Manga (Retro)review: Maoyuu Maou Yuusha

(WARNING: This review/analysis contains spoilers.  You have been warned)

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha: 'Kono Ware no Mono to Nare, Yuusha yo' 'Kotowaru!'

Writer: Touno Mamare

Artist: Ishida Akira

Status: Ongoing

A random trip through the Interwebs has turned up yet another fascinating little series: Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, an economic treatise disguised as a fantasy manga, but so much better than that sounds.  I knew nothing about it before a few days ago, so I’m pretty late to a party that’s apparently been going on for a little over six years.  But this smart, witty, and optimistic manga really stuck with me, and deserves, I think, a worthy review - even as it also displays a few of the pitfalls that come in making “philosophical” fiction.  (Footnote: Maoyuu Maou Yuusha is a pretty expansive franchise, encompassing a light novel series, an anime, and several manga titles all with different artists.  I choose the adaptation running in Comp Ace Magazine, drawn by Ishida Akira and distinguished by the ridiculously long subtitle above, as it’s one of the more popular and accessible versions).

Plot Synopsis

In a medieval fantasy world embroiled in a decades-long conflict between demons and humans, a lone Hero of extraordinary power battles through the demon defenses to face, he assumes, his destiny: a climactic showdown with the evil Demon King, impaling the foul beast on the end of his blade and finally bringing this war to a close.  However, this standard fantasy script gets flipped when the Demon “King” turns out not only to be a large-bosomed cutie with hardly a malevolent bone in her body, but also a highly intelligent economist who calmly and firmly lays out all the political, social, and economic reasons why killing her won’t end the war -  and may actually lead to all sorts of nasty repercussions.  Our Hero finds his entire scaffolding of heroic fantasy tropes stripped away by her data and relentless logic, until she finally makes him an offer: to become “hers” (and she, “his” in exchange) and help her implement a series of innovations to ensure lasting change and peace for both humans and demons - beyond the temporary and destructive benefits of endless war.  Although Hero initially turns her down (funny note: the daunting subtle roughly translates to “Become mine, Hero!” “I refuse!” in homage to this exchange) he’s considerably more open-minded than your run-of-the-mill fantasy sword-swinger, and finds himself swayed by her facts and his own sense of righteousness.  With their “contract” now sealed, the pair return to the human world where, aided by Demon King’s - ahem, Queen’s - servant Head Maid and Hero’s former companion Female Knight (notice a naming trend?) they set about a plan to effectively save the world from its own worst impulses.

Story

The story drew me in right from the start; I am a major fan of deconstructive fiction done well, and this series manages to tear down a whole slew of not only bog-standard fantasy tropes, but a few shounen manga conventions as well.  Our two protagonists are cut from very different molds than what’s typical in the genre, and in their own ways overturn many expectations.  Demon Queen is, quite frankly, brilliant, and though physically frail with a sweet and childish side, proves to be formidable in the arts of negotiation and verbal jujitsu.  Hero, too, is much more than he appears; though arguably the strongest being in existence, he recognizes his own impotence before an enemy he can't hack or slash, and is quick to support his consort in all her goals, even going so far as to proclaim her the real hero of the story.  More characters get added - each, however inconsequential at first, eventually becoming important additions to the narrative, often getting their own moments in the spotlight and driving home the central message that it's the small changes, enacted in the minds of others through trust and learning, that have the biggest impact in the long run.  But the real wallop of the story comes from the amount of intellectual firepower they packed into it, easily apparent in the early arcs as the Queen's plans are just getting underway.  Diligent anime fans often compare Maoyuu to another well-known light novel series - Spice and Wolf, which shares the same basic premise of supernatural girl hooking up with human guy to lend her wisdom in socioeconomic matters.  But instead of focusing on microeconomics and the interaction between its two leads like that series, Maoyuu tackles the wider world of macroeconomics, and how they influence and are influenced by political forces.  The author really knows his stuff, and through his avatar Demon Queen explains (sometimes in painstaking detail) how certain real-world innovations, like new crops or new tools for education, can cause dramatic changes.  In a way, this whole manga can be thought of as a massive thought experiment: what would happen if you suddenly introduced potatoes, corn, the printing press, and notions of individual free will and intrinsic rights - all things we take for granted in the modern world - into a feudal society where toil, famine, ignorance and violence are everyday realities.

