's just say that this film hits you in the gut with the opening scene. Finding Nemo's first scene is sad but, because we've gotten to know Dory, this opener is just heartbreaking. Moving past that, Finding Dory really surprised me with the way it went with its story. I knew the basic outline because of the trailers: Dory gets the help of various new sea friends to find her parents. This film takes this scenario and rolls with it so hard. Frankly, that's what all movies should do with their given outline, but this one thoroughly surprised me with the locations that they go to and the adventures that they have. That is something that I've been missing from a Pixar movie. Is it just nostalgia? Maybe. I did enjoy Inside Out, despite its predictability and The Good Dinosaur... was... definitely a movie, but Finding Dory surprised me with every turn it took regarding its story. 

Finding Nemo possesses possibly my favorite movie soundtrack of all time. At least, that's what I would've told you yesterday. Now I would tell you that Finding Dory might just be better... but I can't let go of the original. Is it nostalgia? Heck yes and I don't care. The Finding Nemo soundtrack will always be closer to my heart but Finding Dory just sounds new and improved in every way. Bigger instrument variety and a bigger emphasis on set pieces which is a nice change. I may be a minority by saying it's better but it is certainly a welcome change. 

This film looks amazing. The animation is fluid and easy to keep track of and each character gives off so much emotion through their facial expressions. This does lead me, however, to my biggest gripe with the film. The set pieces were a little boring. That isn't the animators fault and I do like how this movie feels more contained than Finding Nemo but that doesn't let the animation really shine like it did in Finding Nemo. There isn't a vast and beautiful ocean that the characters explore in this one. It isn't  really the movie itself but rather its relationship with its predecessor that makes this part really stand out while watching it. Maybe that is something that I can get over with more viewings? Whatever the case, good or bad, it is different and worth mentioning.

Finding Dory is a great movie and a great sequel. Is it better? I don't think so but I sure as hell don't think it's worse. 

Finding Dory is gripping right to the end.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
I absolutely love Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. I has to be in my top three anime of all time if not my favorite. Naturally, when I saw that there was also a follow-up movie for this 2009 version of the tale I was skeptical. The Sacred Star of Milos did have a different director but it was still under the same studio so I didn't really know what to thing. I should have gone in with little expectation. This movie isn't very good. The style and setup is great but quickly becomes generic and predicable.

The story of The Sacred Star of Milos takes place during the Brotherhood storyline, oddly enough. The audience never knows specifically when but from what I could gather it takes place after Alphonse remembers "the truth" (thus he is able to transmute without a circle) but before the brothers know of Father's plans of sacrifice. This bugs me. Because of the pace that the anime has I just don't see anyway that anything other than their main mission could take place between the these two plot points. Before or after, sure, but it's just odd that they chose this scenario of events to play around with in the first place. After doing some research, however, I have found that most of the fanbase doesn't consider this story canon so I don't really know what to think.

Anyway, at the start of the film we are introdced to two siblings, Julia and Ashleigh (strange spelling) Crichton, whose parents are famous alchemists around these parts. Two wolf chimeras slip into their house while they are distracted and kill the father and mother while Ashleigh escapes leaving Julia to fend for herself. Years later, Ed and Al are celebrating the generic Amestris harvest festival when suddenly a powerful Alchemist escapes from Prison and, when the brothers try to confront him, they are unable to detain him because of his strange alchemy. After a short investigation run by Mustang, they discover that this mysterious man is after a girl from Creta named Julia who has been recently detained for illegally immigrating to Amestris. With this information, Edward and Alphonse Elric travel to Table City on the border between Creta and Amestris to learn about this strange alchemy and capture the man.

I do like the premise here. All of the above takes up the first fifteen minutes of the film and I was never disinterested. I truly wanted to see where this went. When the brothers actually get into Table City is when the problems start. On the ride there, the train gets attacked by a group of gliding militants and Ed and Al have to fight both them and a wolf chimera. This action scene doesn't just look amazing but it creates a sense that something isn't quite right because of the warring factions. Then after they find Julia everybody makes up and the story turns into every Fullmetal Alchemist plot ever with the bad guys trying to create a Philosopher's Stone by sacrificing the story. We've seen it a hundred times and it's getting boring now.

