Topic: What are you watching?

Finished up IRIA: Zeiram the Animation earlier today. Sci-fi anime OVA miniseries that follows Iria, a bounty hunter of sorts whom, after being sent on a mission to rescue the crew & cargo of a ship that has sent out a distress signal, gets caught up in an entanglement involving a deadly & nearly indestructible alien presence & a company conspiracy to hide it.

Clearly it's base elements are inspired by Alien, but it does a lot to set itself apart, whether it be the aesthetic that mixes in a lot of traditional Japanese or otherwise Asian design with the deep space sci-fi stuff (kinda like Tenchi Muyo, Outlaw Star, & Photon, it's a vibe I've noticed a lot of 90's sci-fi anime fall under), the "alien's" largely unique appearance/skill set, & ultimately a more personal connection between Iria & her foe.

It can be watched free on Retro Crush & Tubi (at least in the US), so check it out if it sounds like it floats your boat.

Finished up season 2 of the Man in the High Castle this morning, & I thought it was even better than the first. I do hope they eventually explain the mechanics behind traversing realities, but otherwise things are really starting to get going.

watching a few things on Tubi this weekend

some old George Carlin stand up specials from 1999 to his last one in year 2000something
Shrunken Heads
Rifftrax: Ghosthouse
Subspecies II
The Wrong Guys
Day of the Triffids

Finished up Wanna be the Strongest in the World! the other night. If that name makes it seem like an anime, it's because it is. J-Pop idol Sakura Hagiwara decides she's going to join the pro wrestling circuit & beat them at their own game after her group is humiliated during a cross promotional event.

Doesn't have that big a budget as it's primarily a fan service show (the premise gives the animators ample excuse for crotch or butt closeups, plus the after match showers), but it actually kinda works. They manage to get by effectively with a lot of relatively static action involving submission holds (I exaggerate, but it seems like someone's in a Boston Crab for 50% of the show's runtime). It helps that it's actually pretty well paced for the first half (she really struggles to make it & doesn't get her first win until the show's half done), though it gets overstuffed in the latter half as she immediately gets the attention of the world champ, gets her own protege (in a storyline that doesn't really go anywhere), and is menaced by a mystery assailant. That said, it actually manages to end in a pretty good place.

Binged through Aika R-16: Virgin Mission this weekend (currently free on Tubi), which wasn't that hard as it's only 3 episodes long.

Anime OVA miniseries that follows high school student Aika Sumeragi whom after obtaining her salvager's license, she can pilot a sub, is invited by her school's "Adventure Club" to take part in an expedition to a set of mystery coordinates which were hidden in a message within a butterfly tattoo that another, amnesiac, student has. Things won't be easy however, as there are forces aiming to kidnap said student during the trip.

The best I can describe it as is dumb, guilty pleasure, fun. It's so short it's really impossible to become attached to the characters or for it to build any sort of engaging narrative, so it just jumps from one zany scenario to the next. It's full of cheesecake fan service (if you couldn't tell from that title), and it's hard to be disappointed if you're going into it for that (the art direction is pretty simple, but things are typically animated & detailed well. I've seen much worse). The biggest negative I can think of is that it's a bit blurry, either an SD product that's been stretched to fit modern aspect ratios, or an SD copy of an HD production.

Finished up Obi-Wan Kenobi. It was okay.

I think it was definitely at it's best when it was focusing on the Kenobi/Vader angle, and seeing Vader absolutely own the room in the other scenes he was in. You can definitely feel the bloat with how they had to pad it out from it's initial inception as a movie though.

That, and I'll have to cut Moon Knight some slack as Kenobi had the same issues in terms of darkness. The scenes in the rebel hideout in episode in episode 5 were super muddy, and I could barely see what was going on in the final episode when Luke was getting chased in the mountains & when Kenobi got buried under ground. Clearly there's something wrong with how Disney is making these shows.

Just finished up the Jaya Island arc in One Piece the other day, and something about Bellemy's voice was bothering me the entire time as it sounded familiar yet I couldn't exactly place why, until the very last episode when it hit me it was Radditz's voice (from DBZ, dub for what it's worth).

The VA doesn't even do anything to make him sound distinct, it's just 100% Radditz.

Stranger Things and The Boys. After that, The Book Of Boba Fett

@Royalblues, I was actually first introduced to it back when Toonami aired it a number of years ago, and they happened to start their run with the Davy Back Fight arc & ran through the Thriller Bark arc until they stopped airing it.

With that in mind I'll probably skip those arcs when I get to them (Davy Back, Water 7, Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark), which makes working my way through Skypiea all the more exciting. Once I'm finished with it I can jump ahead to events that come after where I last left it.

@Royalblues, I've already seen everything between Davy Back & Thriller Bark (including Water 7), which is why I'm going to skip them now.

I never watched the 4Kids run on Toonami back in the 00's, but I watched it's run (on Adult Swim's Toonami) in the 10's, which covered the arcs mentioned above.

After that I went back and started at the beginning of the series (am up to Skypiea now), will skip the arcs I've already seen before (everything between Davy Back & Thriller Bark), and continue from there.

Otherwise I'm not skipping anything (even filler) & am planning on being in it for the long haul. I know I won't be caught up any time soon (probably not even in the next couple years), especially since I take lengthy breaks between arcs.

