Anime REVIEW: Digimon Ghost Game

Digimon Ghost Game is available in streaming form on Crunchyroll

2020 saw the Digimon franchise return to its roots with a remake of its most beloved instalment – Digimon Adventure:. But between a significant hiatus and production issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic, spotty storytelling and the overwhelming feeling that it was largely relying on nostalgia to carry it through, the end result was far from satisfying. So for its next outing it felt important that the franchise go in a different direction, and that's exactly what happened with Digimon Ghost Game. Premiering immediately after the conclusion of Digimon Adventure:, the 67-episode (plus one special) series is the ninth instalment in the franchise and ran from October 2021 to March 2023. The series coincided with the release of the Vital Bracelet – a Digivice-turned-fitbit that sees your Digimon partner grow based on step count and exercise. The toy has arguably been a success for Bandai – with Kamen Rider, Ultraman and other variations also being made available.

Anime REVIEW: Digimon Adventure:

The Digimon franchise has existed in many different forms over the years but when it comes to sheer popularity, most struggle to compete with the original Digimon Adventure. After being dragged out for six-part film series Digimon Adventure Tri. from 2015-2018 to celebrate the franchise's 15th anniversary and then for further sequel Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna in 2020, it seemed like Toei had exhausted everything they could do with the original Chosen Children - other than reboot the whole thing that is. Digimon Adventure: (also commonly known as Digimon Adventure (2020) to avoid confusion) began in April 2020 - bringing back the cast of the original series in an all-new story. The series ran for a total of 67 episodes, though a significant hiatus was taken after episode three due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anime REVIEW: Dragon Ball Super

Dragon Ball Super is available in streaming form on Crunchyroll

In 2013 Toei Animation shocked fans with Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods - a brand-new feature film that not only directly followed on from Dragon Ball Z, but was also written by creator Akira Toriyama himself. Its success led to Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' two years later - a direct sequel reviving the franchise's most popular villain and again written by Toriyama. There was no denying that Dragon Ball had well and truly returned, but it wasn't until Dragon Ball Super was announced that it really sunk in. Running for an impressive 131 episodes, this was the first proper Dragon Ball series since Dragon Ball GT all the way back in 1996. And with the advent of simulcasting in its absence, one of the most popular anime franchises on the planet could now reach a worldwide audience faster than ever before.

Anime REVIEW: Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3

Given the seemingly negative reception towards Sailor Moon Crystal it may seem surprising that Toei Animation would go ahead with a third season. But with plenty of material left to adapt the anniversary-charged, manga-accurate retelling of the legendary magical girl series is back once again with a further 13 episodes to cover the next chapter in the Sailor Moon story – the Death Busters arc. This new season also brought along with it a structural and cosmetic changes, returning as a fully-fledged weekly television series rather an as a bi-monthly ONA (original net animation). Story-wise it also marks the debuts of Sailors Saturn, Neptune and Uranus – joining Pluto to form the “Outer” Sailor Guardians.

First Impressions: Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3

The first two seasons of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal are essentially a crash course in how not to handle a highly anticipated manga-accurate remake of a hugely popular anime series. Rather than simply just cutting the filler, Crystal somehow managed to cut everything that made the characters remotely memorable – leaving only a husk of a series that sped through events at breakneck speed. Shoddy animated and awful scheduling didn’t really help matters either. However the Sailor Moon juggernaut is one that can’t be stopped even in 2016, so Toei Animation have brought it back for another try. Thankfully Sailor Moon Crystal season 3 (also known as the ‘Death Busters’ arc) should have a little more coherency to it – sporting new staff behind it and a weekly airing schedule.

Anime REVIEW: Sailor Moon Crystal

Mention magical girls to any anime fan (or even just animation fan in general) and there's one name that'll usually spring immediately to mind more than most. While she wasn't the first entry into this long and illustrious genre, Sailor Moon certainly played a big part in defining it. Following the franchise's 20th anniversary back in 2011, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon has received a revival of sorts - however this hasn't just been limited to a surge in new merchandise. Over the past year Toei Animation have been carrying out their own celebration with Sailor Moon Crystal - a reboot of the series intended to be more accurate to Naoko Takeuchi's original manga. Despite a rather strange schedule of new episodes twice a month, the series was simulcast worldwide on Niconico and covered the first two arcs of the manga across a total of 26 episodes.