It makes me upset because the film started out so incredibly strong with motivations other than "get the stone." We could have had Ed and Al taking sides with the mysterious man or the faction of militants who call themselves the Black Bats. Or maybe the brothers had to try to get them to work together in order to fend off either the Amestrian or Cretan military. Or the plot could have been weaved into the Brotherhood plotline nicely with meaningful conversations about Chimeras or Humunculi. After the first half hour of the film it feels tedious because of how similar it is to everything else Fullmetal Alchemist. Just another story about douche-canoes wanting more power through the Philosopher's Stone.

Despite the story and theming problems, the movie isn't all bad. The animation is top notch but I am very torn on the style. It's hard to explain.

Take this:
Versus this:











The main thing that I notice is the line composition. The Sacred Star of Milos clip is hard and rough while the similar Brotherhood clip is soft and clean. The style is different but not necessarily bad. It just took me a long time to get used to. The music is also very good. The nation of Creta is based on real-world Spain so, fittingly, the music takes a lot of inspiration from that region and culture. It isn't anything to write home about but I do appreciate the fact that the creators of Fullmetal Alchemist do their research on everything from architecture to music.

If you've seen the plot of the 2003 FMA or Brotherhood than you've seen The Sacred Star of Milos. The animation and music is different and interesting in its own right and the film starts out strong but the entire experience is predictable and honestly boring.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: The Sacred Star of Milos is not interesting but any FMA fan should still give it a watch.
Saturday, June 18, 2016
I'll be honest, it's not easy for me to pick favorites. It just might be tacky to say this, but my favorite anime of all time is Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. The original 2003 series showed me the possibilities of what anime could be but Brotherhood solidified the idea that anime, just like everything else in this world, could be art. With that in mind, I simply cannot review this piece of art without spoiling the original series and at least a little bit of this one. So let this be known: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is one of my all time favorite things that exists and very well may be the best anime of all time. With that out of the way, I can talk about what makes this show so special.

For my first paragraph I would usually run down the general setup of the world and the characters and their motivations. I don't feel that I need to do that here. If you truly do need this then I recommend you read my FMA 2003 review. For this post, however, I am mostly just going to go over the differences between the two series.

For starters, the humunculi have changed slightly from their 2003 counterparts. The biggest change is their creation. The 2003 series had the humunculi being created from the people that had tried the taboo of human transmutation. I did like this idea because it gave each humunculus a connection to the characters but it didn't capitalize on this fact like I hoped it would. Brotherhood gets rid of this problem completely by having each of the humunculus being created by Father, who is a way more sinister bad guy than Dantes from the original series. Some of the humunculi's names and forms have been changed as well. Instead of Sloth being a liquid version of Ed and Al's mother, he is now a gigantic monster who is actually quite sloth-like. Pride is no longer the Fuhrer. Instead, the Fuhrer takes the name of Wrath.

I feel like these changes, even though they existed first through the original manga, are welcome as their names correspond more to their individual desires. In the 2003 series, Pride wasn't very Prideful, Sloth wasn't slothful, and so on. With these new identities, they each have to deal with the fact that they are based on the seven deadly sins and it makes me even feel bad for them at times. Especially Pride, Wrath, and Greed who all get more screen time then I ever would have expected.

The first twelve episodes of Brotherhood are equivalent to the the first twenty-four episodes of 2003. I have heard this as a complaint as some characters like Hughes and Shao Tucker don't get enough screen time but, to be fair, they don't get a whole lot of time to develop in the manga either. After the first twelve episodes, Brotherhood takes off into a whole new never-before-seen arc and introduces two new Brotherhood-only characters: May Chang and Ling Yao. If you've seen 2003 as many times as I have, these new characters and new surroundings come as a breath of fresh air. Later in the series we get even more characters and even more buildup to the eventual epic battle with Father.

