Wii U review: Bayonetta

Originally released in 2009 on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3, the first game in the Bayonetta saga saw an updated release on the Wii U, one that was bundled with the Nintendo console-exclusive Bayonetta 2. The premise is easy enough to jump into – the witch known as Bayonetta works with two individuals to fight aggressive angels: an arms dealer named Rodin and one business associate named Enzo. Whereas Rodin is cool, tough, and smooth with both words and weapons, Enzo is excessively foul-mouthed, and seems to have a knack for getting himself in way over his head. Bayonetta, meanwhile, has an air of sass and confidence about her, as she knows she is one of the only magic-wielders of her kind, boasting a widely varied skill set and impressive power to boot. And yet, Bayonetta knows very little about her own history, which leads to this first entry in the story to be one of self-discovery, with cutscenes frequently jumping back in time to explain, bit-by-bit, just what happened five-hundred years prior to the game’s present day setting.

Over the course of her adventures across a fictional European vista, Bayonetta visits a number of locales, from old brick-street cities, to an ancient coliseum, to impossible spirals of land that wind up in to the sky only to meet other high-rise bridges of dirt and grass some miles above the Earth. Later chapters will even see Bayonetta enter ethereal realms of mist and golden décor as she take the fight to the angels’ home turf. And while most of the game’s grand reveals are saved for the late chapters, it is apparent from the outset that other players in this larger picture are keeping their eyes on Bayonetta. Though it may not match the astounding visual quality of its sequel, the slight update seen in this Wii U port is certainly cleaner than its Xbox 360 and PS3 counterparts. Similarly, new features have been added, perhaps the most noteworthy of the bunch being costumes that pay homage to the heroines of Nintendo’s Metroid and Mario properties, as well as Link’s tunic from The Legend of Zelda.

That said, the Gamepad is not emphasized as heavily in this first Bayonetta title as it is in Bayonetta 2. The basic controls for running through environments, chaining combos while slicing and dicing the grotesque angelic hordes, and the menu-based process of mixing ingredients for stat-recovering and stat-boosting lollipops all fell very natural with the traditional button and joystick combo. Boss encounters with the most massive of stone-and-gold goliaths are consistently exceptional, even with the occasional decision to include gimmicky uses the immediate environment. Similarly, the sequential rival battles with mysterious crimson-clad witch Jeanne prove among the most engaging and enjoyable moments of the overall experience, and these are spaced out so as to not grow so quickly tiresome as other interruptions to the familiar routine of the story and gameplay, such as a clunky motorcycle chase with unclear objectives or the minimally-inspired arcade shooting minigame that caps off each chapter.

Combat utilizes a time-slowing mechanic known as Witch Time, whereby a perfect last-minute dodge will result in enemies coming to a near-standstill and Bayonetta being granted a brief window to deal significant damage to foes. If a magic meter is full from delivering a strong chain of attacks, players can employ medieval torture devices to inflict massive damage upon foes. The magic meter, however, can be whittled back down if Bayonetta takes damage, effectively nullifying everything built up from combos. This makes this first title simultaneously more demanding and less forgiving than its successor, which in and of itself is not so much a problem, but rather plays into the game’s two major flaws: poor camera angles, and claustrophobic environments. Bayonetta gradually throws harder enemies at the titular witch, and in greater numbers, which only makes sense as a means for amping up the difficulty factor for players, but the fact that the combat arenas never grow presents a significant problem in trying to see where Bayonetta is versus the location of her enemies. This in turn forces strategy out the window during these particularly troublesome segments, leaving players to guesswork in their dodges and attacks. It’s not an issue that runs for the entire course of any given level, but instead pops up at sporadic intervals, making it all the more frustrating as a significant flaw in an otherwise solidly-designed game.

The lore of the world is delivered largely through Luka, a young man with dreams of following in his father’s footsteps as journalist and historian. Luka holds Bayonetta responsible for the death of his father upon her return to the land of the living many years ago, though a part of him is constantly drawn to her – in part, because of her mysterious nature, and the other part due to his finding her physically attractive. Shallow as he might be, Luka plays the part of comic relief a number of times over the course of the game, as Bayonetta leaves him to clean up after her messes and place him in charge of taking care of tasks she would rather not.

