Anime Review: Scissor Seven (2018)

TL;DR – An inept, amnesiac assassin and part-time hairdresser looks to earn some coin while trying to get back his memories.

Review (warning: spoilers)

Scissor Seven is not your typical anime. Purists will argue it is not even anime, but the show is listed on myanimelist.net so I’m going to do a review on it. The first thing that hit me when I watched season one was it’s a Chinese produced animation, and the series is painstakingly hand drawn and remarkably detailed. The distinct look is worth repeat viewing if you take the time to absorb each episode, and you will appreciate just how much effort it must have taken to put it all together. It is by no means the smooth and often seamless look you will find in Japanese anime, but Scissor Seven has its own charm that you will appreciate as you work your way through the series. The battle scenes, revolving camera views and explosions prompt rushes of adrenaline that more polished productions fail to inject.

Likewise, you would be remiss if you think Scissor Seven is simply a comedy. While there is plenty of toilet humour, there is an emotional thread beneath the surface that is surprisingly affecting.

Liuqi Wu (aka Seven) has amnesia. He was found by Dai Bo, a sunglass wearing, cigar smoking, tie wearing bird that will immediately make you think of one of the fowl in the Angry Birds game. Dai Bo convinces Seven to undertake a course to become a hitman, which he barely passes (in fact, I think he fails but Dai Bo allows him to graduate anyway), and together they open a barber shop as a front to hire out his services as an assassin. Seven owns a pair of scissors that he controls with kinetic type powers and turns out can do a mean haircut if he puts his mind to it. He also can disguise himself by transforming into anything using a smoke bomb type magical device.

Through the course of season one, Seven’s memories slowly return, and we learn that he was actually the number one assassin in the country (his current rank is 17,369 as the inept, amnesiac Seven) but was almost killed during a mission in which he was betrayed. Along with piecing back his previous life, Seven is hired to do an assortment of jobs by an assortment of odd characters that generally result in him not killing anyone but revealing misguided motives. The by-product of things working out without bloodshed is that we see Seven has a noble side to him that overrides his greed much to Dai Bo’s chagrin because they never end up getting paid.

Some of the funny missions he attempts include:

  • A cat who hires him to kill an ex-lover who turns out to be a dog. Seven is able to bring the pair together after the dog confesses the reason why he broke up with the cat. Result: cat and dog continue their inter-species relationship and Seven doesn’t get paid.
  • The leader of a ‘purist’ society hires Seven to kill a man who is obsessed with collecting women’s underwear. While the man is arguably a pervert, Seven discovers that the guy has never hurt anyone and only collects underwear that has been thrown out. Result: Seven tries to convince the purist society that everyone should embrace each other’s differences and in the process doesn’t get paid.
  • Cola Zhang is a young girl who is a target of Seven. Before he kills her, she asks that they do everything on her bucket list first. Seven agrees and they do tick off everything on the list. Result: Seven realises that Cola has hired him to kill her because she is suffering from a rare disease. He convinces Cola to fight to get better and she agrees, which in turn means he doesn’t get paid.

Season one culminates in Seven being caught between two factions. One is a faction dedicated to kung-fu, and other faction is dedicated to using technology and weapons of mass destruction. It’s an exciting climax with clever action sequences.

However, I found at its heart, Scissor Seven is all about Seven and an assassin named Thirteen. Their initial encounter leading to a battle where Seven develops a crush on her and, at the same time, realises she is way better at fighting than he is, so he turns himself into a durian which she steps on.

I kid you not, a spiky durian fruit.

It’s hilarious, absurd, and strangely touching. When you see Thirteen, you know she’ll be a repeating character, and you want to find out more about her.

Crazy, funny, artistically crafted, and more moving than you would expect, Scissor Seven is easily digestible (each episode runs roughly 15 minutes) and worth the binge.

8.5 out of 10

Movie Review: The Batman (2022)

TL;DR – Batman learns a lesson about vengeance.

Review (warning: spoilers)

Running on nigh three hours, The Batman is a lengthy reboot into the franchise. For the casual viewer, there will be a belief that tighter editing would have benefited the film overall.

For fans of the Dark Knight, they will enjoy every minute.

Director Matt Reeves has a clear passion for the caped crusader and has delivered a movie that takes you deep into, not only the minds of Bruce Wayne and associated villains, but the origins of Gotham and its founders. The city itself plays a key role in creating an immersive world where desperate people do desperate things, jaded people do jaded things, and practically everyone is barely holding onto their sanity.

The city as a character is portrayed in stunning cinematography by Greig Fraser, and it is the type of film that movie buffs will re-watch in order to absorb all the detail.

However, there have been many, many, Batman films and one has to wonder just how many more times they can depict in movies the character that spearheads DC comics alongside Superman.

From the trailer alone, the look of The Batman is grittier, darker, and more psychological than previous Batman films. But does that make it better?

Suffice to say that it is the story that allows Reeves’s The Batman to make its distinction from its predecessors. Yes, there is the psychological aspect in this story that rivals Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker versus Christian Bale’s Batman was a psychological delight, and in this film, Paul Dano’s Riddler versus Robert Pattinson’s Batman is arguably equal in the psychological thrills department. But in this film, we see much more of the detective element that has always been a central part of Bruce Wayne/Batman’s make-up. It is a side that is often glossed over for more action and fight scenes, but Reeves (like Nolan) doesn’t treat the viewer like an idiot and delves into the intellectual puzzles that Riddler is known for and ensures this is stirred thoroughly well with enough emotional napalm that you know everyone is going to get burned.

The story revolves around the Riddler who appears on Halloween and commences to target and kill political and law enforcement officials. Leaving clues and riddles for the Batman, unraveling the Riddler’s motives drives the story into the dark history of Gotham, which includes two of the founding families – Wayne and Arkham. It becomes evident that crime bosses are also targets in the Riddler’s cross hairs. And Batman seeks to get ahead of the game.

As puzzle pieces come together, Batman realises that Riddler is seeking vengeance on Bruce Wayne and those close to him.

This shakes a fundamental building block within Batman. In the opening scenes, he takes down a bunch of thugs assaulting a civilian at a train station. The thugs ask him who he is, and he responds saying, “I am vengeance.”