In my FMA 2003 review, I mentioned on how amazingly emotional the soundtrack was. I am very proud to say that Brotherhood does not disappoint as it breaths new life into the music that the series is known for. We don't have the same standout tracks like Bratja but we do get a lot of new and unique tracks to take their place. With that being said, I do like 2003's soundtrack more because of Bratja. That one song is enough to tip the scales for me personally and I do truly wish that Brotherhood had included it at least once in the series.

I didn't mention the English voice acting in my 2003 review, but dang is it impressive. Every single voice actor does their absolute best in Brotherhood. Most of the talents reprise their roles. Alphonse's voice actor was too old for the part so Funimation went for a female actress and Scar's voice actor was replaced for one reason for another. Honestly, though, it's hard to tell. Al's very first line of the show is very noticeably a girl's voice but by the fourth episode sounds exactly like the actor from 2003. Scar sounds exactly the same from top to bottom. And, of course, Vic Mignogna returns as the voice for Edward Elric in quite possibly my favorite performance in any animated show ever.

As for the animation of this new re-imagined series, it is leagues better than anything that 2003 had to offer and I already thought that show's animation was really good. There are just so many moments of pure sakuga in this show. Any battle that involves Ling and the entirety of both the fourth and fifth seasons are just astonishing to look at. The one thing that I do think the show lacks, however, is its color palette. It seems like 2003 knew exactly what it was doing one-hundred percent of the time regarding the lighting and palette of each of its scenes. Brotherhood, on the other hand, wasn't as good. It is still far better than most shows out there even today, though.

Go watch Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Just do it. It is my favorite anime of all time and I know that so many others feel the same.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is breathtakingly and believably beautiful.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
The original Fullmetal Alchemist anime adaption is one of my favorite anime and shows of all time. Despite the alterations from the manga it has still held a special place in my heart all this time. The story was great and the ending was a perfect bittersweet experience. This sequel film continues from the series and is surprisingly great, from its themes to its story.

At the end of the 2003 FMA series, Edward and Alphonse Elric are split from each other and Ed is now on our Earth. Back in the Fullmetal Alchemist universe, Al has been training to become a great alchemist and find his brother despite him losing all memory of the past three years of their adventure to find the Philosopher's Stone. Edward is in our universe in 1920s Germany right after WWI and while Hitler is rising to power. After having some run-ins with the Thule Society, he has to stop them from invading Al's universe and thus clinching the victory of the next war. What a great idea! The original series only touched on the time period of Ed's new existence but Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie takes that setting and has it intertwine with Ed's struggle with this new world. 

It's not just the concept of this movie that is good. The film has a strong story of Ed trying to come to terms with this new world, Shamballa's version of Al inadvertently helping the Nazi's plan, and the original Al trying to find Ed. The only problem then? It is only one hour and forty-five minutes. Because of the short running time it doesn't have a whole lot of time to balance all the stories it is trying to tell. If the movie was longer or even a miniseries than there could've been plenty of time to flesh this world out, even though it is our own. Even though it could be better, The Conqueror of Shamballa does do a surprisingly good job of keeping itself in line. 

The visuals and music are what you would expect: great. The animation is as top notch as the show ever got and the music by the same composer, Michiru Oshima, is different but still fantastic. The musical style takes an even more European approach with large chunks of the soundtrack being played by the Moscow Ochestra. I can't really compare it to the soundtrack of the show though as the style is just so different but I do love it. The only problem I have with the animation is its use of 3D. I'm sure it looked great in 2003 but now it just looks dated. 

Despite all the praise I've given this show, there is just something that bothers me about it. Maybe because its the product of something so different than its original source material or maybe because I just feel anger that there are two versions of this great story. I can't quite explain it. Besides my personal beef with the film, Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie is a really good finale to the original 2003 adaptation and, though the ending isn't to my liking, it does a whole lot right from the animation and music to the story itself.