The angel designs are nowhere near as visually captivating as their successors in Bayonetta 2, though boss designs such as a plant-like form with many tentacles and a giant lizard-like beast with a gaping maw offer commanding aesthetics. There is a certain creepy and alien appeal in the bird-human hybrids of the common grunt enemies, while gold-trimmed boats that fire a barrage of missiles and flying snake-like beasts offer more in the way of silly visual appeal than they do for practical combat situations. The soundtrack emphasizes choir vocals for more dire moments, and jazzy numbers for when the game wants to let loose and allow Bayonetta a minute to properly flaunt her unique skill set.

Bayonetta is still an impressive showing for the action genre, and does well to base its combo chaining system around a fair dodge mechanic. Unfortunately, this is far too often nixed by poor choices in the placement of enemies in narrow hallways and compact rooms, or downright awful camera angles. It’s a step up in both more fluid design and more user-friendly design points than previous giants of the genre, yet it falls a fair distance from the sequel’s borderline-perfect design. If nothing else, this version of Bayonetta is easily the best in terms of its visual presentation, and the button layout on both the Wii U Gamepad and Pro Controller are perfect fits for the game’s demanding combat patterns.

My rating: 7.5 (out of 10)

Anime review: Resident Evil: Damnation

Set between the events of the Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 6 video games, Resident Evil: Damnation sees Leon S. Kennedy return to the spotlight as he is sent into a small former Soviet nation to investigate the use of B.O.W.s amidst civil unrest. Despite the political reforms that followed the nation’s detachment from the U.S.S.R., rebel groups have risen up arms against the government, and have resorted to the use of Lickers, skinless quadrupeds that are easily identified by their snaking tongues and exposed brain tissue. Given his wealth of knowledge on B.O.W.s, as well as his decorated experience from Raccoon City, Saddler’s cult, and more, Leon is strategic and careful in his actions, but not without the boldness to forge his own path and bend the rules from his superiors a bit (despite Hunnigan’s protests). Even with the tense political struggle going on around him and the serious threats of biological warfare, Leon doesn’t shy away from making the occasional snappy one-liner, most of which are mildly amusing and surprisingly less cheesy than in most RE properties.

There are ties to the more recent Resident Evil games through the use of the parasitic Las Plagas, and while many of the people fighting in the streets turn into the mindless infected, others use the Plagas in tandem with the Lickers, allowing them to directly control the actions of the terrifying beasts like hounds. However, this master-servant relationship comes at a price, in that once the Plagas are willingly injected into the controlling individual’s body, it is only a matter of time before they join the creeping hordes. Limiting the variety of enemies Leon and the freedom fighters encounter is a smart decision, in that it keeps the story and action sequences focused, as well as maintains an appropriate scale for this particular struggle.

Resident Evil: Damnation adopts a more action-heavy aesthetic than some of the other RE tales, though the horror vibe ala RE4 is not lost entirely. The dimly-lit and narrow tunnels beneath the city offer a gloomy atmosphere as the infected pursue Leon and company, while the grime inside parking structures and along old brick alleyways provides a strong contrast to the pristine Imperial halls of the president’s estate. Aside from Leon, the film focuses on two rebel fighters, who initially take him captive as they believe he is a spy employed by the state, but later allow him to aid them in their push towards the capital. Sasha is more of a dark and brooding individual, and while his reasons for fighting are explained in brief, the film does not dwell long on this, an act which is both a blessing and a curse – on the one hand, the narrative does not find itself bogged down with pushing a dramatic angle for some silly romantic subplot, but at the same time it makes it a bit difficult to feel for him or even properly gauge his emotions in the midst of all this fighting. The narrative implies Sasha has experienced some emotional and moral detachment since joining the fight, however, so perhaps this depiction is not wholly inappropriate. The other rebel fighter, JD, is a more gung-ho individual, but dorkishly obsessed with the image of being cool and views Leon’s American identity as a prime example of what he wants to associate with. He may be a goofball, and his dialogue may be among the weakest in the film, but at the end of the day JD has a heart of gold. Ada Wong acts in a supporting role, serving primarily to interact with the nation’s president, but also offering Leon tidbits of advice now and again.

