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The other reviews for Lupin III Part 5 are overwhelmingly positive, so I decided to offer a different opinion that explains why I found the series pretty disappointing. I've seen quite a lot of Lupin over the years, so I've learned to identify which elements of the characters and their adventures I enjoy the most. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about Part 5 is that all through its run, it looked like it was aiming for the exact flavour that I love, but something was always missing.

In Part 5, Lupin and his gang are having adventures in France, the home country of Lupin's famous grandfather. ... Technology and especially social media play a big part this time. While Lupin has always adapted to the technology available, this is the first time that it's getting such a focus. I wasn't sure how to feel about this at first since I like Lupin because of the sleek, classic feel of the franchise, but the social media aspect was actually used in a clever way that felt natural. The Lupin Game that was introduced in the first story arc was especially fun.

I'll start by listing everything that I think the series did well. From a technical standpoint, the series is amazing. The backgrounds bring the locations to life, especially all the little back alleys in French towns and quiet countryside with its fields and villages. I don't think the world of Lupin's adventures has ever looked this good, even in movies. The animation and character designs are also impressive and retain a high quality all through the series. While certain scenes or episodes are better animated than others, there weren't any moments where I noticed a clear drop in quality. Combine the visuals with a great soundtrack by Yuji Ohno and the Lupin experience is nearly perfect.

Another thing that I think made Part 5 stand out positively is the group of new side characters. Ami is the young hacker girl with a tragic past who becomes involved in Lupin's adventures and brings some fresh perspective to the group. Out of the new characters, she plays the most important part in the overall plot, and it's lovely to see her grow and find herself as the series progresses. There are some details in her story that some viewers might find tiresome and trite, but the series never takes this far enough to make it truly tasteless. Another new character is Albert d'Andrésy, a mysterious man who knows Lupin's past. I can't really say much more without spoiling the story arc in which he plays a major part, but he was entertaining, particularly well voiced, and brought some interesting elements to the franchise since we very rarely get any backstory for Lupin. The third new character, Zenigata's new partner Yata, is a welcome addition and fun to watch because of his reactions to everything, but I wish he'd gotten to play a bigger part.

Finally, I think Part 5 had a lot of cool, fresh ideas that it brought to the table. Part 4 already changed the formula somewhat by introducing an on-going plot rather than featuring just self-contained episodes. Part 5 takes it further with tightly plotted story arcs that slowly push the main story onwards. The stakes are higher than in any other Lupin TV series and watching Part 5 is an exciting experience that makes you feel absolutely anything could happen to the characters.

Unfortunately, I don't think the series ever really fulfilled that promise. After a while it became clear to me that even though the series liked to introduce new ideas and tease the possibility that it'd reveal something revolutionary about the characters and push them beyond the usual limits, it never had the guts to deliver. The series raises interesting questions but never answers them, instead burying them as soon as the story arc is over. For example, the second story arc hints at things in Lupin's past and the Lupin bloodline that could shake the foundation of the franchise, but the series never touches on these ideas again after casually dropping them in dialogue.

One of the central themes is Lupin's relationship with the rest of his gang, particularly Fujiko, and this is where the biggest disappointment for me lies. Those expecting Fujiko to be part of the gang's adventures and play a big role in the series, lower your expectations right now. She's absent for most of the series, and there are frequent hints that something happened between her and Lupin that drove them apart. You don't get the answer to this question until the very end, and I didn't find it satisfying, especially when keeping in mind that the price to pay was not seeing Fujiko in action except for a couple of episodes around the middle of the series. Lupin and Fujiko spend most of their scenes together exchanging wistful dialogue that is clearly meant to be deep but just comes across as too try-hard.

I think the story arcs drop in quality one after another. The first one is easily the best because it delivers a coherent story and ends at a point that feels natural and deserved for all the characters. It's the only one that gets five episodes rather than four, and that gives it more time to develop its story and characters. I enjoyed the second one a great deal when I first watched it, but the series never returned to the elements and potential it introduced there, making the second arc feel like it doesn't belong among the others. I didn't enjoy the third one much because I feel it was the spot where the series should have resolved its Lupin and Fujiko plotline, but instead it prolonged it by pushing her aside for no good reason just to keep the questions unanswered until the end. I know others loved the action, political themes and Ami's character growth, though, so there might still be something in the third arc for you. The only arc I'd describe as a total failure is the last one because there is simply way too much material to be covered in just four episodes. The arc rushes through a lot of elements that I think needed more time to be effective and instead chooses to focus on random cameos by old characters, badass action scenes, and meta about who Lupin is, and eventually reaches an ending that I feel is a lazy cop-out in every way. It's similar to the ending of The Woman Called Fujiko Mine in the way that it gets you invested in the questions it raises about the characters and then tells you that actually, none of this matters enough to be resolved because we're all just in for a fun ride, right? So whether you like the ending of Part 5 will probably depend on whether you liked the ending of the Fujiko series.