Still, the story at times smacks a bit of historical teleology or even triumphalism, warping the manga's biggest strength into its greatest weakness.  Also, like most works aiming to inform and enlighten, Maoyuu often falls into the standard dilemma of too much telling and not enough showing.  This was particularly painful during the first few arcs, where the prose borders on the didactic, and the reader’s bogged down with entire chapters of dry economic explanations - so dry, in fact, that despite my own personal love of economics and numbers, I sometimes skipped a few pages, certain I was missing nothing of real substance to the story.  This gets better as it progresses, though there remain certain points when Touno is basically preaching to us.  Still, the strong character development and undeniably smart ideas running behind this series more than make up for the occasional dips into pretentiousness.   

Rating: 9/10

Art

It’s probably unfair to critique the art as if it pertained to the series as a whole, since there are so many different versions, but just speaking of Ishida’s penmanship, I found the overall effect somewhat lacking.  The art wasn’t bad, not by any stretch; however, it looked pretty sloppy in how it was put together.  This is hardly noticeable in the beginning, when the cast is still small and the “action” centered on the bureaucratic gymnastics of merchant guilds and church factions.  But as more characters of significance appear, Ishida's generic style makes it harder to tell some of them apart - not helped at all by his thought bubbles being all over the place on some pages.  The action scenes were also lackluster, though that gets an easy pass; Maoyuu tends to focus on strategic maneuvering in combat rather than dazzling feats of individual fancy, so you don't feel like you're missing out on much.   Moreover, Ishida is great at displaying the two sides of this story - the serious economic drama on the one hand, and the light-hearted romantic comedy on the other - and really brings out the humor and warmth in what could easily have been just another gloomy bundle of pretense.

Rating: 7/10

There's a lot more to this universe than can be covered in my review.  While you can argue that the “innovations” introduced in the manga mirror the real world too closely - and hence, feel derivative or even lazy - it doesn't change the brilliance of the execution, nor the originality of the premise itself.  If you’re looking for a fine piece of literature that will make you think and give you a good laugh at the same time, you can do a lot worse than this.

Total: 16/20 = B

"Suicide Squad" is an uncoordinated mess, but it does have its bright spots

Even the movie poster looks spliced together

Movie: Suicide Squad

Directed by: David Ayer

Starring: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto

Verdict:

Hopelessly muddled and long on exposition, DC’s latest brick in their rushed attempt to build a cinematic universe from scratch falls short of most expectations, although surprisingly competent performances from Margot Robbie and Will Smith throw out a lifeline as the poor writing and wasted potential of its characters tempt you into reaching for a noose.

In depth:

So DC Comics has recently marshaled up the gumption to set out a game plan for an expanded cinematic universe - despite sporting a roster largely unknown to the big screen compared to its rival, and despite having its forays into that territory mostly slammed at the box office (with maybe one notable exception).  But despite the setbacks, a lot of us held on to the hope that Suicide Squad would be different - that it would redeem DC in the nihilistic fires of El Diablo - offering, perhaps, a few shades of Deadpool along the way.  And, I suppose, for many movie fans, it does.  But to the rest of us, Ayer’s grimy, ugly stain of a superhero film is no Deadpool.  While the cast is undeniably talented and the film offers up occasional peaks of humor and cool action, it’s still a choppy mess, a muddled fustercluck that's but a fraction of the movie it could have been, wasting its A-list actors on a thinly-written hack piece that apparently left its soul on the cutting room floor.