The Boys Season 2 and Westworld Season 4.

Finished up season 3 of the Man in the High Castle a couple nights ago.

Still pretty good, though I'm not sure how I feel about the more strictly sci-fi angle it's starting to take. I know they needed to explain the background logic behind the existence of the films (and it's something I've been asking myself) so I'm glad they've done that, but I'd still wish the core narrative would focus on the political tension between the Nazis, Japanese Empire, and how the resistance could take advantage of that, rather than going all in on chasing the multiverse angle.

That said, that lab scene in the final episode was pretty cool & almost Stranger Things-esque.

Just finished episode 4, season 3 of the Boys. I guess it says a lot about me when homelander's antics put a smile on my face.

New Cutey Honey (Blu-Ray).

90's era anime OVA miniseries set in "Cosplay City", a crime ridden gothic/sci-fi metropolis (though this aesthetic is dropped for a more generic "New York/Chicago" style big city half way through) that's on it's last legs as the Demon Lord Dolmec(?) is bearing his will down upon it. Luckily, it appears that the mayor's aid, Honey, is really the (amnesiac) android/magical girl "Cutey Honey" whom saved the city from evil forces a generation ago (I take it this acts as sort of a follow up to the original 70's series).

It's absolutely metal & cheesy as heck, with biker gangs, demons, an OTT gritty atmosphere that includes a bit of gore & copious amounts of nudity & sexual innuendo (mostly reserved for Honey's numerous transformations, with her metamorphosis into her "main" form during each episode's climax particularly graced with lavish animation graphically detailing her form, but there's also room for multiple S&M Dominatrix influenced villainess's, a look Honey herself will don at least once, not even counting her stint as a stripper). Heck, even some of our protagonists get in some light bank robbery on the side.

It's garbage, but it's so fun it doesn't really matter (and the bad 90's dub makes it even better, IMO). It really doesn't end up doing anything narratively (they write off the big bad halfway through, & the last few episodes are individual monster of the week affairs that foreshadow a new threat that never materializes), but I absolutely loved watching it (binged almost every episode in a day) even if many of it's moments absolutely wouldn't fly today. It certainly helps that the main theme is an absolute earworm of a bop as well.

Maken-Ki! Season 1 (Blu-Ray).

Takeru is a first year high schooler excited to enroll in Tenbi Academy, a historically all girls school which just went co-ed. In his mind this gives him the chance to hit it off with lots of babes (including childhood friend Haruko, all grown up), but gets more than he bargained for when he learns it's a combat school of sorts, where everyone is required to train with magical weapons called "Maken", and most of the girls would sooner kick his butt than go out with him.

One quick look would tell anyone this is a fan service centric harem series, but when I watched it years ago I thought it balanced that well with the more action oriented battle stuff. Upon rewatch, it's a lot more harem fan service fluff than I remembered (in comparison to the action, which while present wasn't nearly as involved as I had remembered). It's certainly serviceable for the fan service aspect (it even does that thing where the female characters' features are often visible through their clothes), but it won't appeal to anyone who isn't already into fan service anime.

Finished up on The Boys S2. Amazon Studios nailed the right actor to play Homelander. Antony Starr is brilliant. Overall, I found it to be far different from S1 but still quite good.

Warehouse 13, just finished season 1, starting season 2.

@SingleStooge I just finished season 3, loving homelander! You're in for a ride!

Finished off Ms. Marvel last night.

I didn't go in particularly expecting anything with it, but I ended up enjoying myself in the end. I actually really enjoyed the moments with her & her family/friends (sure, it's a bit cringe, but much like Turning Red I think that's a bit intentional & think it had a similar vibe). I do think they tried biting off more than they could chew narratively, they should have either focused on her coming to grips with her powers while avoiding/dealing with the DoDC OR focused on the origin of her powers/family & the Djinn, but not both. I'm still not sure exactly why Kamran got powers after his mother died sealing the rift.

I know there was some controversy with how they changed her powers (& origin) from the comics, though as I'm not coming to it from that angle it didn't bother me.

Tekkaman Blade II - 90's anime OVA miniseries that I first watched uploaded onto YouTube nearly a decade ago. Found out it had been remastered & released on Blu-Ray so here we are.

Focuses on a group of "Tekkaman" (pretty much people who can transform into mecha like superheroes) who fight to protect humanity from alien invaders (whom humanity copped the Tekkaman tech from).

I believe it's a sequel to an older series (being a II and all), though that doesn't seem to be too integral to the story (it focuses on a new generation of heroes being trained to take the reigns), and it's an absolute blast. It has a cool visual style/aesthetic, great action, and mixes the mecha/superhero theme with a sort of fighter pilot/Top Gun vibe that really gelled with me. The main female lead can be perhaps a bit whiny (at least when it comes to the prominent romance subplot), but overall I can't find much to fault with it (even at such a short length I think it managed to land the ending pretty well).

Forgot to mention, but I watched Man VS Bee last weekend. It was actually pretty amusing, and definitely had some Mr. Bean energy in spots even though he wasn't specifically playing that character. I think my favorite scene may have been when he was fiddling with his pants in front of the police officer.

@RR529 it's such a typical Rowan Atkinson show, in the positive kind of way. As you said it gave me the Mr Bean vibes many types. Such simple by brilliant humor at times and the short episodes made it very fun to watch.