One element that I didn't enjoy at all (but which a lot of other fans loved) was the number of random cameos by old characters and the clear attempt to build continuity between Part 5 and all other entries in the franchise. Personally, I have always chosen to see most Lupin titles as their own thing with no connection to the others. The way Part 5 tries to tell me that its Lupin is the same one from The Castle of Cagliostro, all the other TV series and a few random TV specials breaks the world in my eyes because Lupin comes in many different flavours and they aren't all consistent with each other. At the same time, the series never goes full meta like Green vs. Red, so I'm not sure what the creative team was trying to do here.

The story arcs are separated by one-off episodes that play homage to earlier versions of Lupin. Some of these episodes are great, some not. Personally, I would have rather seen these episodes spent on deepening the plot and characters of the main story, but I can't deny that there were some gems among them. In particular, I liked the silly Pink Jacket episode and the sniper battle episode with Jigen.

So, all in all, I don't think Part 5 is without merit and it's certainly a complete pleasure to look at and listen to. The plot and character themes were interesting in theory, but the way they were handled left me completely disappointed. I really miss the fun adventure feel that a lot of earlier entries in the franchise offer. I'm not opposed to taking a bleaker look at the gang's dynamics, but Part 5 spends too much time telling you that it's exploring those themes without actually doing it. I think the movie The Secret of Mamo is a much better example of how to shake the core dynamics of the group.

Despite all this, I hope we will return to this continuity and characters in the future. I think there's still lots of potential to be explored and the series made me care about its new characters. But knowing how the franchise operates, it could very well be that we never hear from them again, at least outside cameos.

Icon by Mariko Nekono has an interesting premise - Akito Shinoyama is a detective whose wife died in mysterious circumstances five years earlier, and the case has never been solved. In present day, Akito solves difficult cases with the help of his brother in law, Toma, whom he took under his wing after his wife's death. Toma has supernatural abilities that help him locate missing people, but he can only use his powers if he's in pain. Since he and Akito have developed a romantic relationship, Akito is reluctant to let Toma assist him with his work as it comes with a great cost.

Sounds good, ... right? And it probably is if you like completely messed up relationships and characters who turn out to have horrible secrets. I couldn't bring myself to enjoy the manga one bit. Toma is unhealthily obsessed with Akito and their relationship is one of the most unbalanced I've seen in BL, and that says a lot. Neither character is sympathetic in any way, even after we learn more about them as people. In fact, they get progressively worse.

There is almost no effort put into the crimes the characters solve, and instead it's all about sex, angst and the puzzle pieces of Akito's wife's death coming together. I feel I must warn that if the premise made you expect really hardcore sex where Akito hurts Toma to activate his powers, there's nothing of the sort. The creepiness of this manga is entirely elsewhere, but I think it's pretty well handled. Some of you are probably already thinking that you know exactly who killed Akito's wife and why based on things I've said in this review, but the manga has a few interesting twists in store in that department.

I don't know if this is supposed to be a serious horror manga or some kind of bizarre comedy. There are moments where the characters turn into super deformed versions of themselves to act cute, and one page later we might be seeing messed up abuse. I've read other works by the mangaka - My Honey Express is one of my favourite BL titles ever - so reading this was quite a surreal experience.

The art is really nice, and there's a lot of detail in the sex scenes. If you want to read a BL manga that is creepy in ways other than one character raping the other, I absolutely recommend this. If you want sympathetic characters to root for, stay away.

Lupin the Third: Goemon Ishikawa's Spray of Blood lives up to its name by havings lots of blood in it, which is a good thing since it didn't meet most of my other expectations. What I wanted from this movie was a look at Goemon as a character because he has typically been sidelined in many of the other titles in the franchise. If that's what you're looking for, you'll have more luck watching The Fuma Conspiracy, Dragon of Doom, or certain episodes in any of the TV series because this says very little about Goemon.

