So last time we talked about the Aincrad arc, the first arc of the first season of Sword Art Online. It was an average arc with an interesting premise that wasn’t fully utilised but had a strong female lead with a good romance with the main character. The same however can’t be said about the second arc Fairy Dance.

Taking place a few months after the end of the Aincrad arc Kirito has returned to reality. However Asuna and some other players have yet to awaken. The main villain this time is Sugou Noboyuki the CEO of a company called RECT and he is somehow responsible for Asuna still being stuck with the Nerve Gear. After seeing a screenshot from a game called Alfheim Online of which RECT developed using assets from Sword Art Online showing a blurry image of Asuna Kirito dives into the game as he races against time to save Asuna before she is married off to Sugou.

Ok so there’s plenty wrong with this arc even in the beginning. Whereas Kayaba had no motive in his villany Sugou is using the still trapped players in a mind-control experiment (that doesn’t really mean anything as nothing is done with it) and he wants to marry Asuna without her consent while she is still in a coma so that he can take control of her father’s company.

Speaking of Asuna, let’s talk about how this arc literally MURDERED her character. In the previous arc she is shown as a strong capable woman while good at cooking can easily contend with the best players in the game. In this arc she is literal damsel in distress that can only wait for Kirito save her like a knight in shining armor and in more than one occasion gets sexually molested by tentacles and Sugou himself in the game.

The other female lead in this arc Leafa is no better. Her main purpose in this arc is for the incest subplot. In real life Leafa is Kirito’s adopted sister. In actuality they are cousins but they’ve lived with each other as brother and sister. Leafa’s character arc is confronting her feelings for her brother figure and growing pass them. It doesn’t really serve any real purpose other than that and Kirito doesn’t really respond to her feelings thus regulating her to the Kirito cheerleader club.

The pacing in this arc is just as bad, in fact it’s probably worse in this arc. Kirito has a week in which he needs to save Asuna so what does he do? Get himself needlessly involved in war between two ingame factions, go on a dungeon raid, and get swept up with the newest member of his harem.

I wish there was something good I could talk about in this arc but there isn’t. This arc made me give up the show. And in the next part I’ll sum up the overall experience in the anime.

Sword Art Online is an incredibly popular anime based on a series of light novels that tell the story of Kirito, his friends and their adventures in various VRMMORPGS.

In the not too distant future of 2022 there’s a revolutionary VR technology that completely changes the landscape of VR gaming called Full-Dive. Using all five senses a person is completely immersed inside their game giving a never before seen experience. And the first game to make use of this would be the titular Sword Art Online using the Nerve Gear.

The first season made up of two arcs was first released in July 2012. The first arc called the Aincrad arc is what most fans think of when one mentions Sword Art Online or SAO, while the second arc the Fairy Dance arc is widely reviled. And here in this review you’ll see why.

So the anime opens up promising enough. You have the protagonist Kirito logging into the game after it finally went live. There he meets a newbie called Klein who needs help getting into the game. After teaching Klein how to do Sword Skills and some exposition later Klein tries to logout but to his shock and confusion the logout button is missing from the menu. Kirito checks his menu as well thinking its a glitch but the logout button is missing from his menu as well.

Before long the duo are transported back to the hub city where a mysterious figure claiming to be Sword Art Online’s creator Akihiko Kayaba tells them that the missing logout button is not a glitch but a feature and that the real Sword Art Online had begun. If they die ingame, they’ll die in real life. If someone disconnects them from the Nerve Gear they’ll die.

And to push the point further he shows news streams showing various people dying because their Nerve Gears were forcibly taken off and gives the players mirrors that change their game avatars to resemble their real faces, cementing the idea that this is their new reality. The only way out is to clear all 100 floors of Aincrad, the floating castle of the game and defeat the final boss. Thus begins the death game known as Sword Art Online.

Its an interesting premise and one might think this would be a dark tragic anime with characters struggling to complete game and return to reality. And the following two episodes as well as the murder mystery of episodes 5 and 6 do strengthen that fact. But from the 4th episode and the 7th episode onwards the anime shows its true colors as a action harem power fantasy with a spice of fanservice featuring an overpowered protagonist showing off his ridiculous skills and wooing a variety of women.