The level of detail seen in the environments and character models is phenomenal, a significant step up from what the previous CG film, Resident Evil: Degeneration, had to offer. Similarly, the story is an improvement, as it chooses to keep itself ground in both its smaller cast and limited scope for the setting of one particular city within a small nation. Though many of the scenes take place underground or in the city streets at night, the eerie lighting does well to evoke the feel of a proper Resident Evil game. While not a narrative that will significantly change up the way viewers understand the pre-existing RE universe, Damnation does offer a satisfying stand-alone narrative that has sufficient levels of intrigue and thrills to keep both old-school and new-school fans engaged for its concise hour-and-forty-minute runtime.

My rating: 7.75 (out of 10)

Wii U review: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

A decade after its original Gamecube release, The Legend of Zelda title that introduced the cel-shaded Toon Link and the Great Sea he sailed across received an HD remake on Nintendo’s Wii U. During the years between the original Wind Waker and this new Wind Waker HD, it was expressed that there were a number of features that the development staff wanted to work into the original release, but were unable to due primarily to technological restrictions they faced in 2003. Wind Waker HD promised to be more than a simple visual upgrade of the original Gamecube adventure, and ultimately incorporated a number of reworked gameplay features, as well as a few new additions.

While many remakes in recent years have seen significant visual jumps in their quality (i.e. – Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Final Fantasy IV DS, etc.), Wind Waker HD’s strongest graphical showings come from its improved lighting effects and more strikingly visible environment textures. Character models and the various locales across the Great Sea appear largely unchanged from the Gamecube original, due in no small part to the fact that cel-shaded graphics were far ahead of their time, and have since aged significantly better than the visuals of nearly every other game in the long-running series. The soundtrack, however, has been cleaned up a bit, and a few subtle variations on classic tunes have been thrown into the mix.

For those who missed out on the Wind Waker during its original 2003 release, the story is set hundreds of years after the events of Ocarina of Time. The intro sequence explains that, even though OoT's Link was able to save Hyrule from Ganondorf’s evil conquest once, after he had returned to his own time there was no one to stop the Gerudo King once he escaped his imprisonment in the Sacred Realm. In a last-ditch effort to save the people of Hyrule, the goddesses washed away the kingdom, sending the people to live on the islands that now marked the Great Sea. As centuries passed, those who knew the legends of Hyrule dwindled in numbers, though on Link’s birthday, he receives a green Tunic from his grandmother, which she cites as being associated with the hero of legend, and a tradition for boys to wear on his home of Outset Island.

Not long after, a giant bird carrying the pirate captain Tetra flies over Outset Island, only to be struck by a cannonball from Tetra’s pursuing crew members. The bird drops Tetra in the forest atop the island, and Link decides to go help at the insistence of his younger sister Aryll. After scaling the island and fighting a few monsters, Link rescues Tetra and the two exit the forest only to witness young Aryll be whisked away by the giant bird from before, who mistook Aryll for Tetra. Determined to save his sister, Link acquires a shield and sword and climbs aboard Tetra’s ship as they head for the Forsaken Fortress.

Once inside, Link manages to sneak past Moblin patrols and is reunited with his sister, who is being held captive with two other young girls in a prison cell atop the Forsaken Fortress. However, this victory is short-lived, as the giant bird swoops in and tosses Link to the ocean, at the command of its shadowy master. The next morning, Link awakes to find he has been rescued by a talking sailboat which calls itself the King of Red Lions. He informs Link that the master of the Forsaken Fortress and the one who has been spreading monsters across the Great Sea is none other than Ganondorf, and that Link must gather three pearls in order to access a greater power capable of stopping Ganondorf’s schemes.

