Anime Reviews: Persona 4 The Animation Episode 12 - It's Not Empty At All

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The Story
Yu and the group go back into the TV world, where Rise discovers the location of the creepy kid, Kubo. They make their way into his corner of the world, where they find a video game themed castle. After letting Teddie fight against some monsters, they find Kubo arguing with his shadow self. The episode suddenly cuts to after the fight, and over the course of several weeks Yu watches helplessly as his friends drift further and further apart. One evening, he's attacked by a shadow that looks like a giant baby.

Cartoon Reviews: The Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes

I don't normally watch that many American cartoons. Not because I'm a Japanophile, but because I've been so burned by the past decade of American animation that I can't get the energy up to even bother most of the time. But thanks to Rob Bricken over at Topless Robot, whose columns I read in Animea when that magazine was still a thing, kept gushing about the series with every new episode, I decided it was worth a shot to check the series out.

Of course, like the moron that I am, I started watching it towards the end of a semester, when everything was due. Fortunately I had a day off from both classes and work, and was able to watch almost the entire available series in two days. First impressions are good. I haven't given two craps about Marvel for a few years. Besides the movies they just didn't have anything to offer, while DC had Batman. I was also lost in what was currently going on in the Marvel universe, I read the first five volumes of Essential X-Men, but haven't picked up a Marvel book religiously since then.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is perfect for someone like me. I know the basic characters, and while I don't know their entire history, I know enough to appreciate the interaction between the characters. The show is a perfect mix between stand alone stories, and the episodic format. While I do appreciate the amount of investment needed to watch most anime series, I still appreciate the Western episodic format that lets you pick up any random episode in the middle of a show and still get what's going on.

There's so much I love about this show that it's hard to decide where to even start talking about it. So I will divide this review into convenient subtopics!

Anime Reviews: Persona 4 The Animation Episode 11 - Catch Me If You Can

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Plot Summary
The creepy kid from back in the first episode is back, and he's playing a video game. Because all creepy losers play video games.

This is how he writes his reviews. 

At the scene where the latest dead body was found, it is revealed that the victim was the jerky teacher, Morooka. The main cast sit in the local restaurant, wondering what happened that changed the killer's motifs. They almost consider giving up, but the delivery girl gives them the beef bowl challenge. At first they use it as a distraction, but soon realize they cannot finish the bowls. Yu gives a metaphoric speech about how they can't ever give up. They need to better themselves, and keep persevering.

Anime Reviews: Persona 4 The Animation Episode 10 - Real Me Doesn't Exist

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Plot Summary
The episode pics up immediately after the last one ended, with Yu seeing Rise on the midnight channel. She starts a sexy striptease, which Yu responds to by frantically pressing the record button. After the show ends, Yu checks it to find that the recording didn't work.

Anime Reviews: Persona 4 The Animation Episode 9 - No One Sees the Real Me

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The Story
A young idol, Risette, sits in her room while makeup artists finish getting her ready for her show. Her manager talks on the phone, preparing future appearances as well as her upcoming movie role. After sitting silently, as she has clearly done before, she finally says she quits, before going onto the stage. Her song doubles as an opening, with the animation cutting to still frames and back.

Cartoon Reviews: The Legend of Korra Episode 12 - Endgame

The Story
Act 1
At the rally, Korra and Mako try to expose Amon as a waterbender by telling the entire crowd the truth. Amon, being one of the only competent characters in this series, has unfortunately planned for this and reveals his burned face. As Korra and Mako, shocked their plan did not work, start to escape, Amon reveals that he has captured Tenzin and his family.

What a twist! It's almost Shyamalanian. In that it makes no sense!

Graphic Novel Reviews: Avatar the Last Airbender - The Promise Part 2

The Story

Sokka and Toph struggle to teach her students how to metalbend, while fighting off the firebending master whose school the metalbending academy used to be. Zuko in the meanwhile is learning how to rule from his father, while keeping secrets from those closest to him. Aang and Katara tell King Kuei about Zuko's refusal to move the fire nation colonists out, leading to the earth kingdom armies mobilizing.

The Review
I've been putting off writing this review, because I like to maintain a professional tone in my reviews. And for the first few weeks after reading this book, I would not have been able to get beyond incoherent rambling. Fortunately I now feel calm and collected enough to be able to discuss why exactly The Promise Part 2 made me so angry.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Avatar the Last Airbender - The Lost Adventures

The Story

Since The Lost Adventures is a collection of several short stories, there is no connecting story thread. The book is divided into four parts, with stories organized based on what season they take place in, as well as a short extras section. Because of this organization the stories can be inserted nicely between episodes in the show.

Most of the short stories are comedic in nature, with a few rare ones taking on a more serious tone. Some manage to blend comedy and seriousness into one. These are the stories that capture the feel of the of the series.

The Review
The interesting thing about reviewing a collection of separate stories is that the quality of the individual stories is separate from each other. Meaning that if one story is good, it doesn't influence the quality of the other stories. So it's very possible to have an eclectic collection of stories, with quality ranging from excelent to putrid. Because of this the only way to truly judge the value of The Lost Adventures would be to review each story separately. But because that kind of review would be far longer than anyone would want to read, we'll stick to a general opinion of the collection as a whole, followed by whether I recommend it or not.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Black Metal Volume 2

The Story

Sam and Shawn are attacked by Beelzebub, but saved by the witch Heradoxa. She tells them that Beelzebub will be back with reinforcements. They leave for someplace safer, but it is all a trap orchestrated by Satan.

The twins' foster mother, reveals herself as an Angel and returns to heaven, where she is executed by Metatron for her failure. Back in hell the group is separated, and Sam and Shawn come to their forest, while Heradoxa tries to turn them against each other.

They learn of the war in heaven, and Metatron's false nature. Shawn decides Sam needs his own sword, and they go to Valhalla to have Gorn make a new one.

Once the sword is complete, Heradoxa succeeds in turning Sam against Shawn, and the two fight. They are evenly matched and reconcile after their conflict. But they are weakened, and Satan comes and steals their swords, cutting the brothers in  half.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Batman Annual 001

The Story

 Mr Freeze talks to a psychiatrist in Arkham, about an accident his mother had. He breaks out of the asylum, and after getting his gear from the Penguin he goes back to his old lab in Wayne Tower. His backstory is rewritten to have him working for Bruce, while trying to find a cure for his wife. But Bruce pulled the plug on the experiment. After a confrontation with Nightwing and Robin, Freeze goes to Bruce's office, where he finds his wife waiting for him.

Batman fights Freeze, revealing that Nora is not Freeze's wife, that she was actually from decades before Freeze started his research. Freeze became obsessed with her, because of her frozen state, the only thing he was ever interested in being the cold.

The issue ends with young Victor dumping his sick mother into the frozen lake.