The best thing in this arc is main girl Asuna, one the few female players and a capable one at that almost on par with Kirito himself being the vice-commander of the most powerful guild in the game. The two have a nice chemistry with each other and they even become a couple near the end of the arc (not that it stops Kirito from attracting more women in future arcs). The development of their relationship is one of the best things in this arc.

There are other female characters but none of them are as fleshed out as Asuna is, having incredibly two-dimensional personalities such as Silica the token cute loli and Lisbeth the blacksmith girl. They merely exist for Kirito interact with, then they develop a crush on him before being regulated to sidelines like used goods.

The other male characters also make scant appearances, usually regulated to the sidelines so you’re forgiven if you completely forgot characters like Agil, Klein and Argo as none of them actually really do much aside from give exposition or hang around Kirito and his harem like a bunch of third wheels.

Overall the first arc of Sword Art Online is rather average. It had a good premise that it fails to fully capitalise on but it has a strong female lead who develops a good romantic relationship with the male lead. It tried to make itself dark and edgy with the whole death game thing but by the halfway point it’s a harem show with an overpowered main character who would never be put in any real danger.

But as I said earlier in the review this is the best arc of the first season. So how does the second arc Fairy Dance fare? Find out next time when I talk about the most reviled arc and the one that made me drop the show the first time watching.

So the latest trailer for the upcoming Pokemon Shield/Sword just hit and it looks great with new features being shown.

So here are some of the highlights of the trailer:

• You can see some wild Pokemon roaming around in the wild like in Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee, so glad they brought that back. And it looks like you can attract certain wild Pokemon by whistling
• Cycling and Fishing return and this time there’s a special cycle for water traversal. No ride Pokemon this time around.
• There seems to a be cooperative raid system where 4 players can join together to fight a giant Pokemon by going to certain locations in the map. Not sure if its online only or if it can be done locally by using multiple Nintendo Switches ala Monster Hunter
• You can actually capture these giant Pokemon and use them in the gym battles
• You can also turn your Pokemon into giants perhaps to increase their stats and combat power.

The game looks very promising so far and I can’t wait for it when it comes out this November.

So just a few days ago a Youtuber by the name of Artur Baranov (link to his youtube channel here) posted a video showing the live action trailer of the Sonic movie but with a twist.

As you can see in the trailer above the user basically replaced the original human looking Sonic (which still looks so wrong in every way) with a Sonic that’s more faithful in design with cartoonish proportions, his iconic gloves and shoes and especially his eyes and skin for his stomach and arms.

Of course the CG isn’t quite perfect, there’s one moment in the fanmade trailer where the chin and the eyes don’t look quite right but it’s a much better look than what he got initially.

Thanks to fan backlash over the initial design of the live action trailer the movie has been delayed to February 14th of next year giving time for the CG artists to improve the design.

Hopefully when a second trailer drops it will be met with better reception. But until then we can always look forward to all the fan redesigns and fan made trailers showing how the movie could’ve looked like if the character was designed more faithfully.

Pokemon. The video game series that involves you catching wild monsters, training them and then doing battle with other trainers to become the best there ever was. Like any other successful video game franchise Pokemon has branched off into various other spin off games. And this movie is based off one such spin-off.

Detective Pikachu the movie is loosely based on the spin-off title of the same name which is available for download on the 3DS. It tells the story of young man named Tim Goodman who receives call saying that his father a detective named Harry Goodman has passed away in an accident.

Tim travels to his office at Rhyme City, a unique city where people and Pokemon live in harmony and where there are no Trainers, Pokemon Battles or even Poke Balls. In his father’s office he encounters his father’s partner a Pikachu and to his astonishment Tim can actually understand the Pokemon. Together they look for clues to find out what happened to Harry and find out what exactly he was looking for.

The story is rather basic following the standard Hero’s Journey template, including Tim’s initial refusal of the call and ending the movie with a stronger bond with his father. The story tries to throw a few curveballs to keep you guessing on how the villian may be but attentive viewers will easily see through them. Nevertheless the movie is quite entertaining and the characters have clear motivations for doing what they do.