This comes full circle. As “vengeance” Batman sees himself as the one to dish out punishment for wrong doing. When he discovers through Riddler’s machinations that his father, Thomas Wayne (who was running for mayor at the time before his murder) was not the upstanding, squeaky clean figure he perceived him to be, he realises that the Riddler is also dishing out his own form of “vengeance”.

This revelation is reinforced in two ways. The first is when Batman confronts the Riddler locked up in Arkham State Hospital (this is a nice way of saying Arkham Asylum for the criminally insane). And the Riddler indicates his belief that he and Batman are the same. That they are on the same team and have the same goal (to rid Gotham of anyone tied to corruption, power and greed).

The second is that followers of the Riddler who attempt to assassinate the current mayor get stopped by Batman and Catwoman, but not before one of them reveals themselves as being the thug at the train station and saying to Batman that he is “vengeance”.

By the end of the film, Batman has had to rethink his idea of what he is seeking to achieve, and how he will transform Gotham in a positive way. It frankly a pleasant ending that is far more hopeful than I anticipated especially given how for nigh on three hours, you think Batman is fighting a losing battle against the darkness of the city.

But every night eventually turns to day…

8 out of 10

Book Review: Sin City (Volume 4) – That Yellow Bastard by Frank Miller

TL;DR – John Hartigan is a good cop. Nothing stops a good cop from doing his job. Not health problems. Not retirement. Not even Sin City.

Summary (warning: spoilers)

Go to my book reviews page to read reviews of previous volumes of this Eisner award winning series.

In Sin City, avarice and corruption work hand-in-hand with power. Finding a cop not beaten down by the system, or not on the take by some mob boss or corrupt official, is almost impossible.

John Hartigan is one of the rare ones. The needle in the haystack. He’s been on the force for decades and done his utmost to serve and protect, and he is one hour away from retiring. One hour away from heading home, hanging up his boots, enjoying a juicy steak and champagne with Eileen, his wife, and sleeping in until ten the next morning. The next chapter of his life is just around the corner.

Only one hour away.

And then a tip comes in regarding missing 11-year old, Nancy Callahan, who has been abducted by a murderer/rapist named Roark Junior (son of one of the most powerful and corrupt officials in Sin City). Junior has never been caught and hides behind the protective shield that his father provides. Hartigan knows Junior has got away with three murders of young girls.

No way in hell, he’s going to allow a fourth.

Review

For John Hartigan, he has given his life to the force. Almost thirty years on the job, enough scars on the inside and out that most would have handed in their gun and badge ages ago. Hartigan is the type of guy to bleed for the streets of Sin City even though the city would flush his blood down the sewers. He’s the type of guy to work until his last breath but the doctors are forcing him into retirement.

Suffering from angina, the opening pages show Hartigan ruminating on the fact he only has one hour until he retires. He should be pushing papers and filing away files but receives word of little Nancy Callahan’s location and is spurred into action much to the dismay of his partner, Bob.

Hartigan has been on a mission to hunt down Roark Junior, and he finally gets his way down by the docks. Or so he thinks. Though he succeeds in rescuing Nancy and taking his gun to various parts of Junior’s body including his private parts, Hartigan is betrayed by his long-time partner Bob who, fearing the repercussions from Junior’s senator father, unloads a bucket-load of bullets into Hartigan leaving him for dead. But John is fine with that thinking, “An old man dies, a little girl lives. Fair trade.”

Except John doesn’t die. Senator Roark uses his considerable resources and power to keep Hartigan alive. In the Senator’s mind, Hartigan doesn’t deserve a quick death, and he wants to torture the cop responsible for maiming his son.

Hartigan is revived only to end up being framed for Nancy’s abduction and sent to prison where he is abused and tortured. For the next several years, the only thing that keeps him sane and alive is receiving letters from Nancy, who signs them as Cordelia in order to protect her identity.

When the letters suddenly stop, Hartigan is fearful that something bad has happened to her. He is paid a visit by a sickly, yellow skinned man who stinks of garbage and hands him the dismembered finger of a young woman. Hartigan believes his worst fears have become a reality.

Hartigan doesn’t realise until it is too late that the whole thing is a ruse. The yellow bastard is Junior. He managed to survive the maiming but has terrible health consequences as a result. Junior wants to twist his own knife into Hartigan and has the cop believe that he has Nancy.

John signs a false confession for a reduced sentence and when he gets out, goes in search of Nancy. Turns out she is alive and well and no longer “little”. She’s all grown up and working as the exotic dancer wearing the cowboy outfit we have seen in previous volumes of Sin City. The scene where Hartigan smells the rotting garbage of that yellow bastard, he realises to his horror that he has led Junior right to her.

Nancy gets abducted again by Junior, Hartigan almost gets hanged, another hunt happens leading to the Roark farms, and Hartigan deals out justice, this time in a permanent fashion ensuring the blight of Roark Junior will never terrorise the streets of Sin City ever again.

The job done, Hartigan lies to Nancy to go on ahead, indicating he’ll catch up but first needs to clean up the scene and remove all evidence. It’s a lie because he knows that Nancy will never be safe while he is alive.

The final pages along with the scenes in the bar where Hartigan sees a grown up Nancy for the first time out of jail are illustrations that showcases Frank Miller at his best. This also is the first volume where Miller uses colour (specifically yellow). In all previous volumes, they are always black and white. This was also the first volume where I felt Miller’s art had upped the ante. The drawings were sharper, the angles clearer, the physicality of the characters more pronounced. How Miller manages to make the farmhouse that Hartigan approaches look foreboding and ominous is a marvel.

When Hartigan commits the ultimate sacrifice to protect Nancy, the thought comes full circle once again.

“An old man dies, a little girl lives. Fair trade.”

Dang Frank, it’s bad enough you made us care about Marv in volume one, but now Hartigan as well?!?! You are a cruel man sir. Very cruel.

5 out of 5.

Anime Review: Kotarou wa Hitori gurashi (2022)

TL;DR – sometimes nothing is more perceptive than the words of a child.

Review (warning: spoilers)

Kotarou wa Hitori gurashi (translates to ‘Kotaro lives alone’) is a story about a four year old boy named Kotarou Sato who moves in next door to Shin Karino, a manga artist. Why Kotarou lives alone? Where are his parents? Where is his source of income? These questions float around your head when you watch the first episode.

Stories about children who take on adult responsibilities are always a source for good stories. The child character is usually contrasted with an adult character who is struggling with their own life. What makes this story mechanic engaging is the adult character feels responsible for the child and in the process ends up ‘growing’ themselves from their interactions.