Suicide Squad picks up where Batman vs. Superman ended: the death of Earth’s strongest hero not only left a void in the world’s spandex quota, but also opened up a serious question on how and when to control these “metahumans,” who seem immune to pesky little things like the laws of physics, or city-wide body counts.  Enter Amanda Waller, DC’s resident sociopath in the name of national security, answering the call with the poorly thought-out solution of using expendable baddies to police the world’s supers.  Played by the talented Viola Davis, she spares us of the chore of sitting through anything interesting by giving an expository info dump for the first  20 minutes of the movie on every bad egg comprising her proposed team: Deadshot (Smith), the ace sharpshooting hitman with a soft spot for his daughter; the Joker’s deranged girl-toy, Harley Quinn (Robbie); disfigured man-eating mutant Killer Croc (Adewale Aki Akinnuoye-Agbaje); Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), a bank robbing bogan with...a boomerang; and last but not least, El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), a pyrokinetic hombre who dedicates half of his lines to reminding us that he is, in fact, Latino.  The remaining non-criminals of Waller’s task force include Joel Kinnaman as Spec Ops field marshal Rick Flagg, his sword-wielding bodyguard Kitana (Karen Fukuhara), and Cara Delevingne as Dr. June Moone, an archeologist possessed by an angry evil spirit who can be summoned at will.  And here is where the trouble begins, for although Waller chose “The Enchantress” to be part of her unit as well, the spook’s harboring some serious beef with the human race for imprisoning her soul in a clay doll.  She breaks loose, and sets about on her obligatory world domination/destruction plan.  Now it’s up to Waller’s band of murderous misfits and their straight-laced handlers to save the day.

Let me say right off the bat that if there is one thing I despise in any movie, no matter the genre, it's  long-winded exposition - and Suicide Squad struck that nerve like hammer.  I'm not talking about exposition integrated into the story somehow, either through a flashback, or maybe an in-movie play.  No, I mean the "Let's have a seat and I'll explain everything about the plot" kind of exposition. That type is the Devil itself, violating the sacred Show Don’t Tell rule of fiction, and is just flat-out boring to go through.  Twenty minutes is a long time to sit there just listening to someone prattle off details of a person’s life - time better spent on something else, like moving the plot forward.  Deadshot’s dossier is a perfect example of how the movie screws this up; we’re not only given a brief (and admittedly humorous) look at him doing what he does best, but we're also force fed his relationship with his daughter as we're walked through the details of his capture - complete with extended Batman cameo, so we can all bask in his awesomeness.  Most of that could have been implied, just to give us something to explore as the film progresses, but instead it's practically spelled out in FLASHING NEON LETTERS, leaving me, at least, with little reason to tune in when the action eases up and we’re forced to deal with these characters as actual human beings.

This mistake gets repeated with nearly each character and throughout the film, and delves into other no-nos of storycrafting that really should have been avoided.  Every time a new character is introduced, they come with a backstory-flashback combo designed to spill everything about them before they even get a chance to do anything.  As a method of character development, this falls somewhere between amateurish and GTFO, and I kid you not, it annoyed me to such a degree that I was actually tempted to walk out of the theater.  But more than a cinema sin, this highlights just how choppy Suicide Squad is as a final product.  The movie has a massively edited look, like it’s gone through more facelifts than an aging supermodel, and I can’t fight the feeling that a lot had to be sliced away just to make it all work.  While the action flowed pretty well, the scenes in general were held together by duct tape, with sudden breaks that felt jarring and discombobulating.  That’s not enough in and of itself to make a terrible movie experience, but it certainly doesn’t help, and it sure as hell doesn’t lend any confidence that the filmmakers knew what they were doing from the start.

But the biggest heartache comes from what they did, or failed to do, with its cast.  Read that list again, and tell me it doesn’t sound like a virtual dream team of who’s who on the Hollywood A-list - and Jai Courtney.  But the movie does almost nothing with them, with two notable exceptions.  Will Smith was surprisingly adequate as Deadshot - “surprising” in the sense that, despite his obvious acting chops, he has a major Achilles heel when it comes to antiheroes, with a bad habit of reverting to his nice-guy self on screen.  This time, though, he...well, he pretty much does the same thing, but unlike Hancock or Focus, it doesn’t derail the character or feel out of place.  Smith’s gotten much better over time with how much he lets his basic humanity leak into his characters, and this time, it definitely pays off.  But though Deadshot’s the designated glue character in this rickety boat, the real captain of this ship is the pale-skinned terror in hotpants, Harley Quinn.  I had my initial doubts that Robbie could pull this off; playing Quinn requires a certain manic energy that I felt the Aussie actress lacked.  But despite the gratuitous fanservice and her complete inability to pick ONE accent and stick to it, Robbie gives a brief but powerful panoramic of the clown girl’s complex psyche, working within the sad limits of the film’s painfully restrictive writing to bring out at least a little of what makes Harley tick.  It wasn’t as definitive as Ryan Reynolds and his masterstroke in Deadpool, but it’s enough to lift this otherwise broken buoy of a movie a little bit above the tide.

