Category: Anime Reviews

Guest Post: Unearthed Treasures with Firechick: Digimon Adventure Pilot (82/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Special Articles

Digimon has been a part of my life for about as long as I can remember. I religiously watched the 1999 TV series as a kid, along with the seasons afterward (With the exception of Data Squad and Fusion). It’s one of those series where every time I rewatch it, I always manage to discover something new about it. At one point, I saw commercials for Digimon The Movie, but I couldn’t go see it in theaters at the time due to other obligations like school. Years after that, I was able to rent it on VHS from a video store. It was…certainly something. I found out later that Saban’s Digimon The Movie was actually three movies mashed into one, cutting a lot of content in the process, far more so than they did with the series. Later in life, I saw two of those movies in their original format, this one included, with English subtitles, and I was surprised with just how different they were from the edited versions that made up Digimon The Movie. Coming back and rewatching the Digimon Adventure Pilot as an adult, with full knowledge of the TV series, I’m even more impressed by just how good this short film is as a prequel to the series and on its own merits.

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Guest Post: Unearthed Treasures with Firechick: Dog of Flanders Movie (97/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Special Articles

I’ve watched many movies throughout my childhood. Namely the Pokemon movies, some Disney movies (namely Aladdin), and others. But none of them have really made a huge impact on me because of the limited time they have to get made. Characters aren’t always developed, plots are too narrow, and some just turn out plain terrible. Before 2010, I had never even HEARD of anything called The Dog of Flanders. I only learned about it through this review. When I first read it, I thought, “Can a movie really be this good?” Curious, I tracked it down and found it on YouTube…and I was absolutely not prepared for what I saw, and boy am I glad I followed his recommendation. This movie, to me, is a masterpiece on every level. This is my personal gold standard for not only animated movies, but for movies that are adaptations of books, and movies as a whole overall. I’ll try to be as objective as possible, but I can’t help but gush about it, as it’s such an underrated movie that rarely gets the appreciation that it so deserves! But I’m gonna tell you all about it and I’m not ashamed to say it: Dog of Flanders is my number one favorite anime movie of all time, and movie of all time in general.

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Guest Post: Unearthed Baubles with Firechick: Pokemon Trading Card Game GBC (65/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Special Articles

Hey Pokemaniacs, remember when we used to collect Pokemon cards, trade them with our friends, and participate in card battles? I sure do! In light of the Pokemon games’ massive success, companies began marketing it to hell and back, making and selling all sorts of tie-in toys, games, and cards to further make money off the franchise. In 1998, someone had the bright idea to turn the then newly born tabletop paper card game…into a video game. Yeah, so weird, right? But the game turned out to be pretty decent for what it was, and I remember playing and liking it as a kid. For a time, the game was available on the 3DS Virtual Console, which has now been shut down, but as of now, it’s available on Nintendo Switch Online as part of its GameBoy library, so you don’t need to worry about physical cartridges running out of internal battery power and losing all of your progress. But how does the game fare as a video game? Well…not that great.

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Bye Bye, Earth Anime Review – 66/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Bye Bye, Earth, Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Reviews by Lenlo

One of the main reasons I prefer novel adaptations to manga or light novels is that, usually, it’s harder for a novel to get picked up for one. To get that kind of attention, to get noticed, it’s hard. They don’t have the same mainstream reach. Why I’m not sure, maybe people just don’t like reading. Whatever the case, the point is that novels don’t seem get anime as often, and when they do they tend to be rather well written. Think The Great Passage, Run With the Wind, or Tatami Galaxy. So when I saw that one such novel was getting adapted this season, I was pretty excited! Everything about it seemed interesting, from the musical aesthetic to the named swords, it seemed fun! Little did I know what I was in for with Bye Bye Earth, originally written by Ton Ubukata, directed by Yasuto Nishikata and animated at LIDENFILMS.

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Bye Bye, Earth. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “Bye Bye, Earth Anime Review – 66/100” →

Guest Post: Unearthed Treasure: The Summer You Were There (82/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Manga

Man, it seems like the yuri/shoujo-ai genre is going through some kind of renaissance, what with so many of those titles being ported to the US, and several of them actually managing to range from good to amazing. I don’t typically find myself reading a lot of yuri or shoujo-ai manga, more due to lack of time and lack of interest in romance in general, but these past few years I read some really good ones, such as Goodbye My Rose Garden and Yume no Hashibashi, not to mention all the ones that are much more frank about exploring LGBT themes. I do plan on reading A Tropical Fish Yearns For Snow at some point because I hear that one’s really good, but I don’t know when that’ll be. On that note, I hadn’t initially planned on reading The Summer You Were There because its premise made it seem like it was going to be an archetypal romantic comedy, but I wound up discovering through TVTropes that it’s actually a tear-jerking drama on par with something like Your Lie In April and I Want To Eat Your Pancreas. I mention those two titles specifically because of certain plot developments that form the backbone of The Summer You Were There, and while I do genuinely like this manga, much more than I thought I would, there are some things holding it back from true greatness in my eyes.