Shin Karino fits this role perfectly. He’s a struggling manga artist, his apartment is a pig sty, he can’t be bothered committing to a relationship, he rarely washes himself and he wastes his days watching TV soaps.

For a child, Kotarou seems more capable and responsible than Shin, but there are still many things that Kotarou views through a child lens. For example, Kotarou is responsible enough to know that he needs to take a bath and goes to a bathhouse with all the necessary toiletries and a change of clothes. When Shin sees this, he feels obligated to tag along to make sure Kotarou stays safe. And when they get down to the job of washing themselves, Kotarou still manages to get shampoo in his eyes and Shin lends him a helping hand. In other words, there are still limits of being an adult in a child’s body. In addition, beneath the surface is the fragile and sensitive feelings of a four year old even if Kotarou presents himself differently.

As the series progresses and answers are given to the initial questions regarding why he lives alone, what happened to his parents and where his source of income comes from, you still need to suspend your belief when it comes to his interactions with fellow kids and adults alike. For example, no landlord would permit a four year old to rent out an apartment, and he goes shopping for food at grocery stores and all the adults don’t think it is strange he is not accompanied with an adult parent and/or guardian.

Kotarou is definitely charming. He uses a formal and polite feudal speech taken from his favourite cartoon called Tonosaman, and all the adults go ga-ga over him. Even when he doesn’t talk, it’s hard not to adore him when he walks around with his red and white floppy newsboy cap. He’s like a little Japanese Mario brother without the moustache. He also seeks acceptance by his fellow kindergartners who always wonder why he is by himself and not with his parents, and he comes up with inventive and creative ways to achieve that acceptance. For example, in one episode he sees other kids have bentos (i.e. lunchboxes) made by their mothers where the rice balls are made into different types of animals, so he goes to the effort of creating an image of Tonosaman out of rice in his own bento, which impresses his friends.

His ability to reach the heart of the problems that his fellow adult neighbours experience and spouting wisdom that causes them to re-think how they are living their lives is balanced by the challenges that every young child experiences. No matter how much he sets boundaries (for example, he won’t let adults hug him or pat him on the head unless given permission to do so), he still suffers from things like ‘monsters in the dark’ at night and struggles to go to sleep because he is living alone in an apartment.

By the same token, the adults that are in his life, Shin (the manga artist), Isamu Tamaru (a guy who dresses like a gangster but is actually a decent, doting father-type) and Mitsuki Akitomo (works at night as a female hostess to businessmen), to name a few, all help Kotarou learn and grow while learning about themselves.

There are plenty of laugh out loud moments mixed with poignant sadness. The darkness in Kotarou’s life (a darkness that no four year old should ever have to experience at such a tender age) gives this series an all too real feel. But this is offset by the light he exudes and the love he gives and receives from those around him.

One note on the animation itself, there is a weird art decision to use vertical black bars for irises in Kotarou’s eyes. Likewise, these vertical bars are used at times in Shin’s eyes. No other character has eyes like this in the series and it has a weird effect. It makes them look almost alien at times. In the initial episodes, the pair are mistaken to be father and son, which can be contributed in part by the fact they have the same type eyes. I’m not sure whether it is meant to be symbolic, but it is certainly an interesting art choice.

For lovers of slice-of-life, Kotarou wa Hitori gurashi meshes all the right elements to tell a touching and moving story that will have you engaged for the full ten episodes.

9 out of 10

TV Review: Foundation (2021) – S01E08 – The Missing Piece

TL;DR – Brother Day journeys the Spiral in search for a soul.

Review (warning: spoilers)

Please go to my TV reviews page to read reviews of previous episodes.

The three threads in this episode revolve around the following:

  • Phara (Kubbra Sait) seeks to secure the Invictus while Salvor (Leah Harvey) tries to prevent this from happening.
  • Gaal (Lou Llobell) and an “electronic” Hari (Jared Harris) dissect Gaal’s ability for prescience.
  • Brother Day (Lee Pace) walks the Spiral to demonstrate he has a soul to the Luminist believers.

The first thread reveals that Hugo (Daniel MacPherson) has survived. Thank goodness because I would have been quite upset if he ended up floating off untethered in outer space and dying. He reaches a communications tower and calls for aid from his native planet, Thespis. Inside the Invictus, Salvor and Lewis Pirenne manage to separate themselves from Phara and secure the bridge only for the ship to make a jump.

The second thread results in Gaal and Hari coming at odds. Gaal wants to know what Hari’s plan is and why they are headed to Helicon (Hari’s homeworld). Hari views Gaal’s ability to see into the future as a risk to skewing psychohistory. This leads to Gaal wanting out of the Foundation and Hari’s plans because she is being kept in the dark. She forces Hari’s hand and goes back into the cryo-pod and programs it to take her back home to Synnax.

And while the above two threads continue to piece the puzzle together, it is the third thread that this episode mostly focuses on and is, by far, the most fascinating.

In Luminist religion, they believe in the goddess Surah who collided with the planet Dol and became three moons – the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone. On Maiden, pilgrims journey along the Spiral, a 170km dessert trail, that ends in the Womb of the Mother (a salt pool). The journey must be taken without food or water. And in the case of Brother Day, he has to have his Imperial nanobots removed along with the protective aura bracelet that shields him from harm. Those who manage to survive the journey are said to receive a vision while in the Womb and this is then interpreted by the ring of Zephyrs (holy priestesses).

In addition, one of the central themes of Luminism is reincarnation and the idea that a soul is tied to one body. Thus, when Emperor Cleon the First succeeded in cloning himself into triple copies (Brother Dusk, Brother Dawn and Brother Day), these clones are viewed as soulless by many of the Luminist followers who have been swayed by Zephyr Halima (T’Nia Miller), who is seeking to be the next Proxima and if successful would look to secede from the Empire.

Thus, we watch Brother Day undertake the perilous journey along the Spiral to prove that he has a soul. It is the first time in the series that we see him truly vulnerable and a wonderful juxtaposition to the normally infallible Emperor and ruler.

What adds to the fascination of this episode is that Demerzel (Laura Birn), who is the aide and guardian of the Cleon clones and loyal to the empire, is also a devout Luminist.