If you've already seen the movie, then you might be ... disagreeing with me on this. Goemon has a lot of screen time, he struggles with a conflict unlike we've ever seen before, and the final scenes are his time to show off. But I have two major problems with how this was executed. One, we never learn anything about how Goemon is feeling, what he's thinking, or why he does anything directly from him. He barely talks to the other regular characters or interacts with them. Every insight into him is provided by Lupin's narration, even when there's zero logical reason for him to know the things he explains. As a result, Goemon comes off as very distant, barely a character. My second problem is that Goemon having such a crisis in the movie makes no sense. The fight that breaks his spirit is nothing out of the ordinary, but if it has such an effect on him, it makes you wonder if this is the first time in his life that he loses. I don't think they wanted to make the title character come off as a spoiled brat who's never had to face disappointment before, but that's what it looked like to me. If they'd presented this as Goemon being an arrogant upstart who learns a lesson, it would have had the potential to be great, but due to the emotional distance, it just doesn't work.

The plot is fairly incoherent as well. It starts off promisingly enough, with Goemon having been hired as a bodyguard for a mob boss whose casino Lupin, Jigen and Fujiko have decided to rob. The three are being targeted by a new character called Bermuda Ghost, a terrifying giant of a man who seems inhumanly unstoppable. Meanwhile, Zenigata is searching for Bermuda Ghost as part of an investigation.

Circumstances get all these characters mixed with each other, and soon it looks like we'll be following Goemon on a path of personal revenge and reclaiming his honour. But, due to the reasons mentioned above, it's not a very engaging path. The movie fails to wrap up most of its plot threads. We never learn who hired Bermuda Triangle and why. Zenigata's investigation goes nowhere and we never find out why the chief was trying to stop him, creating the feeling that his plot line existed only so that we could have some exposition on who Bermuda Ghost is. Goemon gets over his crisis due to a deus ex machina plot point that comes out nowhere and makes so little sense that Lupin has to explain it to the viewer. The revenge angle has no proper climax for anyone involved. Fujiko just walks out of the movie.

In short, I feel that the people who made this movie had lots of really cool ideas they wanted to include, but they didn't manage to create a story where the events follow each other logically. I think it might have benefitted from being longer so that it could have given some depth to its characters and tied up the plot more neatly. One of the elements I like best about the Lupin franchise is how the regular characters play off each other, and that is almost entirely missing here. We get a few amusing scenes with Lupin, Fujiko, and Jigen, but other than that it feels like the characters only exist to make the plot move onwards.

All that said, there were also elements that I enjoyed. The animation and colour design are great and make the movie beautiful to look at, the soundtrack is smooth, and there were a bunch of cool and entertaining scenes. The first half in particular worked and raised my expectations pretty high. The fight scenes were as brutal as the title promises, so if you like that kind of thing, this is definitely worth a watch just to see Goemon get beaten that badly. Since this is a direct continuation of Jigen's Gravestone, I assume there will be more movies taking place in the same timeline. Hopefully they'll do a better job of wrapping things up.

Minori no Te is a BL manga that I picked up because the premise sounded interesting and the art was gorgeous. The story tells about Minori Shigefuji who works as a chiropractor and offers his clients a little bit extra, if you get my meaning. Early on in the manga, we see him treat two clients who're both having issues, but the sex with Minori helps them relax and understand what they have to do.

If the manga had stayed like that and been a slice of life story in which Minori meets a new client in every chapter and helps them solve their problems with ... sex, I would have enjoyed this a lot more. After about two chapters, the artist introduces the idea that there is someone in Minori's past that he can't forget about, and we spend the rest of the story following the conflict that happens when Minori meets this person again. That in itself isn't a minus point because I prefer my BL with a plot, but unfortunately I felt that the conflict and the reasons for it were entirely disproportionate. When it was revealed what had caused the problems between Minori and his lover, I had to roll my eyes and wonder if Minori is going to run off and go into hiding if he burns the breakfast one morning. It felt like the artist really wanted to draw a dramatic and emotional reunion scene but forgot that in order for the reader to feel any emotions, they have to be invested in the story and characters first. Since the backstory was so dumb and made Minori suddenly seem like an utter idiot, it ruined most of my enjoyment of the manga. The potential was there, though, and I feel that with only a few adjustments, this could have been a much better title.