The Conqueror of Shamballa is great!
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Fullmetal Alchemist was the first anime that I ever experienced. I had seen American cartoons before but this was something completely new to me, despite its setting being European in nature. Amestris looked and sounded beautiful and the tale of two brothers trying to regain what they once had instantly gripped me. In 2009 there was an objectively better series called FMA Brotherhood based entirely on the original manga, but the original series will always have a special place in my heart.

Two boys try to bring their mother back from the dead and in doing so the older brother loses and arm and a leg and the younger brother loses his entire body; his soul bonded to a hollow suit of armor. They have since left the goal of resurrecting family and only now want to get their old bodies back using the Philosopher's Stone. This setup is what originally grabbed me when I was younger. Before this anime I hadn't experienced a show - a cartoon - to take itself as seriously as this from the get-go. No 'cartoon' before had dealt with death as serious and down to earth as this one. The darkest animated show that I had seen before this was Avatar: The Last Airbender who's themes drastically differ from this. From the first episode, I was on board with wherever Edward and Alphonse Elric would take me.

Fullmetal Alchemist's characters don't stop with the brothers. Winry Rockbell, an all-the-time-worried but strong mechanic acts as a shoulder for the brothers to lean on throughout the entire series. No matter what personal problems they may have, she serves as a constant reminder of not only where they came from but what they are fighting for. And then there's Mais Hughes. Though he is a fuzzy goofball at heart who tends to brag about his daughter, he is really an intricate investigator who will only answer to Colonel Mustang, his best friend. Mustang is quite the character. He is usually cool and collected but brash leader who tends to lead his troops into less-than-ideal places. He does have an eccentric side, however. Anyone who has seen the show remembers the "tiny mini skirts" ordeal. Mustang is one to not take anyone's crap, but still has a less serious side. I could go on for hours with each of the characters getting a paragraph a piece. Even the 'bad guys', the humunculi, have their own unique personalities, though not as expressed as the main protagonists.

'Bratja'. 'Brothers'. This song breaks my heart. No matter how or when I hear it, I cry. This song represents a bond. The bond between Ed and Al that, though clawed at, will never even scratch. This song is the lifeblood of anything Fullmetal Alchemist. The plucking of the strings create an intense melancholy and the russian choir singer starts out cold and distant but is picked up at the chorus for an uplifting feeling. No pun intended, this song is about brotherhood. Every single track in this anime is fueled by pure, raw emotion. 'Taboo' is the short, ominous theme about the sin that the brothers committed trying to bring their mother back and the repercussions of that action. On the flip side, 'Reunion' is just that. A reunion between family or friends. I don't have to even talk about why 'Koukai' is amazing. This soundtrack means so much to so many people for a great reason. The fact of the matter is that it is spectacular. To me, at least, no soundtrack to any movie, game, anime, or T.V. show has topped it or ever will top it.

For the time the visuals were fantastic but obviously don't hold up as well as Brotherhood's. I'm fine with this because the original FMA series does a much better job at one aspect of animation: lighting. Anything from Colonel Mustang's explosions to the dark corridors of Laboratory 5 look great.. This combined with the music makes a very personal experience for the viewer that cannot be forgotten easily.

Fullmetal Alchemist is something special to me and I've been ranting about it for four paragraphs now. This doesn't mean that it doesn't have flaws. I found that its main villain didn't have a whole lot of personality but they were sinister enough and their goals, though scattered, were good enough to keep me invested. Honestly, any other problems that I had with the series would be going into spoiler territory and comparing it to its 2009 re-adaptation which I don't think is fair considering, if I reviewed the 2003 series when it finished, Brotherhood wasn't even an idea in Studio Bones' collective consciousness. However, near the end of the show some of the characters introduced get a little ridiculous and I might even do a video comparing the two in the future. For now I don't think I should critique it any more than that.

Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) is utterly spectacular and one of my favorite shows of all time.
Wednesday, June 08, 2016
I've always been a fan of level making programs. Applications that allow ordinary people make levels for their favorite games. These can be hacking tools like Lunar Magic or even whole fan games with level editors built in like Super Mario Bros. X. Because of my love for the creator community I couldn't wait to get my hands on Super Mario Maker. Too bad that I didn't actually get the game until about a month ago. Oops.

Super Mario Maker is simply a Mario level creator. When creating a level you have the choice of four game styles (Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros U) and six themes (Ground, Underground, Underwater, Ghost House, Airship, and Castle). When you are building your masterpiece you have a huge variety of items and enemies to use with new building blocks like the Donut Block and the Fire Koopa Clown Car. It sounds pretty simple but it can actually be a little overwhelming even with the game giving you the items in portions as you play the game. Sometimes I forget some features even exist until I am reminded of them through the community levels.

The community levels are where this game really shines in my opinion. For me, building levels takes an immense amount of time so most of my experience with the game has been through experiencing other peoples' creations. It can be hard to find good creations, though. The game itself doesn't have a built-in search tool that works through keywords. Instead, you have to find levels through a separate website and then type in the code of the level into the game. It just seems unnecessarily complicated. Is it so hard to have a keyword-based search bar? It shouldn't be. If I don't want to find a specific kind of level, however, the menus that Super Mario Maker does have work just fine. When the game was first released the 'Rating' tab was filled with levels without a whole lot of substance like 'Auto Mario' levels and really short but hard gauntlet-type levels. Since then, the 'Rating' tab has been updated many times in order to present the best levels.

Super Mario Maker also has a couple other modes in store. The 10 Mario Challenge and 100 Mario Challenge can be a great way to test your skill. The 10 Mario Challenge gives you 10 lives and has you surviving a number of developer-created levels while the 100 Mario Challenge gives you 100 lives and has you surviving a number of user-created levels of various difficulty. You can pick the difficulty you want to play on in this mode but it doesn't matter as it is very rarely you get an actually well-designed Mario level. Most of them consist of things flying at you from every direction or 'Auto-Mario' stages. This mode does have a 'skip' option by holding down the 'minus' button so if you realize a level is bad you can just skip it but this feature does cost you a life. I barely ever go on this mode and use it mostly to unlock the various Hidden Block Costumes that the game has to offer.

Super Mario Maker is fun to experiment with. There are ways to find really well designed stages but the amount of effort you have to go through to do so is way more than it should be. The level creator is really fleshed out and simple to use but I still wish that we had more. Who knows? Maybe we will continue to get updates that add new gameplay options.

Super Mario Maker is a really fun distraction.
Monday, June 06, 2016
At the time of writing this I have completed 50 anime according to MyAnimeList. Out of all of the anime I have seen, I have never been so divided on ERASED. It seems like the entire anime community is also divided as I have seen scores ranging all the way from one to ten. My score? Well for me it's a little more complicated than that.

ERASED, from the start, is a time-travel anime... kind of. The main character, Satoru Fujinuma, has the power to go back in time, usually from five to fifteen seconds. The catch is that he cannot do it at will and is instead willed to do so whenever somebody around him is going to be killed or greatly injured. He has been keeping this power of his a secret from everybody as, obviously, no one would believe him. It is established very earlier on that Satoru's past is a very dark one in which three murders in his home town. One of the murders was one of his good friends at the time and, though the police are convinced they have caught the killer, Satoru thinks otherwise. The man they have, Jun Shiratori (or Yuuki), was friends with a ten-year-old Satoru before the murders happened and the Satoru of today doesn't believe that he could have done it. Everything changes for Satoru when the killer from his past murders his mom for knowing his identity and, when the police are about to bring Satoru in for custody, he is whisked back to 1988 about two weeks before the murders start. From here on out it is up to him to catch the killer and ultimately save the day.