Mechanically, Wind Waker built directly off its N64 predecessors Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. The titular Wind Waker, which is used to control the direction of the wind that steers your sailboat, as well as a few other key interactions, effectively stood in for the previous musical instrument, the Ocarina of Time. Combat followed suit, with carefully timed strikes being coordinated with the trigger-based targeting system. The set of items Link collected from the various dungeons are still implemented with great frequency in later legs of The Wind Waker, often used in tandem with other items or weapons to overcome more challenging and complicated hurdles. While the core of this experience may remain largely the same, it is largely to the game’s benefit, as Wind Waker HD doesn’t need to fix what isn’t broken. That said, the optional gyroscope controls are available for the Telescope and Picto Box, should players feel so inclined to explore these additions, though the classic joystick controls are generally more smooth and precise.

Little changes to some of the items and questlines in Wind Waker HD end up going a long way. When sailing across the Great Sea, the Cannon, Crane, and Wind Waker are automatically set to the D-pad, while the Sail is set to the A button, allowing you to set another three separate items to the X, Y, and R buttons respectively. This cuts down on the amount of time spent swapping from the inventory. On a related note, the Gamepad’s touch controls allow you to drag items to these three buttons on the fly, without needing to pause the game first. Those who recall the Tingle Tuner from the Gamecube version will find it has been replaced with a more practical counterpart in the form of Tingle Bottles, which can carry messages into other player’s games via Miiverse, offering a more community-oriented experience not unlike the hints players can leave for one another in Dark Souls.

For completionists who enjoyed snapping pictographs of friendly faces and Ganondorf’s loyal monsters during their journey to turn into sculpted figurines at the Nintendo Gallery, the number of open slots in the Picto Box has been bumped up to twelve, as has the number of figurines that can be crafted each day. Enemy spoil drops appear to have been improved as well, making sidequests dependent on the number of Skull Necklaces, Butterfly Pendants, or Golden Feathers in your possession much quicker to complete. A speedier sail is available around the game’s midway point, and the process of collecting Triforce pieces during the late hours has been cut in half, thanks to the majority of the chart locations being replaced with the actual Triforce shards themselves. This not only makes collecting the Triforce shards feel like less of a chore than in the original Gamecube version, it circumvents the severe hiccup in the story’s pacing that comes as a result from suddenly needing to divert all of your attention from the buildup toward the late-game challenges and subsequent intense progression of the story.

If you have never experienced this particular Legend of Zelda title before, the HD update is a fantastic option. It’s also perhaps one of the most easily-accessible Zelda titles out there, for those who may have only experienced a scant few games in the series – not to say that The Wind Waker is an overly easy experience, but it does provide more intuitive controls and in-depth tutorials that stack as the game gradually offers up new options for improving combat and puzzle strategies. While the visuals may not be a vast improvement over the Gamecube original, they still hold up strong today, and offer a very distinct style that matches the sense of wonder in this fantasy setting, as well as the coming-of-age direction that the story takes with its younger protagonist.

My rating: 8.5 (out of 10)

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD journal - entry three

When I first played Wind Waker, I was in middle school and had no qualms about sinking hours into the tedious process of collecting three pictographs at a time, bringing them to the Forest Haven’s Nintendo Gallery, and then fast-forwarding time via the Song of Passing to have them converted into sculpted figures one by one. While Wind Waker lacks as many real meaty sidequests as its home console predecessor Majora’s Mask offered up, the more involved sidequests that Wind Waker does have are just that – very involved, and by association, rather time-consuming. I am incredibly pleased to see that Nintendo has not only quadrupled the number of pictographs Link can store in his Picto Box at any given time, but also upped the ante on the number of figures that can be sculpted per day to a matching twelve. To some, the Nintendo Gallery might seem like a silly distraction, but I always found it to be one of the most entertaining and rewarding sidequests in Wind Waker.

Conversely, my single least favorite leg of the original Wind Waker adventure was the process of collecting all the Triforce charts, having them deciphered for an obscene sum of money, and then having to track down each Triforce shard thereafter. It was such a boring routine that really threw off the game’s pacing, especially after the revelation of Tetra being the heir to Princess Zelda’s bloodline and the search for the two new sages had significantly boosted the excitement and intensity of the narrative. Lo and behold, Nintendo also improved upon this by asking players to seek out a mere three Triforce charts, while many of the remaining Triforce Shards have been allocated to the treasure chests that previously housed their respective charts. Those few Triforce shards that still lie at the bottom of the sea are immediately visible on Tingle’s In-credible chart. This particular fetch quest feels much less a chore, as it requires approximately half the time and effort than in the original Gamecube version.