A special mention has to go to the sex scenes, of which there are plenty. We get to see Minori with three different men, and the medical office creates a setting and dynamics which are a little more exciting than usual. The art is very detailed and absolutely the highlight of the manga. If you want to see gorgeous men go at it and don't care so much about the story, then I fully recommend this title. If you're more like me and want a believable story and characters, this might not be your cup of tea.

Bukiyou dakedo Daisuki sa is a one-volume boys love story in which the majority of the chapters follow Iida and Torigoe who end up working together for the culture committee at their school. Iida has never been a fan of Torigoe because of his arrogant personality, but as time goes by, he discovers new sides of his classmate that he never expected.

The art is the highlight of the manga and one of the few positive things I have to say about it. It's slightly above average when it comes to BL, and all the characters are attractive and have distinctive designs. However, the story and ... the characters' personalities don't meet the same standard.

The first chapter of the manga follows Iida and Torigoe as their feelings develop. I can't remember the last time I read a manga in which I felt the relationship was as poorly developed as here. We see almost no worthwhile interaction between them before Iida is already angsting about why Torigoe means so much to him, and when he points out that he has learned to know unexpected sides of him, I had to wonder if I'd accidentaly missed a bunch of pages because I certainly hadn't seen those unexpected sides anywhere. Then again, the manga spends zero time establishing the characters in the beginning, so we never get to see much of Torigoe's normal sides either.

There's no real chemistry between the main characters, only forced clichés such as mistakenly thinking that the other is interested in a woman (who is of course only a friend), being afraid to be honest about their physical desires because the other might find it disgusting, and having a jealous fit when the other interacts with other people. There are a couple of explicit sex scenes to spice up the story, but I never enjoy sex scenes if I'm not emotionally attached to the characters, so they left me pretty cold here.

One detail I really liked was the brief glimpses we got of Iida's parents. Even though they only showed up twice or so, they felt much more interesting and funnier than any of the main characters. There were also some amusing scenes in the bonus story. I wish the manga had focused more on humour as the romantic and dramatic scenes didn't really work for me.

All in all, grab this manga if you want a paint-by-the-numbers BL story with nice art and some steamy sex scenes, but don't expect any real depth in the charactes or story. If you like the kind of BL where the main conflict is one character feeling insecure and thinking the other could never love him, only to be reassured otherwise in a dramatic fashion, you might enjoy this.

Lindbergh by Ahndongshik is one of the best manga series that I've ever read in my life. It's an adventure story full of amazing characters, quick action, mysteries and emotional moments that make you feel the characters' happiness and sadness. I wouldn't say it's ground-breakingly original - in fact, it follows many classic tropes but does so in a way that's entertaining. There aren't many manga that I've read with the feeling that my heart is going to burst out of my chest, but Lindbergh is definitely one of them.

This review contains a brief summary of the entire first volume of the manga because explaining ... the plot of the series is difficult without doing that. Other than that, there are no spoilers.

The main character is a young boy called Knit who lives in the country of Eldura. Flying is forbidden as a crime against the royal family, but Knit is fascinated by the sky and dreams of reaching it one day. His father was the same and used to build illegal flying machines until he died when one of them crashed. Now Knit lives alone with his best friend Plamo, a strange lizard creature. Their lives change forever when a mysterious man and his companion, a lizard similar to Plamo but much larger, crash near Knit's home and he discovers that Eldura is a flying island and that there's an entire world below them waiting to be explored. Together with the man - an air pirate called Shark - Knit leaves Eldura to see the world for himself.

The plot of the series keeps getting more and more epic as it progresses. What starts out as Knit's desire to discover new things quickly becomes a grand adventure involving air pirates, ancient mysteries, an evil empire bent on world domination and personal growth for many of the characters. There's an occasional dark edge in the story, such as when it touches on war, slavery or scientific experimenation on living beings, but at its heart it's a classic adventure story full of hope.

The series has a large cast of characters, but the two most important ones are Knit and Shark, the air pirate with a hidden agenda. The creator has clearly drawn some inspiration for these two from Treasure Island, particularly the late 70s anime version directed by Osamu Dezaki. Their relationship is similar, and Shark and John Silver share many characteristics. The other characters, most of them being either air pirates or officers in the imperial army, are also fascinating and get enough personality for you to care about what happens to them.

