Back to ChewingKeyboards's Profile ChewingKeyboards's Profile

Zambot 3 is an absolutely buck-wild anime about a squad of kids piloting mecha and learning about the true horrors of war! Death, terrorism, refugee crises, war crimes, PTSD, the whole nine yards! All the while featuring a catchy and upbeat theme-song which *totally* does not lend itself to some serious tonal dissonance the longer the series goes on!

Our main protagonist, Jin Kappei, is introduced to us with a motorcycle chase that culminates in an anchor-wielding duel with the leader of a biker gang. Said duel is immediately interrupted by a giant tentacle kaiju, and instead of running Kappei decides to wrestle the damn thing. ... This is all in the first third of episode one, and he has yet to even set foot in a mech. To say the kid is off the rails would be an understatement.

Kappei turns out to be the descendant of alien refugees who landed on Earth in order to escape the evil Gaizok, who as misfortune would have it, are now looking to destroy Earth as well. The Gaizok are led by Killer the Butcher (excellent name) an eccentric warlord who gets a serious kick out of death and destruction. Killer the Butcher is great, his clownish antics only look more deranged the more morbid his tactics become, and boy do they ever get dark!

For the most part Zambot 3 is a monster-of-the-week style series in which Kappei and company fight a new kaiju sent by the Gaizok to eradicate them and the rest of humanity. While it is a bit episodic feeling at times, there is a steady momentum to the plot. That city that was caught in the middle of a kaiju fight last episode? Well all of those people actually died or lost their homes, so now there's a vagrant crisis with people trying to escape to safety.

For such an old super-robot show it tackles a lot of themes that feel fairly ahead of its time. Our characters deal with the pressure of having to protect humanity despite being children. The villains resort to underhanded tactics that simple robot fights can't solve. Even though they're the heroes, the protagonists ARE partially to blame for the threat even coming to Earth when it did.

While it does have a decent amount of plot intrigue, the show is quite rough around the edges and is really showing its age. At many points it feels like the network wanted a light-hearted robot show, but the director wanted something that'd scar the children watching it for life, leading to moments where it feels like the show is playing tug of war with itself. The fights, while fun and ALWAYS ending on a unnecessarily large explosion, do feel a bit on the formulaic side. This is sorta standard for series of its era however, and depending on your tastes it won't be much of an issue.

On the audio side the one thing that bares mentioning is Kappei's voice actress, who is famous in Japan for playing the beloved character Doraemon. Unfortunately I have no attachment to Doraemon or his voice, and Kappei essentially uses the same exact voice; which is shrill and a bit on the annoying side. You get used to it, and the actress does pull out a solid performance when she has to get emotional, but it makes the character feel a little too cartoonish for the type of show they're in. Everyone else is fine on the voice-front, and the music is solid enough for the time.

In terms of animation its about what you'd expect. Lots of goofy off-model shots. Frames where you can see dust on the lens. Plenty of reused animations. Its pretty decent for the time all things considered, but the visuals are not the selling point.

Zambot is worth watching for the curiosity. The story that feels both dated and ahead of its time. The tone that ping-pongs between cartoony and gut-punchingly brutal. This series is the first full anime directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, the godfather of Gundam, and it really shows. In many ways it feels like a prototype for his later attempts at expressing the horrors and cruelty of war with kids piloting giant robots, and while that may make it sound like its been invalidated by those later, more successful attempts, I think Zambot's still worth watching for the insanity of it all.

The show's only 23 episodes, and I greatly enjoyed my time with it. If you want some old school robot action featuring tonal whip-lashes like no other, check out Zambot 3, its a wild time. A strong 7/10.

Babel 2 is an old friggin' manga, and judging by MAL's user metrics, I'm going to assume not many folks in the western hemisphere have read it. Now I know what you're thinking:

"This guy must be some kinda old-school manga aficionado to have read this whole series and write a review for it! Surely he'll come in here with some profound reasons to read this classic series!"

Nope. I am in fact, just some guy who stumbled upon this manga after hearing Jojo's Bizarre Adventure may have borrowed some ideas from it, and seeing as nobody else has left a review on it yet I'm taking ... it upon myself to let you know if this old hunk of coal is worth reading or not from a casual's viewpoint.

As I mentioned previously, Babel 2 is a really old manga and it certainly reads like it. Most of the "classics" that I've read in the past have been under 5 volumes; Babel 2 is 12. That number of volumes doesn't sound like much, but believe me it'll start to feel like a lot by the time you're about two-thirds through the series.

Babel 2 stars Kouichi Yamano, a child who learns he's the reincarnation of an ancient alien being known as Babel. Kouichi then inherits Babel's great psychic powers (of which there are too many to mention) and command over his three monstrous servants, each of which boasting different abilities and strengths.