But the above two cast standouts really underline how underdeveloped the rest of their mates are - and unlike most movies, it has little to do with the acting chops on display.  Smith and Robbie stand out in their own minor ways despite Suicide Squad’s writing, not because of it.  The rest of the crew were barely given a moment’s chance.  Despite his much vaulted publicity in the trailers, Jared Leto’s Joker debut was little more than a combined 15-minute cameo of minor importance.  The rest of the Squad fared little better; Akinnuoye-Agbaje was straight-jacketed by layers of make-up and a guttural growl that made his few lines unintelligible.  Hernandez gave me Konnan flashbacks from WCW, and I half-expected him to shout “Arriba la raza!” at any minute. It’s sad that while he’s aiming for the whole “redeemed gangster” schtick, he ends up in an even bigger stereotype tar pit than if he’d just played a straight-up thug.  Almost without question, if any of the actors came off as tired, boring, or just plain offensive, it's because the series of disjointed scenes trying to pass itself off as a movie rarely gave them the opportunity to be anything else.

Which isn’t to say that it’s all doom and gloom.  There are a few nice action scenes scattered throughout the film, even if they culminated in an astoundingly lame final fight that seriously tried it with a forced Power of Friendship angle (among sociopathic super-criminals, mind you) and abused THE HELL out of the slowmo cam.  There were more than a few moments of humor that worked -  thanks to Robbie's stellar Quinn and Smith's natural charm - and were sorely needed in a budding cinematic universe that so far takes itself waaay too seriously.  But on the whole, Suicide Squad is a temple to mediocrity - one by design instead of accident.  The filmmakers threw this movie together haphazardly, forcing relationships and holding it in place with the flimsiest of excuse plots.  It might have been better to allow the crew to develop over another movie or two, filling in their roles and coming together in a more gradual way.  But rushing to the finish is apparently DC’s current mindset, and while Suicide Squad is a lot more fun than anything else they’ve put out this year, it still fell far short of both its hype and our expectations.

Grade: C-

August Releases

August Releases

Ah, August -  by Hollywood tradition, it's the weakest movie month of the summer, if not the entire year.  But there are a few late bloomers this time around, holding our attention even as the box office drought looms ahead.  Suicide Squad and the controversial Disney/Pixar spoof Sausage Party lead the hype train, though there are more family friendly options around, like Pete's Dragon and the mysterious Kubo and the Two Strings. 

Television is as much a waste as always before the fall premieres, though Netflix's The Get Down looks like a pleasant little love letter to the ground zero of hip-hop in 1970s New York, so have a look come August 12th if you're interested.

The gaming world, in contrast, has a slew of cool debuts this month, though the hot topic this August is unquestionably No Man's Sky - the much-hyped (and much delayed) procedural generation adventure game promising mega hours of gameplay investment.

Movies

http://www.movieinsider.com/movies/august/2016 

Television

http://www.tvguide.com/special/summer-tv/calendar/ 

Games

http://www.ign.com/games/upcoming?time=1m 

Music

 http://www.allmusic.com/newreleases

See you at the movies!

'Beyond' is a smart and funny sci-fi joyride

To boldly go where...ah hell, you know the rest

Movie: Star Trek Beyond

Directed by: Justin Lin

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Anton Yelchin

Verdict:

The boys and girls of the new Enterprise have done it again, this time cranking out a fun and fast-paced film that, while undeniably cheesy, overflows with old-school charm and enough action to keep you bolted in for the whole wild ride to the Final Frontier.

In depth:

I have a confession: I have yet to see either of the previous Star Trek revamps.  I'm not much of a fan of the franchise itself - barring The Wrath of Khan and Patrick Stewart’s delightful bald of awesome - and so avoided the fanwagon and the hatemobile when the first Star Trek AU hit the big screen a few years back.  Which means that I came in with no expectations or prejudices, armed only with an open-mind and some fond (if limited) memories of the older movies.  Fortunately, unlike so many times this year, my good faith wasn't bludgeoned like a baby seal.  Not only was Beyond intelligible to a novice like me, being a solid standalone film; but it was a damn good movie all around, keeping steady pace on the action while indulging in a good bit of the wit, fun, and daring that made the original series the cult icon that it is today.