And… she’s a robot. Throughout the entire series, the AI that is Demerzel appears to have achieved a level of consciousness that allows her to experience existentialism and emotions.

She instructs Brother Day of what to expect on the Spiral. And as we watch him undertake the journey beneath the unrelenting sun and slowly turn into a crisp burnt piece of flesh, you wonder whether his eyes are being opened for the first time onto something greater than himself.

Indeed, when Brother Day reaches the Womb and collapses into the salt pools, he recounts the vision he received to the ring of Zephyrs. He describes how the salt in the pool began to swirl and lifted from the floor of the cave. And it took the form of a stem with three large petals. The ring of Zephyrs proclaim that this represents the birthroot flower that births three petals from one seed. Just like the triple goddesses that came from Surah, and just like Day and his brothers. The Zephyrs declare that this is a holy vision and that Brother Day, indeed, has a soul that is not mired in stagnation.

Brother Day leaves triumphant with the three trillion Luminist followers still held within the Empire’s bosom. But not before two final acts are done.

The first is that Brother Day orders Demerzel to poison Zephyr Halima, making it look like she died of natural causes. Demerzel obeys but is distraught in having to perform the assassination. She pleads to Brother Day that he has won, so why does Halima need to be killed. But Brother Day does not provide her with an explanation.

The second is Demerzel, when not given an explanation for having Halima killed, makes a comment to Brother Day. She mentions that she has an ancient birthroot flower pressed and framed on her vanity. She obtained the flower when she underwent the journey around the Spiral centuries ago and she asks whether Brother Day had noticed it when he came to visit her in her room. He responds that he didn’t notice it.

A happy coincidence?

Demerzel then adds that though it was eons ago when she took the journey, the vision she received changed the way she looked at everything (impressive for a robot I might add). And she comments that she is “pleased” that Brother Day was graced by a vision as well.

For if he saw nothing then that would mean he is empty (of a soul). And thus, as we watch Brother Day prepare for the jump back to Trantor, we zoom in on his eyes and flashback to the Womb and salt pools. We watch as what really happened was he simply sat in the pools and nothing happened. No vision. No epiphany. Nothing but emptiness.

There can be nothing worse than having the missing piece inside you being your soul.

9.5 out of 10

Book Review: Sin City (Volume 3) – The Big Fat Kill by Frank Miller

TL;DR – Dwight McCarthy is back and this time he’s helping the women of Old Town retain control of their little patch of Sin City. Everything seems to be going to plan until the mob shows up.

Summary (warning: spoilers)

Go to my book reviews page to read reviews of previous volumes of this Eisner award winning series.

When Jackie-boy and his goons appear on Shellie’s doorstep drunk and looking for a fun time, Shellie tells them to get lost. Jackie gets rough and nasty when he’s drunk, and Shellie has the bruises to prove it.

Unknown to Jackie and company is that Dwight is standing in Shellie’s apartment, all muscle and naked, right behind her. Seems like Jackie has interrupted their lovemaking and he is none too impressed. He whispers to Shellie to let them in, saying he’ll take care of them. He’ll make sure Jackie will never bother her again.

Shellie looks at him alarmed telling him to stay out of this, so Dwight makes himself scarce but watches from the shadows as she lets Jackie in. They argue, Jackie’s goons raid her fridge, and Jackie starts to lose his temper and hits her.

A bathroom break results in Dwight making his presence known and shoving Jackie’s head in a toilet bowl. Dwight warns Jackie to leave Shellie alone and never come back. Jackie and his goons high tail it out of there, but Dwight is convinced that they are still looking for trouble. He decides to follow them and jumps down from Shellie’s apartment window, hopping into his car. Shellie appears at the window and shouts at Dwight to stop.

At least, that’s what Dwight thinks she says but a helicopter flying overhead makes it so he isn’t sure. He really should have listened to Shellie and stayed out of it. But he follows Jackie, and they all end up in Old Town… a section of Sin City best avoided if you’re drunk and looking for trouble.

Review

Welcome to Old Town. If you have the cash, you can pretty much buy anything you want from the women who work the streets. That is unless you’ve got a temper. The women of Old Town have bled for these streets, and it is now their turf. If you’re looking for trouble, then all you need to do is act violent towards a woman in Old Town and trouble will fall upon you from on high quicker than you can blink. Pull out a weapon and you’ll get a one-way ticket straight to hell. And you don’t need cash for that ticket, that’s on the house.

When Jackie and his mates come rumbling in and start wanting to hire the services of a prostitute, the prostitute calmly tells them she doesn’t do ‘group’ jobs and suggests they check out Alamo on Dillon Street. Jackie doesn’t get the message and won’t take no for an answer. He’s already on a knife’s edge after the vitriol shot at him by Shellie and then having to drink toilet water by Dwight. The man can only take so many rejections and kicks to his ego. He pulls out a gun and tells the prostitute to get in.

Bad move.

Old Town is ruled by a matriarchy of prostitutes led by Gail wearing an S&M outfit that you can’t take your eyes off and has a ton of history with Dwight. In Dwight’s own words, he describes her as: “My warrior woman. My Valkyrie. You’ll always be mine. Always and never.” Thus, indicating that they will always do anything for each other, but they’ll never be together because theirs is a fire that will consume them both.

Gail and her girls have been watching Jackie (and Dwight) ever since they drove into Old Town with a cop car in pursuit (more on this in a minute). When Jackie makes the mistake of pulling out his gun on Becky the prostitute, Gail gives the signal for Miho to do her thing.

Ahh Miho… the Japanese angel of death. She makes merciless work of Jackie and his mates using her assortment of acrobatic and assassin moves combined with dual katanas and swastika shurikens.

It’s around this time of dismembering that Dwight starts getting this feeling in his gut that he can’t ignore. That type of feeling that screams at him that things don’t quite add up. Yes, Jackie and his goons are trouble. Yes, they’re nasty drunks. Yes, Jackie talks the tough talk and throws threats at people like confetti. Yes, Jackie-boy has a temper and has hit women. But, to Dwight’s knowledge, Jackie has never actually killed anyone.

In the aftermath of the slaughter, Dwight finds Jackie’s wallet and discovers to his horror that Shellie didn’t yell “stop” when he jumped out of her window, she yelled “cop”. As in, “He’s a cop!”