I would not say that I am quite as blown away by this updated version of Wind Waker as I was by Ocarina of Time 3D – as I previously mentioned, the character models and environments of Wind Waker HD look largely the same as before, save for better lighting and a clearer filter for the game’s presentation. Plus, even though it is two console generations removed, this HD remaster is still on a home console as opposed to a handheld. But it is certainly flying higher than I anticipated during my first journal post. As of a few hours ago, I started my dive into the Wind Temple, and as such, I would expect my review of Wind Waker HD to be posted sometime by the end of next week, as there isn’t a whole lot left ahead of me before I take on Ganondorf and finish this adventure… once again.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD journal - entry two

Perhaps my initial judgments toward Wind Waker HD were premature. Now that I’m getting deeper into the story, I’m finding there are plenty of little updates that go a long way. I am a tad surprised that there does not appear to be any use of the stylus for scribbling notes on the sea chart ala Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks (or at least, there is no such functionality that I have yet come across). However, including the little tidbits of information the fish-men provide Link with their respective island chartings is a convenient addition for anyone who is new to the Wind Waker experience, or who is taking on this adventure many years after they originally tackled it on the Gamecube. After all, many of these hints or pieces of advice pertain to quests later in the game, like the Ghost Ship, the items required to enter the Earth and Wind Temples, and the Triforce Charts.

I’ve recently acquired the Swift Sail, which is far and away my favorite new item in this updated Zelda adventure. Not only does it make travelling to nearby islands a super-speedy process, but it easily cuts the time spent filling in the sea chart in half. The Tingle Bottles have proven entertaining, and I applaud those who have utilized them for more practical uses like aiding younger players who are stuck at a certain point in the game. That said, I’ve also found some of the messages within these Tingle Bottles quite amusing, whether the author of the related posts meant for their work to be humorous or not.

While I still feel that this HD version is not the visual spectacle other HD updates in recent years have shown themselves to be, there is something to be said about the finer details of this Wii U update of Wind Waker. I’ve come across a number of textures that I never noticed in the original Gamecube version, such as the small Triforce shape inside the barrier beam emitters within the Tower of the Gods, and the shapes of the Hylian people praising the Master Sword within the chamber below Hyrule Castle. As I mentioned in my previous post, the single biggest visual improvement seems to have come in the form of the game’s lighting, and as I have recently witnessed, this is not simply from the sun or the torch fires – the pearls required to summon the Tower of the Gods from the watery abyss look absolutely gorgeous, as does the room wherein Link faces the dungeon’s boss Gohdan. Even the Beamos eyes look far less blurry than they did back in 2003.

Wind Waker HD may end up being one of my earliest reviews posted in 2015. I’ve spent the past couple of days dealing with some post-Christmas crud, and as much as I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played of Persona Q thus far, playing through Wind Waker is a much easier task, especially since it is a game that I’ve beaten at least five times over now. My expectations of Wind Waker HD ranking among the greatest of all the games I play in 2015 are basically zero, but the aforementioned improvements that I have recently discovered have certainly earned it a few extra points toward its (eventual) overall review rating.

Top 5 Anime of 2014

As in years past, I have compiled my end of the year selections for my five favorite anime that I viewed in 2014.  Not all of these anime were in fact released during 2014, though each was released and aired within the past couple of years, and a few of these saw a run that carried on through 2014.  As with my top ten video game selections of the year, my rankings for these five best-of-the-best anime bears little correlation to the ratings I gave to each in my full review posts - rather, they are the five anime that I enjoyed most, and the five which left some noteworthy impact on me as a viewer. 

