Category: Anime Reviews

(This review covers both the first season and the second one, Bananya and the Curious Bunch)

Now here’s an anime that I’m sure not a whole lot of people know about. Bananya is a short TV series that’s literally about the adventures of cute pocket-sized kittens that live in banana peels. That’s it. It’s a very simple premise, and the first season mainly shows them going through mundane situations, like going inside the refrigerator, or trying to greet a stray cat outside the kitchen window. Every episode is 2-3 minutes long and there’s no real dialogue except for a narrator who tells us what’s going on. Now, if you’re looking to watch this, I should warn you, the story is pretty episodic, and the characters don’t really develop beyond their one singular personality trait. In this case, it can be forgiven, as they’re cats that can’t talk, and the first season has a rather small set of characters that are easy to follow, even if four of them look exactly the same.

Continue reading “Guest Post: Unearthed Baubles with Firechick: Bananya (69/100)” →

So, let’s talk about Hello Kitty! Even if you don’t know her name, you’ve definitely seen her at least once in your life. The official mascot of a company called Sanrio, Hello Kitty is the second most financially successful franchise in human history, only beaten by Pokemon. First created in 1974, Hello Kitty has won many hearts with her cute design and wholesome innocence, and even now, merchandise of her and her family, friends, and cohorts continue to line shelves, as she’s one of Japan’s most beloved cultural symbols, an emblem of creativity, community, and yes, cuteness, that has joined the pantheon of global pop culture. But would you believe that it actually took a while for her to start appearing in anime and cartoons? Many think she made her animation debut in the 1987 American cartoon Hello Kitty’s Furry Tale Theater, but that’s not true. She did make some non-speaking cameos in Sanrio’s early movies like Nutcracker Fantasy, the first Unico movie, and Journey Through Fairyland, but her true animation debut was through a rather…odd stop-motion short film called Kitty and Mimmy’s New Umbrella, which was bundled with one of the Unico movies for home video.

Continue reading “Guest Post: Unearthed Baubles with Firechick: Kitty and Mimmy’s New Umbrella (75/100)” →

(This review is solely based on the GameBoy Advance version, which many say is the best version of the game. I will mention the Pixel Remaster version a bit, as I started playing that recently, which is why you see screenshots for that edition here)

When people ask what they consider to be the worst Final Fantasy game, or the one that they like the least, chances are you’ll get three answers: Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VIII, or Final Fantasy XIII. The first three happened to be the most controversial games to come out during the 90s-2000s, especially in America. Final Fantasy V, coming after the more well-liked FF4 and just before the revered Final Fantasy VI, was considered to be too comedic and light-hearted for a franchise that many praised for daring to be dark, gritty, and going against the boundaries of what could be shown in video games during that time. It didn’t help that the version that got ported was the PS1 version, which was not only not a very good port on its own, but the English translation it got was universally panned for being shoddy and generally awful across the board. Now, I’m not entirely involved with the fandom, so I don’t know if this opinion has changed much, but I have played some of the games, only completing three, this being one of them. In all honesty, I really don’t think Final Fantasy 5 is as bad as people are making it out to be.

Continue reading “Guest Post: Unearthed Treasures with Firechick: Final Fantasy V (82/100)” →

As of mid-2024, a good majority of the games Key/Visual Arts have put out are legally available in English, with the exceptions of Air, Kud Wafter, their Prima Doll kinetic novels, the Rewrite fan disc, and Summer Pockets: Reflection Blue. Before 2015, it was nigh impossible to procure their games outside of fan translations, but now almost their entire library is available. Hell, just a few months ago, their first visual novel, Kanon, FINALLY got an official English translation and release in the US, 25 years after its 1999 release. Now that I’ve played a good majority of their games—mainly their kinetic novels—and seen anime adaptations of the ones I haven’t played, I’ve gotten a bit familiar with their formula. I like the anime adaptations of Air, Kanon, and Clannad, but haven’t played the VNs for Air and Clannad yet. The game version of Air, while an important piece of Key’s legacy, has a lot of problematic aspects that really did not age well; Harmonia is fairly good but a big chunk of its lore doesn’t make sense, Loopers suffers from not doing enough with both its large cast of characters and premise, and while I enjoyed Lunaria: Virtualized Moonchild, it only started getting good in the second half, and the first half of the game is a bit of a climb. I have mixed feelings on the games of theirs that I have played, but that’s not to say I hated them. There are two that I genuinely enjoyed without any reservations: Planetarian, their first kinetic novel, and the subject of today’s review, Stella of the End.

Continue reading “Guest Post: Unearthed Treasure with Firechick – UT: Stella of the End (84/100)” →

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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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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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.

Continue reading “Guest Post: Unearthed Baubles with Firechick: Pokemon Trading Card Game GBC (65/100)” →