And not just any cop. Turns out Jackie-boy is Jack Rafferty, a hero cop. When Dwight flashes the badge at Gail, Miho and the rest of the girls, they know the proverbial has hit the fan.

Remember the cop car I mentioned before? The one that was in hot pursuit? Turns out, there is an uneasy truce between the police and the prostitutes of Old Town. The deal is the police give Gail and her girls in Old Town freedom to defend their turf and in exchange the cops get a slice of the profits made and free parties. The police also ensure Old Town can operate without intrusion from nefarious influences such as pimps and the mob. The cop car that was pursuing Jackie-boy turned around once he saw they would enter Old Town.

However, the truce goes all down the tube if a cop gets killed.

The action comes thick and fast once reality sinks in of what Dwight, Gail and company have done. Bodies are chopped up and stuffed into the boot of a car, Jack’s decapitated head starts talking to Dwight as he drives frantically to the pits to dump the bodies, mercenaries are hired to stop Dwight, the mob gets involved, there’s manipulation, there’s double-cross, and by the last page the body count will be far higher than Jackie and his goons.

It’s all classic crime-noir written and illustrated masterfully by Frank Miller. I have already spoken extensively about his artistic style in previous reviews of the Sin City series. All I will add in this review is Miho the assassin is a marvel, and I was happy to see rain swept scenes in this volume, which were absent in volume two.

The ongoing presence of Dwight McCarthy in volume three (he was the main character in volume two) demonstrates that Frank has more to tell of this character. While I am not as enarmoured with Dwight as I was with Marv (the main character in volume one), there’s enough to enjoy in the story and art that you’ll cast your eyes repeatedly over Sin City: The Big Fat Kill.

4.5 out of 5.

Anime Review: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Movie) – Mugen Ressha-hen (2020)

TL;DR – all aboard the demon train! Who will perish and who will survive?

Review (warning: spoilers)

First things first. If you have not seen Kimetsu no Yaiba (Season 1) then you need to watch that before watching Kimetsu no Yaiba (Movie): Mugen Ressha-hen. The assumption is if you’re watching the movie then you’ve already seen the first 26 episodes in season one. Otherwise, you’ll spend a significant amount of time trying to figure out what the hell is going on in this movie.

Likewise, this review will make the same assumption. Feel free to check out my review of season one here if you’re after background information and the origins of Demon Slayer.

Our story starts with reports coming in of demon activity aboard the ‘Mugen Ressha-hen’ (translates to ‘Infinity Train’). Passengers have gone missing, and after demon slayers are sent to investigate and they too disappear, the Demon Slayer Corps decide they need to bring in the heavy hitters.

The upper echelon elite of the Corps are known as ‘Hashira’ (translates to ‘pillars’), and we are introduced to Kyojuro Rengoku, the Flame Pillar, who is sent to deal with whatever is happening. Joining him are our intrepid main group of budding demon slayers:

  • Tanjiro Kamado – the main character seeking to find a cure for his younger sister and defeat Muzan Kibutsujji (the demon leader) from killing more humans after he discovers his entire family slaughtered by a demon in season one.
  • Nezuko Kamado – Tanjiro’s demon blood-infected younger sister who is the only survivor of his family’s massacre.
  • Inosuke Hashibira – the boar-mask wearing, dual sword wielding, unusually feminine looking (under the mask) warrior seeking to be the greatest demon slayer ever.
  • Zenitsu Agatsuma – a cowardly, often inept, demon slayer who is obsessed with pretty girls and has an especially unhealthy infatuation for Nezuko (this is understandable, however, because Nezuko is very cute unless she goes all Hulk mode…)

It should be said from the outset that all the pillars are different. Not only their powers but their personalities, motives, and quirks all range dramatically, and not all pillars are like-able. Some are cold, stand-offish, and selfish.

This is not the case for Kyojuro who with flaming gold and red hair, wide eyed exuberance, and easy smile makes him the admiration and envy of our young group of budding demon slayers. His skills are literally combustible. Not only is he so hot he’s cool (see what I did there?) but he has an optimism and compassion that can be absent from other pillars. His mother instilled a deep responsibility to protect the weak. This responsibility is something that both Tanjiro and Kyojuro share and connects them by movie’s end. Every life is precious.

This is in contrast to some of the other pillars who see killing demons as the highest priority and saving lives as secondary. If a human life needs to be sacrificed in order to slay the demon then so be it.

With Kyojuro by their side, Tanjiro and the others are optimistic that they’ll solve the mystery and prevent any more disappearances aboard the Infinity Train. Their investigation leads to a confrontation with the demon named Enmu.

Within the demon ranks there are an elite group called the Twelve Moons (six upper demons and six lower demons). They are considered the twelve most powerful demons just below Muzan their leader. Enmu holds the position of lower rank one meaning he is the highest of the six lower ranks and closest to becoming an upper rank demon.

Enmu’s power is the ability to manipulate people’s dreams by going into them, twisting what the person sees and killing them. He revels in the pain and misery of others and sees human hearts as fragile playthings waiting to be crushed. But his powers don’t stop there, not only can he have hundreds of humans under his control, Enmu has fused with the Infinity Train and transformed his body into the locomotive so his weaknesses are hidden somewhere within the train structure. In other words, the entire Infinity Train is the demon Enmu, and he can morph parts of the train into a tentacled monstrous nightmare.

The initial third of the movie is seeing Enmu’s power at work unbeknownst to our band of demon slayers. All are put into slumber, and we enter their hopes and dreams and fears and nightmares. Enmu’s goal is to destroy each of the demon slayers’ spirit core. Under his control are a bunch of human children who he orders into the demon slayers’ dreams to locate the spirit core and smash it. Turns out the spirit cores of each demon slayer are not so easily disposed of, and it’s a wonderful insight into how each spirit core reflects the person.

For example, Kyojuro’s spirit core is surrounded by a land of fire, his heart aflame with intense purpose that prevents access. By contrast, inside Tanjiro, his own little spirits guide the child to his spirit core which is surrounded by a beautiful sea. There are no defences surrounding the core, and the child is stunned that the spirits have actively helped her in locating it. The purity and innocence of Tanjiro’s spirit moves the child to tears and she can’t bring herself to destroy it.

The middle third of the movie has our demon slayers awakened and the revelation that the entire train is demonic. They then go about trying to save the passengers inside while trying to locate Enmu’s weak point.