First Impressions: Dragon Ball Super

After 18 long years, Dragon Ball is well and truly back. Sure it's had a few OVA moments in that time, but thanks to the success of recent movies Battle of the Gods and Resurrection F the franchise has finally returned for a brand new series. And with original creator Akira Toriyama back in tow for character design and original story concept, it's a pretty big deal. Like many others my first experiences with anime as I know it today was coming home from school every day and watching Dragon Ball Z on Toonami, so the though of having a new episode to week every is making my inner child scream. Thank you Toei Animation, thank you for the gift that is Dragon Ball Super.

Anime REVIEW: Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers

Among the long lists of anime series that begin each new season, you'll always find a handful that have a certain goal in mind - selling toys. Of course this strategy isn't exactly uncommon on either side of the globe, but in Japan's case these are the year long-running shows that Westerners don't seem to pay a whole lot of attention to, and are eventually forgotten as soon as their last episode has aired. However last year revealed one that everyone immediately paid attention to, as Marvel Comics announced they would be partnering with studio Toei Animation for a brand new animated venture - Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers. With the pairing of Marvel and Toei having previously brought the world the wonderfully wacky 1978 Japanese Spider-Man series, many were eager to see what would happen when the comics giant teamed up with Toei's animation department instead. The result was not quite what any expected, and a series that could quite easily be summed up as a Japanese kids' show through and through. And with those all important toy duties being handled by Bandai, this doesn't look like a show that'll be officially stepping outside of Japan at any point either.

First Impressions: Sailor Moon Crystal

It's the start of a brand new anime season and this summer comes the series that a lot of fans have been waiting for. After much teasing and at least two apparent delays, the 20th anniversary celebration of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon is finally airing. Entitled Sailor Moon Crystal, this brand new show will retell the original manga story. It's going to run for a total of 26 episodes, however it will also be airing fortnightly so will in fact be airing for a whole year. For long time Sailor Moon fans it's a good time to be a fan, and for newcomers like me this seems like the perfect place to start.

First Impression: Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers

Marvel Comics has always had a bit of an odd relationship with Japan. The old 1978 Spider-Man tokusatsu series from Toei was a piece of sureal genius, while the more recent quartet of Marvel anime shows (Iron Man, Wolverine, X-Men and Blade) ranged from forgettably average to mind-numbingly bad. So cue 2014 when the world is still very much in Marvel hype mode thanks to the shared movie universe, and the company has teamed up with Toei once again. This time its something a little more Japanese though, as Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers takes a typical children's toy-driven anime series and gives it a Marvel comics twist.

First Impressions: HappinessCharge PreCure!

Toei's various superhero works have been the focus of much of my attention for a while now, given my now-religious following of both the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai franchises. But there is one popular animated franchise often closely linked with the Super Hero Time block that I am yet to turn my attention towards. Pretty Cure is a long running magical girl franchise that has branched out into a number of various series, movies, manga, video games and toys (this is Toei after all!), and is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary with a brand new series - HappinessCharge PreCure! (which is actually the 11th show, but whatever). Since sampling franchises during their anniversary year seems to have become sort of staple for me, I decided that 2014 would be the year I take the plunge into an anime primarily aimed at young girls...

First Impressions: Robot Girls Z

The Mazinger Z franchise has rather quiet since Mazinkaiser SKL back in 2010 hasn't it? Well fear not because Toei Animation has decided to breath new life into the original super robot, along with brothers and predecessors Great Mazinger and Grendizer with a brand new reboot - though not quite the one you might think. Robot Girls Z is a brand new edition of the Toei Robot Girls, reimagining the super robot trio as magical girls in this selection of ten-minute shorts that will be released periodically throughout the Winter 2014 anime season.

Anime REVIEW: Dragon Ball GT

First off, I'd like to wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to every reader of this blog. Hope Santa brought you everything you want and you have a great rest of the year.

Next, here I decided to review something that I'd never seen but was already close to my heart. I'm a long time fan of Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z - DBZ was pretty much what INTRODUCED me to anime. But Dragon Ball GT (which after much searching the internet I found stands for Grand Tour) was something I had never watched. I don't know whether it was because of the debated canonicity or the fact most fanboys seem to hate the series, but it had always escaped me. So now after playing Dragon Ball Z Budokai: Tenkaichi 2 on the wii (whose story mode featured the sagas from GT) I decided it was finally time to give this series a go. Set 5-10 years (depending on the version) after DBZ, GT sees Goku returning to life as a child after an accidental wish is made on the Black Star Dragon Balls, which are then scattered across the galaxy and must be returned in a year otherwise the Earth will explode.