I have nothing but praise for the art in the series. It's clear and detailed and the characters have very expressive faces that show their shock, happiness, sadness, anger etc. wonderfully. Great care has gone into designing all the lizard creatures - called Lindberghs, which is where the name for the series comes from - that people use for flying. There are different breeds of them, all with their own physical features. The same attention to detail can be seen in the human characters. They're all different from each other, and the male characters in particular have great variety so that no two ever look the same. The female characters are fine as well, but they all have the same pretty face and slim body type, and the variation comes from slight changes in eye shape, hair, clothes and skin colour. I wish they showed as much originality as the male characters, but this is a slight complaint as they all have interesting personalities and roles to play in the story. My favourite was Loulou, one of the air pirates, because of her brash nature and how she matured as a person during the series.

The only complaint I have with the series is one that some people might see as one of its strengths. The story is very tight. Perhaps the author plotted the whole thing from start to finish before starting to draw because there's hardly a single moment that's not relevant to the plot and character development. That's not to say that there aren't quiet moments, but there's absolutely no padding. Normally, I would expect a story of this scope to take up at least 15 volumes, maybe more, but Lindbergh tells its story in just eight. The advantage is that you don't have to waste your time reading filler chapters about useless side quests or battles that last forever. The problem is that the minor characters and world get only as much development as is strictly necessary to make them interesting. I would have loved to spend more time with the characters and get to know their personalities and backstories better, and it was sometimes frustrating that the plot kept moving onwards faster than I wanted.

All in all, Lindbergh is a great manga that I recommend to everyone who wants to read a fast-paced adventure with an interesting spin on air pirates and who likes quirky and detailed art.

Lupin III: Princess of the Breeze - Hidden City in the Sky is like a cake that has beautiful icing but tastes bland. The plot summary and promo art raised my hopes pretty high, but this ended up being one of my least favourite Lupin TV specials. It tries too hard to be epic and touching and ends up accomplishing none of what it's attempting to do. There are individual scenes that are funny or well done, but there is rarely any natural flow between the events.

The premise is that Lupin and Jigen take an ugly baby along as they go on a new treasure ... hunting adventure. Well, there's also a European nation that went through a coup d'état, a rebel group consisting of people still loyal to the old royal family, a legendary treasure and an evil businessman pulling the strings, but none of that was particularly interesting or well-developed. Lupin, Jigen & ugly baby really were the best part.

As I said before, the movie's main problem is that it tries too hard. There are entirely too many characters in it, and most of them barely get anything more to them than a catch phrase that they repeat in a desperate attempt to come off as memorable during their short screen time. This is particularly obvious in the evil enforcer who leads the villain's men. There's also a completely unnecessary doctor character who really stands out as overly hammy and a princess character who does nothing. Now, the Lupin franchise rarely has new characters who are particularly memorable or interesting, but that's never a problem if the main cast gets to shine. More about that later.

With all the characters and the various plot points, there's enough material in this movie to fill a normal anime series. As a result, the movie just moves from one point to another without taking the time to develop anything properly. There was no time to get attached to the new characters, so when their done-by-the-book emotional scene came along, I didn't feel anything, except embarrassment that everything was so predictable. Perfect examples of this are when two characters sacrifice their lives to protect the others and when one of the villains has a break-down towards the end. The movie makes you watch a tired cliché after another and you can always tell what they're trying to make you feel, but it just doesn't come together.

The most cringe-worthy part for me was when the movie used the opening song from the Castle of Cagliostro as background music. That did nothing except highlight how Princess of the Breeze can't even hope to reach that level of quality.

With so many new characters, the only members of the Lupin gang who get to do anything are Lupin and Jigen. As usual, Goemon is written out of the plot for almost the entire duration of the movie, only to show up when there's a fight. However, the reason he leaves (twice!) is actually really charming and funny, so this time I give it a pass. Fujiko does disappointingly little (aside from positioning herself so that we get a good shot of her butt or boobs) as does Zenigata, even though he actually gets quite a lot of scenes.

The animation and backgrounds are mostly great and the characters look fine, even if they sometimes made me feel like they didn't belong in a Lupin title. I liked the detail put into the rebel group's clothing, which I think was supposed to be traditional to their country. The only visual part that bothered me was the car chase that was done with CGI because it stood out so much next to the 2D animation.