The best scene in this part of the film is when Nezuko is unleashed and starts attacking the tentacles inside one of the carriages to protect the sleeping passengers. At one point, the tentacles overcome her and it looks like she will be crushed. The sound track introduces this drum beat that slowly gets louder and Zenitsu arrives on the scene. Zenitsu is a hilarious character when awake as he appears to have no fighting skills whatsoever, but when Zenitsu falls asleep, his true skill awakens and he becomes “too-cool-for-school”. His attack involves lightning and the sound track combined with the animation sequence where he saves Nezuko is truly adrenaline pumping.

The battle between the demon slayers and Enmu is epic, and it takes the combined efforts of Tanjiro and Inosuke to defeat the lower rank demon. When finally they slay Enmu, the Infinity Train gets derailed in the process. I found myself as exhausted as the characters were on the screen. But just when you think it’s all over, another demon arrives.

Akaza holds the position of upper rank three and uses martial arts to defeat demon slayers and has regeneration abilities to heal injuries almost instantly. He shows contempt for anyone he perceives as weaker than him and offers those who he sees as his equal the chance of becoming a demon.

Kimetsu no Yaiba (Movie): Mugen Ressha-hen turns out to be less about Enmu and more about Akaza as we get to see for the first time in the series a Hashira/Pillar battle it out with an Upper Rank demon. It’s this secondary battle that elevates the film above other anime films.

At the end of season one, we learn from Muzan that no lower rank demon has ever defeated a Hashira (and as a result the lower six has been a bit of a revolving door for Muzan) and it has only ever been the upper rank demons that have killed a Pillar (and the upper rank demons have remained unchanged).

With this in mind, I was on the edge of my seat because I had no idea who would come out the victor. If epic was the word used to describe the battle between Enmu and Tanjiro and Inosuke, then the battle between Akaza and Kyojuro was colossally Homeric.

As stated above, Kyojuro is one of the pillars that you are drawn to because of his affable personality, and he is not afraid to show his human decency unlike some of the other pillars who exude an impression that they are above humans. He would make the perfect teacher for Tanjiro and his fellow demon slayers, it is truly devastating when Akaza fatally wounds him.

The gut-wrenching fountain of tears that pours forth from Tanjiro and company is both comical and tearful (and you won’t know whether to cry or laugh yourself… you might as well do both), and Tanjiro’s anger at Akaza for fleeing the fight after Kyojuro is slain is a flag that their next confrontation will be earth shattering.

All’s well that ends well. NOT!

When I took my boys to go see this movie, at the end, my eldest son said, “They did my boy (i.e. Kyojuro) wrong dad, they did my boy wrong.”

I couldn’t agree more.

10 out of 10

TV Review: Foundation (2021) – S01E07 – Mysteries and Martyrs

TL;DR – The Anacreons venture into the Anthor Belt in search of Invictus, a mysterious Imperial star ship, capable of destroying planets.

Review (warning: spoilers)

Please go to my TV reviews page to read reviews of previous episodes.

The Anacreons are on a revenge mission. Their target, I assume, will be Trantor; the heart of the empire and seat of Emperor Cleon. Their plan put in motion in previous episodes begins to finally come together in this one.

Led by Phara Keaen (Kubbra Sait), they have secured Hugo’s (Daniel MacPherson) ship and brought (kidnapped) together members of the Foundation with specific skill sets. This includes Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) the Warden of Terminus. Salvor is actually not required for Phara’s mission but the Anacreon leader is forced to bring her on board as Hugo gives control of his ship’s computer entirely to Salvor (i.e. the ship will not respond to anyone except Salvor, so she ends up being the pilot with Hugo guiding her).

Together they head to the Anthor Belt where we are greeted by the spectacular scene of an Imperial star ship that has entered into myth. Known as Invictus, the ship disappeared 700 years ago and has jump technology (i.e. it can fold time and space and traverse enormous distances in short spans of time). No one knows why it disappeared or what happened to its crew, but Phara and her Anacreons have been able to locate it and they desperately want to take control.

Unfortunately, the star ship has defence protocols in place that prevent anyone other than Imperial military from boarding. Two previous attempts by the Anacreons led to two ships becoming Swiss cheese. Thus Phara turned to Terminus, destroyed the communications buoy that allowed the Foundation to communicate to Trantor, and knowing that the Empire would send an Imperial ship to investigate. When subsequent Imperial ship is shot down, Phara captures the Commander and demonstrates in this episode that all Imperial military have nanobots flowing through their blood that both heals them from minor injuries and are encoded to allow access to any Imperial ship including Invictus.

Still, they have to physically get to an entryway to allow the Commander to have his hand scanned by the star ship’s computer. If Hugo’s ship gets too close it will go the way of the previous Anacreon attempts and be turned to Swiss cheese.

To get around this, the crew put on spacesuits and jump from Hugo’s ship, through a field of floating asteroid rocks and spaceship debris, and then magnetically land on the Invictus. Turns out, the ship’s defence systems will not shoot at anything as small as a human. Still, their timing has to be perfect and if they don’t flip themselves at the right time they don’t latch onto the star ship and instead will float off into outer space to die alone.

Everyone makes it except for Hugo, and understandably, Salvor is devastated. At this point, I should say I refuse to believe that Hugo is dead. I have a theory that he did not engage his thrusters on purpose to slow his momentum and has actually boarded another part of the gigantic ship in hopes of rescuing the Foundation crew from the Anacreons.

If Hugo is actually dead, I will be seriously bummed.

Back to the story at hand, after they get inside the star ship (thanks to the Commander who then receives his reward of an Anacreon laser blast to the head) the group explores the inside trying to locate the control centre. When Foundation Director, Lewis Pirenne (Elliot Cowan), notices the ships lights progressively turn on and off at reduced intervals, they figure out that it’s a countdown to when the ship will next jump. Phara reveals that the Invictus has been jumping to random coordinates for centuries to prevent its technology falling into the wrong hands. So, getting inside was one thing, now they are rushing to take control before they blink away again to god knows where (could be the heart of a sun, into a black hole, or marooned somewhere on the edge of the galaxy with no food or water).

As we watch this part of the story progress, we also get to see what Brother Day (Lee Pace) is doing on Maiden and how he will sway three trillion Luminist followers back into the Empire’s fold and away from Zephyr Halima’s influence.