Surely it couldn't be that bad could it?

Well sadly the answer was pretty much yes. However it did have a few redeeming points, so those are what I'll look at first (don't hold your breath, there really aren't many). First off I have to give my praise to the people who designed Super Saiyan 4 - it looks magnificent. I've never been the biggest fan of Super Saiyan 3, and so this feels like a vast improvement. The initial sinister edge Goku has in that form is also interesting, and would have been quite good to see played further (to make him almost power mad of sorts). Uub (who was briefly seen at the end of DBZ) is also a great character who I was happy to see developed further - it's nice to see a character who can hold their own in a fight that isn't a Saiyan. As far as villains (and the odd anti-hero) go - Nuova, Eis and Syn/Omega Shenron are also great characters.

But the biggest triumph of GT and possibly the sole reason anyone should watch it other than because of curiosity is Vegeta. GT continues the massive character development that began in DBZ and amplifies is greatly, which is surprising given that he's actually hardly in the series. His growth from the evil Saiyan prince to father and husband to eventual protector of the Earth is possibly the best writing Dragon Ball has period. Its just a shame that the majority of this development (and the most character development in the entire series) comes in a clip episode no less.

And now its time for its flaws, and there's more than a few. For a series only 64 episodes long (and seems to pride itself on having no filler) there are far too many episodes that feel like filler. Its no wonder FUNimation decided not to initially air the Black Star Dragon Ball Saga, because its horrible. Full of forgettable sagas and boring mini quests. The next saga (The Baby Saga) was the first to have a super powerful big-bad and was a step up, but despite having some good episodes it seemed to take the drawn-out fights-where-little-happen-for-episode-after-episode DBZ is infamous for to new heights. Which is hardly fair given that this saga is 23 episodes long (longer if you consider that the first saga ties into it) and the following Super 17 saga, the one with perhaps the most potential, is a mere seven episodes long.

Despite this potential though, all it really amounts to is a rushed train wreck with far too many inconsistencies (why suddenly use 17 again? Where has 17 been all this time? How did Gero/Myuu regain control?). Not only that, but it managed to turn my two favourite villains from Z, Frieza and Cell, into nothing but comic relief. On that topic, comic relief villains is something that GT really suffers from, as is further emphasised by the first 4 dragons in the final saga of the series - The Shadow Dragon Saga. The whole concept of the saga is fantastic - 7 evil dragons created through the over use of the Dragon Balls, but the whole thing felt it should have been a bit more apocalyptic given the power of the 7 dragons. Again fight sequences are drawn out where very little happens (Vegeta ascends to Super Saiyan 4 and literally does nothing, Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta is reduced to nothing but comic relief despite the epic fight sequences he potentially could have had).

But without a doubt my biggest complaint of the series is Goku. Every character is portrayed as a weakling compared to him, and the only thing Gohan, Goten and Trunks seem to be are walking batteries for him when he runs out of power. Vegeta doesn't have one fight sequence where he isn't completely trounced and nobody gets any decent fight time apart from Goku. Piccolo is brought back for the sole purpose of being killed off. I understand that Goku is the main character of the series, but with the diverse and interesting cast Dragon Ball has far more could have been done. There was also no need for Goku to remain a child for the entirety of the series, GT would have been exactly the same (arguably better) if his ascension to SS4 had broken the spell cast on him by Black Star Shenron.

But the worst thing of all is the ending. After Shenron decides to leave Earth due to overuse of the Dragon Balls, Goku decides to go with him when the possibility of training in a new place is offered. Goku leaves without a second though, giving his family a 2-second goodbye and leaving his responsibilities in the hands of others. The moral of the story - Goku may be the strongest fighter in the world, but he's a selfish person and a terrible father/husband who doesn't deserve the supportive family he has. All those family values in DBZ amount to nothing.

Ultimately, GT attempts to blend the light-hearted comedy side of Dragon Ball with the epic quests/fights of Dragon Ball Z and fails at it miserably. I'm surprised the makers of Budokai Tenkaichi 2 were able to make it look so good. If you don't like Vegeta, this isn't for you because your opinion of every other character will only be lowered.