First there's Rodem the shape-shifting panther (who feels like where Jojo got the idea and visual inspiration for Iggy's stand " The Fool"). Rodem is my favourite since he's really cool looking and has the most interesting ability. Unlike the other two, he can also communicate with Kouichi which helps give him some semblance of character. The unfortunate thing about Rodem is that he's not used as much as he could be, especially as the series goes on.

Poseidon is Kouichi's next servant and simply put: he's a giant robot. Much like how Rodem's presence in the series is front-loaded, Poseidon mostly appears towards the final stretch of the story. There's not much to say about him. He's as generic of a big robot as you can get.

The final servant- and one you better get used to seeing- is Ropross; a giant, robotic bird shaped like a fighter jet. It's the goofiest looking servant of them all and is unfortunately the one who gets used the most. Not only can it fly around with Kouichi riding on its back, but it can also shoot explosive rays, making it a pretty formidable tool in Kouichi's arsenal. Ropross dominates the fairly lengthy middle section of Babel 2 and hoo boy did I ever get sick of him. He looks silly and all of his action scenes are the exact same.

With all these servants at his command on top of his aforementioned psychic abilities, Kouichi ends up being an absolute beast. The kid has no qualms with murder and will quickly and violently end the lives of anyone he sees as a threat. He's stoic to a comedic degree which sorta becomes a problem as the series goes on, even if it is a bit funny at times. He's too powerful, and his personality makes him hard to relate to as a protagonist. If he had say, a more vulnerable partner who could react to stuff like a normal human, this would be less of an issue.

All great heroes need a villain, so who's the sorry schmuck who got saddled with fighting this kid?

That would be Yomi; a middle-aged man with a legion of devoted followers, who also inherited Babel's powers. This means that whatever Kouichi has at his disposal, Yomi has the potential to use too. His main goal throughout the series is to acquire the Tower of Babel, which I forgot to mention, is also in Kouichi's possesion (what doesn't he have). The tower has crazy defensive capabilities, a medical bay that can heal almost all wounds, and a hyper-intelligent AI among many other things I've probably forgotten about. Needless to say it's a pretty important piece in Yomi's world-domination plans, but in order to get at it he must eliminate Kouichi.

Yomi is one of the stranger shonen antagonists I've seen because he's oddly more sympathetic than the hero sometimes. Don't get me wrong, Yomi is a BAD dude. However the poor guy has his plans thwarted so frequently and with such ease that you can't help but take pity after a certain point, especially with how much he's humanized compared to Kouichi. He has fears, he has anxieties, and he looks dismayed as the men under his command are slain left and right by this all-powerful child. I think the aim was to make Yomi seem pathetic and ill-fit as the true inheritor of Babel's powers to hype up Kouichi, but instead I just felt bad for the guy (though I say that half jokingly).

I feel like Yomi wouldn't feel so much like a punching bag if Kouichi simply had other villains to face. Every time Yomi is defeated, he makes his comeback no more than a chapter or two later. It feels less like the triumphant return of a villain, and more like an injured boxer on death's door standing up for another beating. It gets incredibly repetitive towards the middle of the series, which lead to me dropping the series for a year before I had built up the patience to power through it. The series thankfully switched things up for its final arc and addressed many of the problems I had with the earlier parts. It's not an amazing final act, but reading it felt like a breeze compared to what came before it.

All-in-all Babel 2 is a pretty straight forward series with not too much to talk about in terms of plot and characters. Some of it has actually aged quite well, while other parts haven't at all. If you want an old action series to read, it's not a bad time, but do adjust your expectations if you've never read a series like this before.

[] Final Verdict: Check it out if you're genuinely curious, but I don't see this appealing to every reader.

(PS: A hero and villain with the same powers, a setting in the middle east, a character named "Kouichi" with three servants each stronger than the last? I refuse to believe Hirohiko Araki wasn't a fan of this in his youth.)

"Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to" is a comedy-isekai series about two, male, white-collar office workers who get swept away to another world to save it from an evil demon lord. Also one of them gets turned into a cute girl and the two desperately try not to turn their bromance into a romance, so there's that too.

There's really not much to say about this series other than it's cute and pretty amusing. I wasn't laughing on a regular basis, but I did have a smile on my face for most of my time reading this series. It's very silly, verging on stupid (which is not ... a bad thing), but also unexpectedly sweet at times.

The two main characters are very charming with their antics, and it's fun seeing them tackle their feelings- with the two trying to figure out if the one friend's gender-swap was the impetus for their newfound mutual-attraction or if they already had it deep down to begin with. The humor that stems from their confused relationship is probably the best and most memorable part of the series, as a lot of the humor surrounding the fantasy-isekai elements feels almost too familiar at times.