Let me just make it clear from here on out that I believe ERASED is a very subjective show and one's enjoyment of it all relies on how the individual can suspend their disbelief and accept certain scenes. For example, it is made very clear from the start of the show that Satoru can only go back in time when someone is in danger so it doesn't make much sense that he is brought back to 1988 after his mother dies. What the viewer thinks of this is completely up to them. I can really go both ways on this. If he was brought back before his mother died then Satoru wouldn't have a reason to find the killer that he suspects killed her. Throughout the rest of the series there is a number of plot holes that, though aren't too major, tended to slightly take me out of the experience. I can't dive into spoiler territory but I can say that there is a lot of cut content from the manga regarding secondary characters.

Damn, Yuki Kajiura. Calling back to my Sword Art Online review, I stated that, though the story sucked, the soundtrack was pretty decent. ERASED soundtrack is pretty great. I've only seen a handful of anime with Kajiura's works (mostly the Fate/Stay Night series and SAO) but from what I've heard she has greatly stepped up her game in the past year and I tend to agree with that statement after this anime's soundtrack. Though not every track is good there are a lot of stand-out pieces like "Only I Am Missing" and "Show Me Your Smile" and a bunch of others. She did some great work on this score.

I have a strong belief that it isn't about the end but about the journey. Though ERASED has a number of plot holes and plenty of cut content from the manga and the ending is lack-luster I still had a great time with it. To me and a lot of others the big picture is what counts for this show and its short comings are just a little too short to really matter. After I finished the show on MyAnimeList I gave ERASED an 8/10. The day after, I changed it to a seven. At one point I even brought it down to a six but then immediately raised it again to an eight. I am still torn on the series but I believe that it is at least worth the watch if you haven't seen it yet.

ERASED is whatever you want it to be. 

 Personally, I had a great time with it. 



Wednesday, June 01, 2016
Every generation there is a movie that does something new and innovative that kicks the industry in the backside and tells it to keep moving forward. Before 2009 it was hard for movie makers to take CGI to the next level because of its complexity. James Cameron changed the game with Avatar. Audiences and critics alike were astonished by how lifelike the world and characters of Pandora were and for good reason. There had been nothing quite this bold before. But does it stand the test of time seven years later?

Avatar is a strange movie. Whenever I talk with friends about it we don't discuss the intricacies of the story or the depth of the characters. Rather, they just say how amazing it was to look at seven years ago. The reason is, the plot isn't very deep or new. In fact, its rather predictable. If you've seen any adventure flick with a theme of "save the planet" than you've seen Avatar. It does have good characters but none of them really resonated with me in particular. This is where the Extended Edition comes in handy because the few extra scenes that it has do a lot to enhance some character motivations. Why does Neytiri not trust the 'sky people'? In the original her motivation could just be interpreted to be because of her culture. In the Extended Edition, however, it is explained that her sister was killed by the military which created friction between her and Grace and by extension, the humans. There are many more examples of this throughout the Extended Edition and I would say that it is the best way to view this movie, despite the three hour run-time.

Seven years ago, when Avatar was released into theatres worldwide, I was utterly amazed by how it looked. Back then I was just interested in how lifelike the characters and environments were but now I can appreciate the film and a whole new light. Not just is the directing very well done but Pandora itself is just beautiful. When I was younger I liked the variety of unique animals but now I even love the alive vines and the bio-luminescent flowers. Though some scenes look slightly more animated than I remember them, the design of the world is absolutely alluring.

The soundtrack for Avatar deserves a round of applause. At its core it may seem like basic tribal music but the way the film uses the score in specific scenes is aw inspiring. The flutes and percussion of "The Bio-luminescence Of The Night" and the high jingles of "Pure Spirits Of The Forest" help shape the world of Pandora to be quite a unique one.

Avatar has aged well since 2009. Though the CGI doesn't look quite as good as it did and the story is too easy to guess, the texture and sound of the world is great enough to keep me coming back.

Avatar is predicable wonderment. 
Monday, May 30, 2016
Copyright © 2016 ehalcomb | By Designscrazed