In the last episode, it looked like Zephyr Halima had convinced the masses that to follow Emperor Cleon clones (of which Brother Day is one of them) is to follow a false leader, a soulless leader. So, Brother Day looks to prove her wrong.

On Maiden, there is the Spiral. A desert passage that pilgrims dare to journey to reach the womb of the Mother, which is said to grant a vision to those who are able to reach it. It is a sacred journey that many fail to complete.

Brother Day declares he will undertake the journey to let the triple goddesses (the Luminist gods) decide his fate. This would appear to indicate that if he survives then he must have a soul and this would bring the Luminists back under Imperial control.

Back on Trantor, things are getting hot and heavy between Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) and Azura Odili (Amy Tyger). Azura attempts to convince Dawn to run away with her so he can live his own life rather than being trapped to serve the Cleon dynasty.

And the episode ends with Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) speaking with a digital consciousness of Hari Seldon aboard The Raven. Hari reveals that Gaal was never meant to be on the ship and instead it was meant to be Raych Foss (Alfred Enoch). Gaal finds out that Hari’s murder had to happen in order for the Foundation to succeed and he had Raych commit the deed. But Raych was meant to escape and would have escaped if not for Gaal bursting in on the scene.

The digital Hari questions Gaal as to what caused her to break her routine afternoon swim session and investigate Raych and go into Hari’s room. At the same time, The Raven enters a dangerous debris field. Gaal wants the digital Hari to change the course of the ship to prevent any breaches of the ship’s hull, but Hari is more focused on why Gaal broke her routine in the events leading up to his murder.

In a cool twist, Gaal grabs a screen and uses it as a shield against a piece of debris that penetrates the ship like a bullet. There is no way she should have been able to do that. No way her reflexes are quick enough to protect herself. The only way she could do this is if she could glimpse or feel the future.

And there lies the answer to what drove her to investigate Raych and Hari and break her normal swimming routine aboard the Deliverance. Seems like Gaal has a predilection for not just solving maths problems but could find a job also as a crystal ball.

A lot happening… everywhere.

9 out of 10

Book Review: Sin City (Volume 2) – A Dame To Kill For by Frank Miller

TL;DR – Dwight can handle most things in Sin City until Ava comes calling. He’ll do anything for her, she’s a dame to kill for but is she a dame to die for?

Summary (warning: spoilers)

Go to my book reviews page to read reviews of previous volumes of this Eisner award winning series.

Dwight McCarthy is a private investigator who does jobs that involve digging out skeletons from closets and photographing them. And when it comes to Sin City, there are plenty of people with skeletons in the closet (and plenty of literal skeletons buried in the swamps or beneath the city).

Dwight takes on contracts without fuss. Doesn’t ask too many questions. Minds his own business unless he is paid a large sum to do otherwise. He’s a professional and from the outside appears like a guy who has his head screwed on straight, which is a feat in itself when we talk about the denizens of Sin City.

However, beneath that exterior is a beast wanting to get out. A beast that torments him and will unleash mayhem if he ever loses control. For almost four years, he’s never lost control. He has stayed on the straight and narrow and moved forward.

Enter ex-lover, Ava Lord.

Oh Dwight… poor bastard never stood a chance.

Review

Femme fatales and crime noir are a match made in heaven (or hell depending on your point of view). They are an immediately strong archetype that grabs your attention, and for Dwight McCarthy, he is no less immune as Ava Lord waltzes back into his life with wide eyed innocence (you know she’s not innocent), full pouty lips (that you want to kiss even if they’re laced with poison), and seductive curves. She injects herself into his veins like an old addiction with new fire.

Dwight comes off as a disciplined man. He does his job. Doesn’t drink, do drugs or smoke. He’s clean shaven (both head and face), lean and trim (with enough muscle to make a boxer pause) and has a sharp intellect.

Four years ago, Ava broke his heart (left him for a richer guy) and it has taken him years to get himself back to the way he wants. And just like that, Ava re-enters his life, all ‘damsel in distress’. Dwight knows she’s trouble. We know she’s trouble. Dwight’s head screams at him to stay out of whatever mess Ava has got herself into. It’s the sane move. The smart move. But, of course, his heart goes for the dumb move.

When the double-cross happens, it is textbook crime noir but thankfully Dwight has an ace up his sleeve. And that ace is the hulking giant that is Marv. I urge readers who have not read volume one of Sin City – The Hard Goodbye to do so before diving into this one. Marv is a wonderful creation and the main protagonist in volume one. His supporting role is key to Dwight’s survival and eventual redemption.

Frank Miller’s writing has the same flow as the previous volume, and there is the unintentional consequence that readers might think Dwight is the same sort of character as Marv. They both have inner demons, they both become afflicted by a purpose driven from a female character, and they both have this thread of decency that seeks to rise above the crime and corruption of Sin City.

Miller attempts to make distinctions between the pair with mixed success. Dwight is smarter. Marv is cunning and loyal. Dwight is not as damaged as Marv, and physically Marv is built like a tank while Dwight is more an athletic hit-man build. The visuals definitely help differentiate the pair, which segues nicely into Miller’s exquisite art.

Black and white, light and shadows, the constant juxtaposition gives Miller’s art a three-dimensional effect which is filled with surprising detail yet in a minimalist way. The smoky atmosphere of a seedy bar, the shine of lipstick on Ava’s lips, the intensity of Dwight’s stares and the lift of his eyebrows, the movements of Nancy the exotic dancer with her cowboy hat and boots, lights through windows, terracotta tiles of roofs and brick walls, the rippling house lights onto a swimming pool… it’s a feast for the eyes if you take the time to absorb its stark and surprising beauty.

However, in the end, Dwight is no Marv. Marv is a far more complex individual and more fascinating as a result. Volume one was mind-blowing, so the bar was set very high indeed. Sin City – A Dame To Kill For is still an engrossing read, and you’ll still be driven to read the next volume in the series. It’s just that big lug Marv in volume one gets under your skin in a way that Dwight in volume two never can.

4 out of 5.

Anime Review: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Season 1) (2019)

TL;DR – When Tanjiro finds his family slaughtered by a demon, and the only survivor is his sister who has been infected by demon blood, he begins a quest to find a cure and to become a demon slayer to protect the innocent.