#5) Knights of Sidonia: Offering a more gritty and dire take on the mecha genre than many of its bigger-name contemporaries, Knights of Sidonia knows how to get from point A to point B in a timely manner, while still exploring enough individual stories that branch out from the core plot.  The scientific advancements made since mankind took refuge among the stars are curious and compelling, if not mildly inconsistent, but the way in which these play off the otherwise outdated tech and cramped living conditions for what are, in all likelihood, the last remaining humans, does well to balance the thriller, drama, adventure, and classic science fiction components.  If only the basic motions of the main cast members’ character models looked half as good as the Garde Unit mechs did when battling the parasitic and ever-adaptive Gauna, this series might have ranked a bit higher on this list.

#4) From the New World: Often times, the whole ‘post-apocalyptic’ subgenre gets stuck in a routine of desolate worlds decorated with litter more than ruins.  How much a breath of fresh air, then, was From the New World, which depicted not only a prospering society, but one which had performed an odd return to ancient technologies and lifestyle.  The strict, often shady rules of this future-past culture incorporate dystopian themes, while the science of the world is largely centered around the esper humans reserving their powers for practical uses that will better the whole community.  From the New World is very smart in its scripting, even though the emphasis on certain plot points might not make their importance known until many episodes later.  Other contemporary science fiction and fantasy anime would do well to learn a thing or two from this series’ careful planning.

#3) Puella Magi Madoka Magica: I admit, I was quite skeptical going into this series.  A number of people had talked it up as being a real game-changer for the magical girl genre – a genre that I was not particularly fond of – but Madoka Magica is much more than that.  Its twelve episode run delivered just the right number of twists and turns to keep me hooked from start to finish, and was fueled by some of the most genuine and raw emotion I’ve encountered in an anime yet.  It’s a dark and depressing tale, but in a similar fashion to Evangelion, it is multi-layered in its themes, yet ever-mindful of tying the narrative threads together for an impactful endgame.  Sometimes the saddest stories deliver the best development for both plot and character, as evidenced by Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

#2) Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders: While the first season adapted the first two parts of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure manga impeccably well, they were, to a certain degree, always serving to set up the most popular Jojo’s story arc, Stardust Crusaders.  It’s no surprise why Stardust Crusaders has been so well-received since its debut twenty-five years ago – the cast of Jotaro, old man Joseph, Avdol, Kakyoin, and Polnareff makes for quite a raucous crew.  Regardless of how dire the circumstances or rotten the foe, Jotaro and company always manage to turn the situation back to their favor, with plenty of intense action and hilarious shenanigans along the way.  The Stardust Crusaders arc masterfully handles just what a long-running action series should be about – having fun, balancing the action and comedy, and knowing how to properly pace the story for fans new and old.

#1) Mobile Suit Unicorn Gundam: Unicorn Gundam is both a return to form and a push forth into bold new territory for Bandai and Sunrise’s long-running franchise.  I’ve stated in the past that I find the Gundam OVAs are typically among the most high-quality offerings from the franchise, and Unicorn Gundam is unquestionably among the best Gundam projects of all-time.  It has a large cast to juggle, and yet it handles each individual appropriately, shaping them as pieces of a more complex puzzle over the course of its seven (approximately) hour-long episodes.  It’s a love letter to Gundam fans new and old – one that is certainly among the most easily accessible for new viewers who have little understanding of the chronology of the Universal Century, but one that is also chock-full of references and ties to previous Gundam works like Char’s Counterattack, ZZ, and the original Mobile Suit Gundam that kicked off this definitive mecha franchise way back in 1979.

2014 Year in Review: Anime

As this year comes to a close, I am wrapping up my ‘year in review’ lists, including my top anime and video game picks for 2014. Below is a list of every anime in the order that I viewed them this year, complete with a brief summary of my full review and the final score I provided each. Keep an eye out for my picks of the top five anime of the year within the next day or so.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (season one): While this first season is largely setting the stage for everything that is to come in the Stardust Crusaders arc of the second season, these first two portions of the long-running manga translate well to an anime format, despite how long overdue such an adaptation might be. The first arc, Phantom Blood, establishes Jonathon Joestar and his family’s legacy that will be shaped by the utilization of mystic arts like the ripple, as well as the feud that stems between himself and his nefarious rival since childhood, Dio Brando. Phantom Blood offers a more classic medieval fantasy aesthetic, while the second arc, Battle Tendency, explores the history of the stone mask that grants Dio his inhuman powers, as well as sets aside more time to properly explore the mighty Pillar Men and the goofball hero of the day that is Joseph Joestar. My rating: 8.25

