Kenya Boy (02/01)

I've been watching the filmography of Nobuhiko Obayashi with an online friend group which is where I have now seen his only anime film Kenya Boy from 1984. Obayashi's live-action films always have swag ranging from fun little color effects or breathtaking scenery on top of impressive cinematography in those environments for their time. Even though Kenya Boy is an animated film it still manages to have a lot of the qualities that make his films great, even utilizing cinematography you would normally see in live-action films such as a dolly zoom. I honestly can't tell if this film had a big budget or a small budget but either one feels like it makes sense because the animation is both extremely impressive but then limited in other parts. There is a frequent blending and changing of art styles, such as a more painting-like style in it's beginning grounded act and later on in it's more action oriented instances will have some of the scenes not colored and only be outlines and it manages to look really cool. The movie does get more ridiculous and outlandish as it goes on and ends with an absolutely insane climax towards the end utilizing a lot of really stylish crt effects that feel ahead of their time.
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Super Psychic Policeman Chojo (02/11)

A new manga that started in Weekly Shonen Jump about a cute policewoman who has to work with some psychic guy as her partner. I mainly picked this up because it just started and I think the girl is cute (even though she's a cop and that can't be forgiven). A lot of the humor doesn't land for me but it is a decent read, I don't know if this series will really go anywhere or just remain being an episodic gag manga. I gotta hand it to this manga that despite being about the police they make a lot of jokes and references to tax payers money being spent on them. I might like this manga more as it goes on since I usually have a problem accidentally loving policewomen in anime but that's a discussion for another time.

Darkman (02/15)

Darkman was a superhero film in the 90s directed by Sam Raimi and it definitely shows with how campy and fun it is. The main character has freakouts that are some insane sequences. The film doesn't fuck around and it's something I wish most superhero films were like.
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Kagurabachi (02/21)

A recent battle shonen that I didn't so much as give a glance toward until I noticed a friend of mine kept posting an image of the main character everytime they read that weeks chapter. Seeing this image every week eventually caused me to check the series out for myself since it's not too long as of now and I managed to get up to date pretty quickly. Kagurabachi is a pretty good read so far. As someone who is getting slowly more sick of battle shonen's Kagurabachi presents itself in a more interesting way, putting more focus on excellent panel layout and amazing full spreads. The action is just pure badass and the art really makes it all flow so easily, this will definitely be great to see animated when this inevitably gets an anime adaptation. Kagurabachi definitely takes itself a little more seriously than most battle shonens and has not let me down so far as a good weekly read.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder (02/22)

2D Mario games have always just been pretty ok games to me but Super Mario Bros. Wonder has blown my expectations. The New Super Mario Bros. series have all felt like the same game and the small unique power up each game had were never enough to really distinguish each game from each since all the assets were the same. Mario Wonder changes everything up from art style, setting, it's large playable cast, it's gimmicks across the whole game and even changed the jump sound they've been using for decades. Every level has a memorable unique theme which may not sound too different than other Mario games but it goes beyond with each levels hidden wonder seed being locked behind a drug trip-like segment that occurs when you collect the wonder flower. These segments range from transforming you into a funny little creature to some colorful reality warping dance party effects goung on, I loved it all. I have never had this much fun with a 2d Mario and the best part of all is that I get to play as my girl Daisy, glad to see her in a mainline Mario again.My Backloggd Review

RuriDragon (02/24)

A very short slice of life manga in Weekly Shonen Jump that went on hiatus two years ago and with the news of it coming back, I quickly read up to date with the 6 chapters that existed. This manga was actually very good and not anything I would expect to run in a magazine mostly known for male dominant battle shonens, the series focuses on Ruri going through Dragon puberty which reveals that her missing dad was actually a dragon. It's a very sweet story about her bonding with her human mother and trying to ajust to school life with these dragon features and abilities she doesn't have control of. It's played pretty straight and very heartwarming with how empathetic and accepting everyone is.

Penny's Big Breakaway (02/25)

A shadow drop that occured on some Nintendo direct, it being an original IP by Christian Whitehead who also made my favorite Sonic game, Sonic Mania motivated me to jump into this game pretty quickly. The overall aesthetic of this game I definitely fuck with, a modern day Sega Saturn game with the vibes of the 1996 "Sonic the Hedgehog The Screensaver" artworks and levels that feel like they exist in liveable places. Sadly, I hated how this game controled at times. The controls are very interesting and satisfying when you get things right but it was a little too finicky at crucial times that made basic recovery extremely difficult to pull off on the fly. There are some parts that are a bit glitchy like the Taboo fight where I kept re-spawning over a pit or the Judge boss fight where I would still fall off the edge even though the gameplay stopped for a brief cut scene. It's a meaty game and was worth the money, I can still see myself replaying it especially if they patch it.
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Sonic Superstars (02/26)

I started this back when it came out and beat most of it then but didn't finish it becaues I got distracted by Super Mario Wonder's release which was a few days later. Despite being overshadowed by it, I think Sonic Superstars is still a pretty fun 2d Sonic game. Being able to play as Amy and Nack coming back were a big plus for me. The levels are pretty good but not anything I'd take over Sonic Mania which is still my favorite in the series. The boss fights are the only real problem I have with the game. A lot of them take too long and you have big waiting periods were you can't hit then and only ever get one hit at a time which kind of goes against satisfyingly destroying bosses really quickly like in the old games. The last boss especially sucks ass and took me a few hours to beat. Overall I like Sonic Superstars like any other 2d Sonic but the bosses are what holds it back for me.
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Final Fantasy VII Remake Yuffie DLC (02/28)

Finally got around to playing this DLC in time to prepare for Rebirth. This DLC focuses on a new original sidestory with Yuffie, the next party member that joins the cast after the point in the story where the first part of this remake ended. FF7 remake was fun cuz you get to be Cloud with a big sword and its satisfying to fight with big sword. The Yuffie dlc is way less fun since you can only play as Yuffie and she has much more unconventional combat mostly more ranged and support. You get a non-playable partner who is a bigger damage dealer so it does create a slightly more interesting and different game by being a support character instead. Storywise it doesn't do a whole lot overall in the story and it didn't really need to, neat to see some throwbacks to Dirge of Cerberus and I loved seeing more Scarlet.
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Space Transformer (02/29)

A funny bootleg anime film from South Korea by Joseph Lai using a few recycled designs from anime such as Votoms and Ideon. The english dubbing is a gift that keeps on giving, especially the fact that the character Ivy is just always referred to as Ivy, the most talented girl in the world. Many still frames of this are funny and proportions of things are never consistent, the animation is very low budget such as a scene where a gun on a ship is already out but for some reason animation of that gun is being played over the cel of the gun already being out, it's quite bizarre. I loved this film, it's a great humorous watch with a group of friends. It's even up on Archive.org
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