Review (warning: spoilers)

For anime fans of Shounen, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will be aware of Kimetsu no Yaiba (aka ‘Demon Slayer’). One of the most popular animes of 2019-20, it achieved a number of awards and nominations that reflected the next anime to rival others in the Shounen genre including Nartuo, Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia and Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood.

The sequel movie – Kimetsu no Yaiba Movie: Mugen Ressha-hen – became the first non-Hollywood film to achieve the highest grossing movie when it was released in 2020. In the process it also smashed the previous highest grossing anime film – Miyazaki’s seminal Spirited Away – by a staggering $108 million worldwide.

For those of the uninitiated, Kimetsu no Yaiba tells the story of a boy named Tanjiro Kamado who lives in the snowy mountains with his mother and siblings in an era that parallels medieval Japan. Their father passed away some time ago, and Tanjiro has taken on the responsibilities to provide for the family and does so with a lightness and joy of heart that belies the harsh and unforgiving circumstances of where they live.

After returning home from the nearby village selling charcoal, Tanjiro encounters his worst nightmare; his family murdered in a bloody display. But wait, his sister, Nezuko, is still breathing. Barely. Lifting her unconscious form on his back, he runs down the hill in search of help. His mind racing, he doesn’t notice when Nezuko awakens baring demon teeth. Her sudden bucking movement causes Tanjiro to slip and together they fall off a ledge onto the snow. He then sees that Nezuko is conscious but has transformed into a demon. He attempts to reason with her, plead with her while defending against her desire to eat him. His cries manage to reach somewhere deep inside her and she holds back.

Enter demon slayer, Giyuu Tomioka. Blue eyed, cold as the snow falling around him, cold as the samurai blade he wields in his hands, he rushes at Nezuko to end her life (a mercy killing before she transforms into a full fledged demon that will seek to consume more human lives).

Out-matched and out-skilled, Tanjiro now finds himself pleading to the demon slayer to spare Nezuko’s life. Giyuu is not swayed saying his job is to slay demons and that Tanjiro’s sister is no longer human. The stand-off leads to a desperate act by Tanjiro to protect Nezuko and is a clever bit of action that earns Giyuu’s respect. And when he sees Nezuko attempt to protect Tanjiro in turn even though she is starved for human flesh, he questions whether perhaps this pair of siblings may be different. Giyuu sends the pair off to see Sakonji Urokodaki, a master swordsman, who will teach Tanjiro how to fight and hunt demons.

And that’s just the first episode…

There is a lot to love in this series, which I cannot do justice in one review but for me the highlights and aspects I found fascinating were as follows:

  • Tanjiro is a pure spirit. He is incorruptible and does not care for power or money. He is almost beyond altruistic and does not become jaded no matter what is thrown at him. He has plenty of flaws but stays true to his character and optimism that borders on the unbelievable. As the main character, there was serious risk that Tanjiro could have been a one-dimensional character but creator Koyoharu Gotouge makes you want to support Tanjiro no matter how emotional he gets.
  • The Final Selection is a test for demon slayer students who have to survive for seven days on Mount Fujikasane. Demons reside on the mountain and their power equates to the number of students that have been eaten. Tanjiro is thrown into the thick of it when he faces off against the oldest demon on the mountain.
  • Muzan Kibutsuji is the main antagonist. The most powerful demon and the leader of the 12 Kizuki; an organisation comprised of six ‘upper’ and six ‘lower’ demons considered the most powerful of all demons (other than Muzan himself). He is interesting in that we discover he is posing as a human, has a human wife and a human child. Muzan’s reasons behind acting the family man are not revealed and his motives are a mystery. He is so powerful that I can’t see why he doesn’t simply go around biting every human he can get his hands on and turning them into demons (mind you, not every human can handle his demon blood so most die before turning into demons themselves). His only real threat are the Demon Slayer Corps but their number would be small compared to the number of demons Muzan could generate. We know Muzan wants to destroy the Demon Slayer Corps, but we don’t know his end game. Does he want a world full of demons? I don’t think so.
  • Susamaru and Yahaba are two powerful demons sent by Muzan to get rid of Tanjiro. The battle between the demons and Tanjiro and Nezuko is a brilliant set of episodes with outstanding action animation.
  • Kyogai, a tormented demon, that uses drums to spatially rotate surroundings causing his opponents to become disorientated.
  • Zenitsu and Inosuke, a pair of demon slayers, that become Tanjiro’s best friends. Zenitsu is meek, fearful and does not look like he could ever qualify to be a demon slayer (he also gets distracted by any pretty woman and becomes obsessed with Nezuko). His ‘power’ is definitely one of the more original mechanics I have ever seen, and you will have to watch the anime to truly appreciate it. Inosuke is a boar mask wearing demon slayer who single-mindedly wants to be the most powerful demon slayer and slay every demon he encounters. He is constantly trying to one-up Tanjiro even though Tanjiro has no interest in becoming the most powerful demon slayer.
  • The Spider family, led by a demon named Rui who is one of the lower rank demons. This group of demons battle it out against Tanjiro and company and rounds out the first season. This story arc is important as it reveals what it means to truly be a ‘family’ and the ideas of family and how they differ between Tanjiro and Nezuko’s relationship and Rui and his spider demon parents and siblings.
  • Season one ends with a trial for Tanjiro and Nezuko in front of the Hashira, the most powerful demon slayers, and their master and leader, Kagaya Ubuyashiki. The trial is whether Nezuko should be killed because she has demon blood in her. The Hashira themselves are all different, and their personalities range wildly which reflects their sympathy (or lack thereof) towards Tanjiro and Nezuko’s plight.

Season one will have you binging all 26 episodes in record time. The animation is brilliant. The background settings and environment (especially the winter mountains) are atmospheric and stunning. The character designs are clean, detailed and engaging. And the action sequences will have your adrenaline pumping in no time.

The story has enough depth and mystery that keeps everything ticking along. And the histories behind the demons as much as the demon slayers will have anime fans analysing everything with a sense of glee.

If there is any shortfall, it is the lack of reveal surrounding Muzan (leader of the demons) and Kagaya (leader of the demon slayers). Their motives on the surface is simple – they want to wipe each other out (or rather Muzan wants to wipe out the demon slayers, and Kagaya wants to stop Muzan). But there has to be more to it than that. How they came to be the way that they are, and what they seek to achieve are never scratched beneath the surface. This is a minor quip in what is a gripping and highly enjoyable anime series. You have been warned.

9.5 out of 10