The film drops us in the dark of space, where the USS Enterprise, at day 966 of its five-year tour, is starting to lull in the tedium of its peacekeeping routine.  The dashing Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) in particular is catching the grind, feeling world weary (or “space weary”) while getting all existential about his approaching birthday.  The crew eventually arrives at Yorktown - a spectacularly realized if gaudy space city wrapped in a bubble dome - and set about restocking and sorting out their individual issues, including Kirk’s malaise and the promise of a promotion, Spock’s (Quinto) amicable break-up with the stunning Lt. Uhura, as well as news of Ambassador Spock’s unfortunate passing.  These little nuggets of self-reflection are interrupted when a damaged escape pod literally drops out from a nearby nebula.  Its passenger claims that her ship was taken down by an unknown force, marooning on a similarly unknown planet in the heart of the dust cloud.   So the Enterprise sets out on what's supposed to be a routine recon mission; but of course, this being Star Trek, nothing ever goes as planned, and when the crew flops down on the alien world after an attack by the mysterious pirate-warlord Krall (played by Idris Alba) Kirk, Spock, and the rest race against time to stop the madman’s scheme, all while trying to find a way back home.

"Did anyone bring a compass?"

Right from the start, Beyond doesn’t waste any time setting up the plot and the major conflicts churning it.  Kirk’s concerns over his birthday and his father’s early death, Spock’s relationship troubles, and the myriad of interpersonal problems dotting the crew here and there, are all covered quickly but efficiently - doing justice to the underlying feelings, but not drawing them out for unnecessary melodrama.  Okay, sure - there ain’t exactly a whole lot going on here to begin with, so it shouldn’t be that hard.  But you’d be amazed how many action movies aspire to heights of “pathos,” only to land flat on their faces in the Zone of Pretension.  Beyond dodges that minefield by not pretending to be anything other than what it is: a smart, fun sci-fi adventure flick that pushes a few intriguing suggestions, but nonetheless recognizes that its main purpose is to entertain.

And entertain it most certainly does, in no small way thanks to the tight pacing of director Justin Lin.  Rarely does a movie fit its scenes together so well that you don’t even notice where one begins and the other ends.  Not much felt hurried or incomplete; nor was I constantly eyeing the theater door, languishing in movie drag and waiting to be put out of my misery.  Everything flowed effortlessly.  From the scenes in Yorktown, to the thrilling dogfight against Krall’s crew, and all throughout the film, Lin painted the action with care and an attentive eye, always aware of his movie’s tempo, and knowing when to push the pedal to the floor or ease up on the gas - a talent I wish more directors had.  The frenetic pace is never overwhelming, and as a result, the plot is as sleek as a newly-christened starship.

"First one to say 'Mary Sue' is gonna talk to the stick

But the actors are the real stars here, and the cast, charging down the silver screen in their third run together, were definitely up to the task.  Though Pine, Quinto and the rest are more or less strangers to me regarding their roles, in the end it didn’t matter; each actor embodied his or her character to the absolute tee.  Pine managed to blend Kirk’s strengths - his charming bravado, as well as his tricky balancing act of vulnerable masculinity - without the irritants of his at times macho and womanizing behavior.  Quinto and Karl Urban, the later portraying “Bones” McCoy as the third leg in the iconic Freudian Trio, really got to play off of each other in this film, spending a great deal of time in close company, perfectly melding the rivalry, subtle respect, and ribbing comradery that colors their relationship so well.  Ironically, the real stand out in the cast was the one I expected the least from - newcomer Sofia Boutella, playing Jaylah, an alien scavenger and survivor on the world they crashed on.  This nubile, white-skinned maiden is a queer mix of funny foreigner and walking deus ex machina - providing amusing off-kilter commentary (referring to the grounded ship she’s commandeered as “her house”) as well as a convenient way of resolving most of the crew’s problems.  By all accounts this should've made her an unpleasant addition to the tight-knit crew, but her combination of vulnerable innocence and hard-boiled tenacity really works out in the end - so much so that she left me hoping for another appearance in the future.