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Some consider this series to the magical girl genre what Neon Genesis Evangelion was to the mecha genre. That correlation is not far off, as Madoka Magica’s twelve episode run puts a dark spin on one of anime’s most popular genres. Five young girls are granted special powers after making a contract with a feline creature named Kyubey, but gradually discover that the pact requires so much more than they could have ever conceived. It’s a dreary and depressing tale, but one that does exceptionally well at getting from point A to point B and rounding out the main cast within its limited episode count. My rating: 8.75

MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity of the Battlefront: Following up the incredibly brief yet surprisingly well-done first duo of MS IGLOO miniseries, MS IGLOO 2 focuses its narrative on the Federation forces, highlighting three separate military officers on different combat fronts. MS IGLOO 2 opts to incorporate a silly subplot of ghosts and curses to tether these otherwise unrelated tales together, which in turn makes for a set of the most ridiculous and cringe-worthy presentations in the larger Gundam franchise. My rating: 4.75

From the New World: In a future where esper humans have rebuilt society into a nearly technological-absent return to the feudal era, young classmates are grouped together in order to hone their unique skills. The threat of fiends is mentioned to these children at a young age, but as they grow up and witness some of their peers simply vanish, they begin to dig deeper into the mysteries of what happened centuries before they reverted to this lifestyle. What begins as a fantasy-oriented take on a post-apocalyptic future past gradually reveals a complicated pattern of advancing mankind through militant and social struggles, and what dark secrets lie in the past may be the key to facing the dangers that hide in plain sight among these hyper-capable human beings. My rating: 8.75

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion: Rebellion’s purpose is less of an expanded or reimagined ending for its series, and more of a quick cash-in on a still-popular name. The story suffers from awkward pacing and generally unlikable presentation of some previously well-established cast members. A new magical girl is also added to the story, but she is used for little more than a brief plot device, making her addition rather meaningless. The endgame is fits well with the tone of the series, but the process of reaching that finale is highly-predictable, less-than-inspired, and ultimately nothing-achieving. My rating: 5

Space Dandy: Following in the footsteps of Outlaw Star and Cowboy Bebop, Space Dandy sees the ragtag crew of Dandy, feline alien Meow, and robot QT journey the stars in search of strange new alien life forms to cash in with intergalactic registration. Along the way, they make frequent stops at Dandy’s favorite ‘breastaurant’, a parody of Hooters, aptly named Boobies. The series takes on some narrative inspirations from western works, as some episodes that end in dire situations or complete catastrophe are written off as being of no consequence by the time the next episode kicks in. Space Dandy is funky, psychedelic, wacky fun, and keeps the jokes popping from start to finish. My rating: 8

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders (season two): Stardust Crusaders has long been the most popular part of Hirohiko Araki’s epic manga run, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and has finally received a proper full-length anime adaptation. Jotaro, old man Joseph, Avdol, Kakyoin, and Polnareff make for a lovable band of misfits as they encounter foes that are both devious and wacky during their quest to stop the vampire Dio. The spiritual counterparts known as Stands do battle on behalf of their users, and the improved budget allows for some thoroughly exciting fights with shifts to psychedelic color palettes and frequent two-part episodes that grant better development cycles for the broad cast of characters. My rating: 9.5

Persona 4: The Animation: An adaptation of the Persona 4 video game, this twenty-six episode series has quite a bit of fat to trim in order to focus on the core of the story in the allotted time frame. It emphasizes the main party of characters, which is a smart move, considering how integral they are to the overarching plot of mystery surrounding the Midnight Channel and the Inaba murders and disappearances. The anime has fun with some of the game’s optional sidequests, and even decides to expand upon the character of young Nanako by throwing a couple of brand new subplots into the mix. A few key story points suffer from clunky pacing, however, and feel as though they could have been handled better were they spread across two episodes. My rating: 7