Some gags feel almost lifted from Konosuba, and while that's certainly a great influence to take from, it does show how we're getting to a point where even the isekai-parodies are falling into cliche. This isn't to say there aren't funny moments, or things that I haven't seen elsewhere. The joke with one of their special, heroic powers merely being a portal to their apartment back on Earth is really simple but opens up for a lot of great gags.

Similarly I think the side cast has some pretty fun characters with good gimmicks, even if they do border on being one-dimensional.

All in all, I wouldn't say this is an essential read, but if the plot synopsis sounds funny to you, I think you'd be doing yourself a favor if you checked the series out. I'm not sure how much mileage Fantasy Bishoujo will get out of its core concept, as we're now over 100 chapters in and I can feel it retreading old ground a bit already, but for now it's a fast read that's fun and will get at least a few laughs out of you.

[] Final Verdict: Recommended, but not essential.

(Warning: Vague spoilers for seasons 3 and 4)

Aggretsuko S4 is out with S5 on the way at the time of writing, and what seemed like a quaint little series destined for a short season or two has now become a mainstay in the world of Netflix anime, for better or for worse. Let me quickly recap my thoughts on the previous seasons before we get to the meat of the review:

Season 1 of Aggretsuko was a fun work-place comedy that dealt with the problems and anxieties everyone experiences at some point in their working adult years. It was cute, relatable, and very charming.

Season 2 was ... basically more of the same, to a fault. It's two major plot-lines were essentially a repeat of the previous season's albeit a bit more over the top in theme and presentation.

Season 3 drastically shifted the focus of the series away from the workplace, which ended up being good for Retsuko's character arc, but it also meant a lot of supporting characters had very little to do in the plot. This season also ended on a fairly conclusive point for both of Retsuko and Haida's character arcs, leaving myself wondering what the 4th season could possibly do to keep the series fresh and engaging.

Which is a perfect segue into my thoughts on Season 4: this season didn't need to happen.

The relationship arc between Retsuko and Haida is quickly reversed with Haida going back to his old wishy-washy ways after being able to confess his emotions to Retsuko at the end of S3. Their romance was already very tedious to watch before, but this season made it ten times worse with yet more feet-dragging from Haida, and an even less clear conclusion to their romance by the end of the season.

The biggest saving grace is that a lot of Retsuko's developments from S3 are maintained in this season, she's much more assertive and outgoing, which is nice to see at this point in the story. The only issue is that she has very little to do now that she's essentially overcome most of her problems. It seems like the series was aware of this fact, which is why much of the story is from the perspective of other characters. This would be fine if one of those characters wasn't Haida.

Haida is a very infuriating character, especially with the direction he takes in season 4. If you did not like his character already, what happens to him in the 2nd half of this season will only reinforce those feelings. Don't get me wrong, I understand what they were going for and the direction they took with his character actually had a lot of potential; which was giving Haida a position of power in the office. In any other season I think this story-line could've worked, as seeing a character have to deal with the pains of management feels totally up this show's alley, and with Haida as the focus it'd help him grow to become a more assertive and responsible person. However the way it was executed felt forced and designed only to create drama between himself and Retsuko. His development felt less like a way to explore another side of work-place woes, and more like a way to drive home to central conflict of this season.

Towards the beginning of season 4 we're introduced to a new character who rather abruptly becomes the replacement CEO of the company Retsuko works for. It's quickly (and predictably) apparent that this new CEO has nefarious plans for the company which spell doom for Retsuko and her coworkers. I was actually enjoying this part of the season up until Haida became involved. We suddenly had a threat that could impact everyone in Retsuko's department, and the way it handled the topic of underhanded, corporate tactics felt grounded which made it all the more easy to relate and sympathize with what the characters were going through.

Unfortunately, this conflict is quickly taken to cartoonish extremes in the second half. It really felt like they wanted to wrap this story-line up by the end of the season in order to bring things back to status quo for the next, so they took whatever measures they had to make it happen as fast as possible. What happens is certainly amusing, but it happens so quickly with no characters worrying over the consequences of their actions, that it ends up feeling so far removed from the original tone of the series.

Which I guess is my main frustration with Aggretsuko as a whole, it wants to do over-arching plots with serious repercussions, but it can't help but revert things back to the status quo every season. If it was more like a weekly sitcom, I could see it working, but it doesn't feel like that's the direction the series is trying to take.

All in all it wasn't terrible, but there's so many aspects holding myself from enjoying the series more at this point that I can't give it too high of a recommendation. If you're already speeding through the series at this point, you might as well take the small amount of time to check out this season. However if you're somebody who stopped on the 3rd season and you're not sure about continuing- trust me- you've seen the best this series has to offer at the moment.