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I Parry Everything Anime Review – 73/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Action, I Parry Everything, Reviews by Lenlo, Uncategorized

There’s no shortage of OP MC fantasy shows out there. Even ignoring the entire Isekai sub-genre, your still left with shows like MASHLE, Tower of God, Solo Leveling, the list goes on. Point is, there’s a lot of them, and standing out can be hard. Some do it with fantastic animation, good comedy, or compelling writing. Most though? Most fail spectacularly, and are forgotten to history, never spoken of again. Sadly, that seems to be exactly where I Parry Everything, originally created by Nabeshiki, directed by Dai Fukuyama and animated at OLM, appears to have landed. But you know what? I think it deserves better. I think this show, despite it’s average visuals and standard narrative, deserves your attention. So if you take one thing away from this review, make sure it’s this: I had more fun with I Parry Everything than almost anything else this season. Here’s why.

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for I Parry Everything. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “I Parry Everything Anime Review – 73/100” →

Guest Post: Unearthed Treasure with Firechick – Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid (88/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews

Hey kids! Remember back in the 90s-2000s, people were convinced that video games made people violent? Or believed that video games were only violent shooters, and stuff like D&D and Pokemon were Satanic? These days, actual studies have shown video games by themselves don’t cause people to become violent or engage in violent acts, and luckily, that stereotype has mostly died out. But there are also people who believe that real games should only be shooters, action games, or overworld games, not those pesky RPGs, visual novels, farm sims, and so on. I think you guys know which camp I’m in. Video games, like all media, can be anything and everything their creators want them to be, whether they be action packed fantasies or down-to-earth, quiet farming sims. There’s really no restriction on their content anymore. Just look at the Boku no Natsuyasumi series, which are basically video games about kids playing in the countryside during their summer vacation and doing everything from fishing, catching bugs, hanging with friends, and so on. I’m only just starting to learn about the BokuNatsu series, but recently, a game that’s made by the same creators, Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid, got an English release and came out on Switch and PC. It looked cute, so I played the demo and thoroughly enjoyed it. 30 hours in, and I’m totally hooked!

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Guest Post: Unearthed Treasure with Firechick – A Little Lily Princess (90/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Special Articles

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “What?! Why would anyone adapt a classic Victorian era novel into a visual novel?! This is gonna suck soooooo bad!” Yeah, adapting a Victorian novel into a video game is definitely not the norm. Was anyone really expecting this? And did anyone even want such a thing to happen? Well, Hanako Games thought it’d be a great idea, and they made A Little Lily Princess. Now, as of this review, I’ve finished this game, read the book, and I’ve seen three adaptations of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess so far: The 1993 movie, the 1986 British mini-series/movie starring Amelia Shankley, and the 1985 anime adaptation, the latter two I think are some of the best adaptations. I can definitely say for sure that A Little Lily Princess is up there with those two in that it’s one of the most well executed, well thought out adaptations of Burnett’s novel, though I won’t deny that it does have some flaws that prevent the game from being truly great.

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Guest Post: Unearthed Garbage with Firechick – One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e (48/100)

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews

Many know the company Visual Arts/Key for their visual novels: Kanon, Air, Clannad, Little Busters, Rewrite, their kinetic novels, and so on. But while Kanon is the first VN that they produced under their Key banner, the staff that formed Key were actually part of another company before this, Tactics (Which would later come to be known as Nexton), and in 1998, they released an adult rated visual novel called One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e. It was initially never exported outside of Japan, but in its home country, it was quite popular, to the point of getting a ton of ports to different consoles and supposedly pioneering the concept of VNs having more low-key, emotional, character driven dramas that many Key fans endearingly refer to as “nakige” or “crying game.” One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e did get a fan translation and that was all it got as far as English exposure. So imagine my surprise when I found out that it suddenly got a complete, from the ground up remake out of nowhere that came out in December of 2023, and said remake getting an official English release, at that! I’m gonna keep referring to the game by its original title, One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e, because just saying the word One would just be confusing by itself. Seeing as a piece of gaming history was being released, I thought I’d give it a try and see what it’s like.

…Yeah, I regret that choice. A LOT.

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Guest Post: Unearthed Baubles with Firechick – The Flying Phantom Ship 74/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews

Show of hands, who here has ever heard of this old movie from 1969 called The Flying Phantom Ship before 2022? No? Me neither. I never even knew Flying Phantom Ship existed until Discotek Media announced on their Twitter page that they licensed it in May of 2022. Not only that, they even made an English dub for it because the original music and effects tracks, which are required to make dubs in different audio, were actually preserved, something which wasn’t considered a common practice back in the sixties. This effectively makes Flying Phantom Ship the oldest anime to ever receive an English dub in the modern era. I was already intrigued and decided to buy the movie just based on its history and significance in terms of dubbing, but hearing that Mona Marshall, one of many voice actresses who defined my childhood, was cast as the lead character pretty much cemented that decision. But what about the movie itself?

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