Where the movie truly stands out though is in its CGI and special effects. The Pokemon on screen look incredible, looking very faithful to their original 2d designs while still life-like without having it look out of place. Special mention has to go to the title character Detective Pikachu who just looks gosh darn adorable. 😀

For a movie based on a video game it manages to avoid most of the pitfalls most adaptations face. There is a clear understanding and respect of the source material and it is put to good use such as in how the Pokemon move and interact. They also have their iconic abilities such as Pikachu’s Volt Tackle and Thunderbolt or Charizard’s Flamethrower.

Overall the movie is an incredibly entertaining watch. You don’t necessarily have to be incredibly knowledgeable about Pokemon as it doesn’t really take after the main series or the anime. But if you are a fan you’ll get a kick looking at the variety of Pokemon that they managed to put on the big screen and even catch several throwbacks to the anime and video games.

I give this a movie a solid 7 out of 10 which is really good considering this is a movie based on a video game. The story is entertaining but not really exciting or suspenseful but the art direction and CGI really make this movie. All the Pokemon shown in the movie just look right especially Pikachu. If you haven’t watch it you really should.

Detective Pikachu is out now in theaters.

So the latest trailer for the upcoming Marvel movie and the last MCU Phase 3 film Spiderman Far From Home just released and boy did it reveal one heck of a surprise. If you haven’t watched Endgame yet do not watch the trailer as Tom Holland says before the trailer starts proper there are massive spoilers to Endgame here.

The biggest surprise from the trailer is the reveal that the Mysterio in this movie is from another Earth, another universe brought to the main universe after the snap though it’s possible it could also be a consequence of time travel as that was how the other Gamora was brought in. It was teased by the Ancient One in casual conversation in both Doctor Strange and Endgame but now it looks like the multiverse will be featured more prominently in future movies

This means that we could see favourite characters like Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff again but they’ll be completely different people as they could come from different universes. This could also mean potential villains becoming heroes or vice versa like Mysterio who in the comics is a classic Spidey villain but here ends up as an ally, perhaps a surrogate father much like Tony Stark was.

So what do you think about this bombshell? With the reveal of other characters coming in from other universes perhaps we could see the Watchers play a more significant role in future movies. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this so leave a comment her or on my Facebook.

Spiderman Far From Home is set to release in theaters on July 2nd this year.

Video games usually don’t make for good movies and the upcoming Sonic The Hedgehog Movie set to release in November doesn’t look like it’ll break that trend.

The biggest problem with the whole thing is Sonic himself. This is what Sonic looks like.

And this is what Sonic looks like in the movie.

Of course the moment the trailer hit and the live action Sonic was revealed the internet (me included) went up in arms with some fans redesigning him to make him look less… horrifying

Thanks to the massive fan backlash the studio behind the movie Paramount has promised to fix Sonic’s design. So hopefully when another trailer hits we won’t be looking at an eldritch monstrosity and maybe we’ll get something more faithful to Sonic’s design.

Aside from that the main star of the trailer was Dr. Robotnik played by Jim Carrey. He looks to deliver a wacky interpretation of the iconic villain which could work but the movie isn’t about Robotnik it’s about Sonic and as good as Jim Carrey he can’t save the entire movie.

This is one movie to be very wary about when it hits cinemas November 8th of this year.

After 10 long years it’s finally here. The most highly anticipated movie of the year Avengers Endgame is the closing chapter in the story of the Infinity Stones. Does it live up to the hype or does it crash and burn? Be warned though; spoilers abound!

The movie starts not long after the events of the previous movie Infinity War. The remaining heroes band together to find Thanos and bring back those who got snapped. Unfortunately though they defeat the Titan they could not undo the damage as Thanos had used the stones to destroy them which also weakened him greatly for Thor to finish him off.

5 years pass and what remains of humanity try to move on with their lives. But when Scott Lang who had been trapped in the Quantum Realm comes back the Avengers are once more given hope when it is revealed that time works differently in the Quantum Realm giving them the ability to travel through time to get the stones back from the past and bring them to the present to bring back those who were snapped.

It’s a fantastic movie that tells a story of loss, recovery, hope and sacrifice. It brings an end to the stories of several beloved characters while giving a sneak peek to future stories such as the setup for Guardians of The Galaxy volume 3 and the new show involving an alternate timeline Loki and his adventures through time.