[] Final Verdict: Skip if you're not really interested.

I'll admit, it feels a little harsh giving such a young series a 3, but it's true to my feelings and at this rate I don't see the series lasting that long.

Earthchild is a new (at the time of writing) manga publishing in Shonen Jump. Before the series was released I remember there being quite a bit of intrigue surrounding its announcement. Nobody had any clue what it'd be about; the previews didn't give much info, and the promotional illustration was just some guy hugging the Earth. Once the first chapter dropped my first reaction was "A superhero series? Feels a little late to the ... game", but then as it went on it turned into a surprisingly interesting romantic drama. By the end I thought it was a good chapter, however there was just one issue: I still had no idea what the series was meant to be.

It felt like a one-shot, you could've ended it where it stopped and I'd be completely content. I left that opening chapter scratching my head, trying to predict what direction the story was headed since it didn't really leave me any clues.

...

We're now 7 chapters in and I still don't know what the series is trying to accomplish. It takes itself too seriously to be a comedy, despite having a set-up that feels perfect for one (Dad with a super-powered Baby? That's just Jack-Jack from the Incredibles, sign me up). It also doesn't work as anything else since the series can't seem to stick to anything for more than a chapter.

Government wants to take the baby? Well it turns out only the father can keep the child under control, so that's that.

Baby's using its powers to harm people? Don't worry the father gets it under control and has the baby to understand not to do it anymore.

Every door Earthchild opens for itself, it immediately closes and locks shut. What's left over feels tedious to read and lacking in momentum. The main character has no prerogative outside of protecting his child, and things seem far too easy for him despite the situation he's in being very alienating and oppressive, leaving me to question what the stakes are.

None of the other characters are remotely memorable or interesting outside of one who appears in the first chapter and isn't seen again for plot reasons... until recently. That sounds like it should be a good thing since I just said they're the only other memorable character, but in the context of the plot it completely kneecaps the emotional stakes of the first chapter and leaves me wondering how much time this series has left if its decided to shift gears like this.

The one good thing (outside of the solid first chapter) that I can give this manga is the art. It's drawn very nicely and the characters are expressive.

While I'm definitely not enjoying Earthchild, I'm stubborn enough to see it through to the end. I will be exceptionally surprised if it manages to turn itself around, but I'm not very optimistic about that happening. I think this was a one-shot that should've stayed a one-shot.

[] Final Verdict: Not recommended

To summarize how I feel about Dorodororon in just a few short words: "It's just too decent".

The current landscape of battle shonen is rife with series about humans battling with or battling against demonic beings, and has been for ages. To stand out in such a crowd is difficult and requires a good mix of sticking to what makes the battle genre work, while also offering a unique hook that grabs the reader's attention.

Dorondororon succeeds (for the most part) with the former- it's competent, but far from unique. The author understands what makes a battle shonen tick, and works within a comfort zone that, ... while not boundary pushing, makes for a decent week-to-week read that is easy to follow and entertaining enough to not become boring straight away. It relies on tried and true tropes, but compared to some of the failed battle manga I've read, it at least understands how to use them.

On the flip side, Dorondororon lacks a strong hook; what it does has been done before many times through battle manga history, and to make matters worse, is already being done by a more successful, currently ongoing series in the same magazine (Jujustu Kaisen). With direct competition to compare it to, Dorondororon's lack of a hook- or identity, becomes all the more apparent. You can get by without a hook by being really good, but merely being competent isn't enough, because when that fails, what's left to hold the reader over?

During the past couple of months, the series has rushed into many story beats that felt too soon, too short, and questionable in concept. One of the early characters who felt like a key member of the team was pushed aside for a brand new cast of side characters, who each feel like thinly veiled attempts to capture the appeal of similar characters from other currently successful battle-manga (cough, Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen, cough). Instead of keeping to its own pace like it was early on, it now feels like the series is desperately trying to catch up with its peers when it should still be establishing itself.

There's also the matter of the art, which while not bad per say, leaves a lot to be desired. There's a sense of stiffness the series hasn't been able to shake, and fights lack a dynamic flair that even its peers were able to do during their humble beginnings. Characters can be expressive, but much like the action, faces tend to be very stiff and often mask-like. The over-all aesthetic is fine, and I think there's some solid visual designs, but the series' is definitely lacking in the visual department.

It's too early to say if the series has delivered its own killing blow or not, but my confidence and interest in it has certainly dwindled over the past few chapters. I'll give the author props if they can recover, but for now I'd suggest holding off from starting this series.


[] Final Verdict: Wait a year and see if it's still around.