But really, behind all the pieces that fit together like a windup clock is the simple fact that Beyond is just a straight-up fun movie.  I know - “fun” is hardly an exact descriptive, but it’s a fairly accurate one.  Beyond flows like an old-school sci-fi pulp flick, but without the annoying trappings of that bygone era.  There are no rubber forehead aliens or green-skinned babes in metal bikinis, but there’s plenty of humor, daring and machismo to go around - with even several members of the fairer sex getting a hand on the action.  When Kirk leads a siege on Krall’s base mounted on a motorcycle, or attacks his swarm ships with the blaring “classical” rifts of the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” you don’t have time to whine over the scenes' lack of realism or anachronistic qualities.  They’re so well-made and crank up the adrenaline rush to such a degree that if you have any kind of a pulse, you’ll likely be giving a round of applause at the stellar execution.

Yeah, don't think insurance is going to cover this

So is there some fatal flaw to Beyond - something to temper all the laudation and knock the Enterprise back a few parsecs?  Well, a couple of things were amiss, but nothing that breaks the overall thrilling experience.  The scenes described above are unashamedly cheesy, of course, but it’s a good kind of cheese, falling well in line with this revamp’s apparent forte of balancing the novelty of the past with the realities of the present.  There were a few plot holes sinking in beneath Krall’s true identity, though; the revelation came completely out of the blue, and the “deductive” means by which they arrived there stretches the bonds of credulity more than anything else in the movie.  I also wasn’t impressed by the film’s pyrotechnics and often bald CGI.   Although the initial panoramic of Yorktown was a sight to behold, even then it felt more like a prop to be marveled at than a natural part of the world.  The filmmakers were probably aware of this, giving Bones a voice to humorously point out how the space city looks like a “giant snow globe,” and should have been placed on solid ground instead.

But that little dip into self-effacement only highlights the wit and whimsy pervading every aspect of the production.  At no point does the movie ever take itself too seriously, dispensing even the most navel-gazing questions with a muted one-liner and keeping the focus where it belongs.  There’s nothing groundbreaking or even exceptionally memorable here, but if you’re looking for a solid action movie with more brains than the norm and a nice helping of phaser beams, I can’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon than booking a voyage with this veteran crew for one hell of a trip.

Grade: B+  

'Mob Pycho 100' is definitely worth your time

 

Show name: Mob Psycho 100

Genre: Action/Horror Comedy

Premiered: July 12, 2016

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, the name ONE should be familiar to you by now if you’ve been anywhere near the anime world.  Known for creating spectacularly well-written web comics with spectacularly awful art, his most famous work by far is the recent hit series One-Punch Man.  A narrative tour de force affectionately parodying shonen and Western superhero tropes alike, both the manga and the anime have gathered rave reviews and an overwhelmingly positive fan response, and is in my humble opinion the best anime released in the last decade.

So imagine the hype that swelled every corner of the Otaku Nation when it was announced that ONE’s second work, Mob Psycho 100, was getting its own anime release in the summer of ‘16, thanks to the celebrated Studio Bones.  Though less well-known than its big brother, Mob has a strong fandom praising its dour and taciturn protagonist to stars, and I can personally attest to its coming-of-age charm and humor.  But how will the anime stand in comparison?  Does the first episode give us any reason to remain glued to our seats?

Synopsis

In a world full of malevolent spirits and “espers” endowed with phenomenal psychic powers, Shigeo Kageyama - A.K.A. “Mob” - seems like just your average, nondescript 14-year-old middle schooler.  He’s not particularly good at sports or academics, and with his expressionless face, muted emotions, and lame helmut-style haircut, he only stands out by how utterly uninteresting he appears to be.  But looks can be deceiving, and behind the bland exterior, Mob hides a big secret: he’s actually one of the world’s most powerful espers, casually dispatching even the strongest spirits with little effort on a daily basis.  But even that is just a fraction of his full power; when his stress level reaches the breaking point (displayed symbolically as an “explosion meter” ranging from 0 to 100%) his normally suppressed emotions overflow, transforming him into a living force of nature that few, if any, have the power to resist.  With the help of his boss Reigen Arataka, a phony-baloney “psychic consultant” who is, for better or worse, Mob’s mentor and confidant, our teenage protagonist navigates the rocky minefield of adolescence, seeking popularity, friends, and an identity beyond what his powers hold.