All the actors gave their best performances to date here and it’s an incredibly emotional movie, in particular Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. and the special effects are nice. The time travel concept was also done well showing events from previous movies but from a different point of view and it also helped to give some of the Avengers closure such as Tony Stark meeting with his father or Thor meeting his mother and be given hope once more. Or seeing characters react to seeing their past selves such as Captain America fighting himself or Hulk expressing shame in his past behaviour.

They succeed in getting the Infinity Stones and manage to bring back everyone that got snapped with Hulk using the Infinity Gauntlet but messing with time brings dire consequences as Thanos with the help of the Nebula of the past comes to the present with his whole army for one final epic showdown.

The final battle was also incredibly epic with Thanos bringing his entire army while the Avengers and everyone that got snapped band together with Captain America saying the iconic line ‘Avengers… assemble’. Every hero from the history of the MCU has their time to shine with Thor, Captain America, Captain Marvel and Iron Man duking it out with Thanos while the others try to get the Infinity Gauntlet away from Thanos.

This battle also has one of the hypest moments in the entire film, nay the entire franchise. When Captain America wielded the mighty Mjolnir I and several other fans went wild as Captain America utilised the power of the God of Lightning. At one point he even dual-wielded Mjolnir with Stormbreaker before Thor took Stormbreaker back.

And just when it looks like Thanos won after having retrieved the Gauntlet Iron Man makes the ultimate sacrifice using the Infinity Stones he took from the Gauntlet into his Iron Man suit and snapping Thanos and his entire army out of existence at the cost of his life. The death of Tony Stark was a truly emotional one and along with Steve Rogers passing on the mantle of Captain America to Falcon really solidified this movie as an end to an era 10 years in the making.

However the movie had one sore spot and while it didn’t detract from the overall experience I feel needs to be pointed out and that is Captain Marvel who ends being under utilised in this movie. She’s the one who finds Tony Stark and Nebula stranded in space and brings them back to Earth and joins the other Avengers in killing the present Thanos. She’s mostly absent in the second arc when the other Avengers are off getting the Infinity Stones in the past and then shows up in the final battle against Thanos wrecking his ships.

She doesn’t really play a key role in defeating Thanos himself aside from destroying his ships. The present Thanos was killed by Thor while the Thanos from the past was wiped out by Iron Man. In fact Captain Marvel was knocked out in one punch by Thanos (with the help of the Power Stone).

She’s really just kinda there and if you remove her from the movie there wouldn’t be much of a difference. The ships could have easily been wiped out by the revived and enraged Black Widow who bears a powerful grudge against Thanos for what happened to Vision in Infinity War. As for saving Tony the Avengers could’ve quickly assembled a spaceship with the help of Rocket Racoon to save him if he sent a distress signal of some kind that Rocket could pick up.

Aside from that, the rest of the movie is awesome bringing to fruition to 10 years of worldbuilding and storytelling while passing to future characters to tell their own stories. This is not the end of the MCU as a whole but it does bring an end to the stories of many beloved characters and what a send off it is. There is still one more movie in Phase 3 and that is Spider-Man Far From Home coming out later this year and I can’t wait to see it.

I give Avengers Endgame a solid 10 out of 10.

So the official teaser/trailer for Star Wars Episode 9 The Rise of Skywalker just came out. You can watch for yourself at Youtube but here are my thoughts on the whole thing.

I want this movie to be good. Billed as the last movie in the saga (the Skywalker saga anyway) no doubt director J.J Abrams and his team will do everything they can to make this great. But I am wary, the wounds of The Last Jedi still fresh in my mind.

From the teaser above it would seem that Luke would still play a mentoring role most likely as a Force Ghost to encourage and Rey on her mission to stop Kylo Ren and the First Order. Lando Calrissian returns piloting the Millenium Falcon as well. But more surprising is the notion that Emperor Palpatine may make a return if the laugh at the end of the teaser is any indication.

Perhaps the movie may take a cue from the now non-canon Expanded Universe where Emperor Palpatine returned as a clone to once again turn Luke to the dark side. Of course with Luke now dead after the events of The Last Jedi Palpatine would instead turn his sights to either Rey or Kylo. Or maybe Palpatine has some connection with Rey.

No doubt there will be fans conjuring up theories and speculating on that but as with what happened with The Last Jedi there’s a chance we could come out wholly disillusioned or unsatisfied. All I can hope for is that the movie delivers the Star Wars experience I was looking for, with great battles, great characters and even greater story.