Bayonetta: Bloody Fate: Packing all the flash and flair of the first Bayonetta game into one hour-and-a-half film, Bloody Fate is an adaptation done right. All the major plot points are hit on, granting the film sufficient time to mold Bayonetta, Jeanne, Rodin, Luka, and little Cereza, as well as pinpoint some of their individual quirks and curious traits. The English cast returns to reprise their roles, which is a real treat, considering how masterful a job they did in the game. The soundtrack is jazzy and kickin’, the action over-the-top and borderline-nonsensical, and the whole experience one wild and stylish ride. My rating: 9.25

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn: Returning to many of the core themes that made Mobile Suit Gundam a standout anime more than thirty years ago, Unicorn Gundam pushes the saga on to new heights with contemporary storytelling methods, a wide variety of characters who see even time in the spotlight, and production values that blow the competition out of the water. Delivered in seven parts, Unicorn Gundam feels very much the part a collection of mini-movies that follow the story of Banagher Links as he further explores the mysteries of newtypes and the legacy left by legendary pilots who preceded him, while the Char Aznable look-alike Full Frontal has a grand vision in mind for the future of spacenoids and the remaining Zeon remnants. With so many factions involved in the search for an object known as Laplace’s Box and the wonderment of what lies inside, the conflict escalates and becomes an intense race to reach it and discover just what its contents mean for the future on humanity. My rating: 10

Sword Art Online: Combining classic fantasy motifs with a modern science fiction setting, Sword Art Online pays homage to contemporaries of the MMORPG video gaming genre through its art style and questlines. The first half of the series requires greater care and precision on the part of protagonists Kirito and Asuna, as death in the game world results in real-life fatality. These high stakes are a large part of what makes the story so intense and also is responsible for shaping the characters, while the progression for both plot and cast unfortunately takes a nosedive to boring territory during the second act. This latter half sees major characters reduced to mere plot devices, opting to push for a significantly less compelling story direction and some admittedly unsettling themes that feel very much out-of-place for a series aimed at such a broad and mainstream audience. My rating: 5.75

Knights of Sidonia: Hundreds of years after mankind left Earth to escape the parasitic and shape-shifting Gauna, a young ace pilot named Nagate Tanikaze quickly climbs the ranks from undercity-dweller to hero of the drifting world-ship Sidonia. The science and technology of this futuristic setting is sometimes strange, but more often than not it is practical given the immense populous and limited supplies within Sidonia. The gender androgynous Izana Shinatose, who befriends Nagate early on, receives ample time to develop as a character, as do many of the other pilots who fly out into battle in their Garde Unit mechs. The dire situation the humans face is constantly brought up through mentions of how long it has been since Sidonia last had contact with another human vessel, as well as the number of Garde Units that are destroyed in battle against the Gauna, showing just how short the life expectancies of these young men and women are. My rating: 8.25

Pokémon the Movie: White – Victini and Zekrom: As Ash and friends continue their journey across the Unova region, they stop in a mountain town where rumors of the legendary Victini have long been perpetuated thanks to the tale of a king who moved his people there with the psychic Pokémon’s aid. Upon discovering that Victini has in fact been hiding in plain sight, a young man named Damon decides to recreate the fabled king’s journey in an attempt to return to his desert homeland, unwittingly releasing the destructive stream known as the Dragon Force. While the film does make references to the lore of the Pokémon video games, the plot points of Victini and Zekrom are loosely connected at best, while the antagonist’s motives are never made clear and his strategy following quite close to that of the villain in the second theatrical Pokémon release. My rating: 5

Captain Harlock: A visual spectacle, this retelling of the original Harlock anime provides an updated and streamlined story that balances a gritty presentation with fun and fantastical action. It’s a film that does well to offer something to viewers both young and old, as the pacing is spot-on and keeps the story chugging along at a nice pace, without forgetting to stop and highlight interstellar landscapes. Each character receives sufficient development early in the film so as to make them feel the part of worthwhile investments later on, while one of the film’s minor faults stems from it trying to push for silly and over-the-top fights that would feel more at home in more fantasy-heavy works like the Dragon Ball franchise. My rating: 8.5