The Good

Right from the start, Mob Psycho 100 accomplishes what it absolutely must in order to keep afloat: capture and hold the audience’s attention.  The mysterious, action-packed in medias res opening, where a lone shadowy figure does battle against a host of otherworldly creatures, is the one scene with no analogue to the web comic (at least, not for many issues down the road) and really grabs you - kind of like turning the ignition key in your car and getting a roundhouse kick to the jaw out of nowhere.  Studio Bones fostered this new series well, no doubt acknowledging the big shoes it had to fill, but determined not to make this One-Punch Man Junior.  The music was pulse-pounding, but also ethereal, while the psychic action often exploded in psychedelic colors strew about - befitting a show focused on the supernatural as a mysterious intrusion, as opposed to the common, almost banal occurrences in One-Punch.  Reigen and Mob make for an amusing Abbott and Costello duo - the former, dramatic and bumbling in the course of his wayward fraud, with the latter as his calm and reliable straight man.  The voice actors for both sound pitch perfect, and I look forward to seeing how Setsuo Ito handles Mob’s rare but memorable descents into emotional wreckage when the arc villains push him one step too far.  Also, while it’s ultimately Mob’s spotlight here, the creators are smart to push on with the initial focus on Reigen and his “business,” giving us only a brief yet well-paced overview of Mob’s home and school life, since he’s the more interesting and amusing of the two at the start.

The Bad

So far, I can’t really finger any glaring problems.  A pilot episode serves one of two purposes: it either kicks off the plot or paints the setting, and Mob successfully went with option two.  We’re only allowed a taste of the daily life of our protagonist and his closest ally so far - and oh what a delicious morsel it is, and certainly wets our appetite for more.  If forced to really dig deep and consult my inner pedant, I’d say that the colorful light show accompanying whenever Mob makes some poor soul give up the ghost can look a little cheap at times, especially compared to the relatively muted palette dominating the rest of the episode.  But that’s very much a minor nitpick, and had no impact whatsoever on my enjoyment.

The Ugly

One of the big question marks hanging over this series since it was announced was how Studio Bones would handle ONE’s...unique art style.  Although One-Punch Man is his creation as well,  Madhouse wisely chose to follow the manga remake drawn by the incredible Yusuke Murata.  Mob, however, is all ONE, and everything that entails.  So far it’s working, the animation style shifting from ONE-ish (mainly for the characters) to bright and flashy for the psychic powers, to a duller wash when the mood takes a more sinister turn.  There is a real risk that the contrasts in style and art might look disjointed as time goes by, but we’ll just have to keep watching to find out.  Of course, the art style itself can be a deal breaker for anyone looking for a more mainstream look, or those unfamiliar with ONE’s artwork, but that, as always, is a matter of personal taste.

Tune In or Tune Out?

Definitely Tune In.  This was a slow but smooth start to what’s likely a wild ride.  I couldn’t find any real cause for complaint in this premiere, and the art, voice acting, and music are all top-notch.  Will this be another smash success like One-Punch?  Who knows, but I’ll definitely be tuning in to see.

July Releases

July Releases

It's that time again!  June was a pretty quiet month for me, but I'm back, and we've got a lot ahead of us.  Although Tarzan and The Purge have come and gone this Independence Day weekend, we still have The Secret Life of Pets, Ghostbusters, and Lights Out around the corner, plus a couple of other hot items on the box office menu.

Television is an endless drought like always in the summer time, but the new comedy series Vice Principals, starring Danny McBride, should provide a few fresh laughs when it premieres on the 17th. 

Movies

http://www.movieinsider.com/movies/july/2016

Games

http://www.ign.com/games/upcoming?time=1m

Television

http://www.tvguide.com/special/summer-tv/calendar/

Music

http://www.allmusic.com/newreleases

See you at the movies!

June Releases

June Releases

Summer's in full swing now, and it's like every studio's waited until juuust the right time to bombard us with a flurry of sequels.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Now You See Me 2, The Conjuring 2, Independence Day: Resurrection (seriously - what?) -  they're all clamoring for our precious time and billfolds.  Hard to say what will or will not work yet, but I'm sure Finding Dory is likely to bring up all sorts of nostalgia for anyone touched by the original.  

Everything else might need the favor of the Cinema Gods just to keep from going down in flames.

Movies

http://www.movieinsider.com/movies/june/2016 

Games

 http://www.ign.com/games/upcoming?time=1m

Music

http://www.allmusic.com/newreleases/all/20160603 

Books

http://www.bookreporter.com/coming-soon 

Television
http://www.tvguide.com/special/summer-tv/calendar/

See you at the movies!