With all that said, the movie isn't total trash. There's enough to keep you interested, especially if you like stories about fallen royalty and their hidden treasures. It's mostly beautiful to look at and the beginning is quite enjoyable, about up to the part when the rebel hideout gets attacked. And as I said earlier, Lupin and Jigen interacting with the baby is quite fun. Seeing the baby pull Jigen's beard made the movie worth watching for me.

In short, I feel that this would have been better if it had been a series and if it had been an entirely original title without any connection to Lupin III. As it is, the Lupin characters don't get to spend enough time in the spotlight and it feels too much like they're supporting characters in somebody else's story. This isn't the only Lupin movie to have that problem, but that doesn't make me any more forgiving.

PS: I lied about the most cringe-worthy part. That was when the characters find out where the mysterious gem is hidden.

A-presto is a three-volume manga series by author Shiina Takasato and artist Naruse Tomine. It tells about two childhood friends who grow up in what appears to be pseudo-Italy in the 19th century and get involved in various supernatural and political incidents.

The story jumps around in time to tell about the characters' childhood and later life and connect these two sides of them. Rin, who has become a guard serving the noble class, keeps visiting his friend Karaku in his garden so that they can talk about their childhood. Early on, it's revealed that Karaku is in fact dead but that he's not aware of ... it. Rin's motive is to find clues about Karaku's murder by getting him to talk about the past and all the things they've experienced.

This is an interesting premise that could lead to an intriguing murder mystery with bits and pieces being slowly revealed through the characters' childhood memories. Unfortunately, the storytelling isn't very competent and it rarely feels like the individual chapters have much to do with the overall plot. They aren't enjoyable on their own either. I find it hard to imagine how it's possible to create something so utterly boring when you're working with tragic ghost stories and political intrigue. None of the supernatural sections in the series is in any way frightening or suspenseful, and the endings to the chapters are generally disappointing. The only chapter I found myself really liking was the one featuring the dead count and the white cat.

The characters aren't very memorable either. Apart from Rin and Karaku, there are only a few regular characters, but there's nothing interesting about them. The main leads themselves work in the roles they've been given, but just like the story, they're boring and bland. In a story about life-long friends where one of them has died, I expected to feel something for the characters, but apart from the very last pages, the series was a let-down in this regard. I just didn't get much life or emotion out of the numerous scenes in which they interacted, even though all the essential pieces were there. That "something" was just missing.

The art in the series is competent but not particularly memorable. It's pretty to look at and mostly focuses on the characters. The backgrounds feel a little empty at times, but there are occasional houses or interior designs that keep it interesting.

All in all, the series is an average read, but it fails at creating any suspense and making you emotionally attached to the main characters. At no point did I feel the need to keep reading to find out what would happen next, and that's an unforgivable sin for a mystery story.

Chiisana Viking Vickie is a children's series from the 70s. It follows the adventures of a group of vikings, each of which with their own quirks. The main character Vickie is the son of the viking chief, Halvar, and is considered a weakling and a coward by most people in the village. However, he's very clever and usually ends up saving the others with his quick thinking.

PLOT

There's no red thread from the beginning to the end. In about half of the episodes, the vikings are on their way to pillage some far-away land and take away everything worthwhile. Or, rather, this is their intention. ... Since this is a kids' series, it can't really show the protagonists being evil, violent thieves. As such, the vikings' raids usually get resolved in one of two ways: 1) when they arrive, someone else is already there causing trouble, so the vikings defeat this bigger villain and get a bunch of rewards from the grateful locals, removing the need to steal anything, or 2) the local king or chief is such a massive jerk that by the time the episode ends, the vikings are perfectly justified in taking something for all their trouble.

The other half of the episodes take place in the vikings' home village, Flake, and shows them dealing with domestic life, such as working in their vegetable fields or going to the market. It's a running gag that trouble often brews between the vikings and their nagging wives, with the wives usually winning whatever argument there is.

CHARACTERS

There's no particular character development for anyone in the series, but all the main characters have clearly defined personalities that stay consistent through the series. Even though the characters aren't very deep, you grow to care about them if you watch enough episodes because they're all funny and endearing in their own ways. All the characters get their moments to shine and in some cases even entire episodes dedicated to them. For me, the highlight of the series was the duo of Snorre and Tjure who're always bickering but are actually good friends.

The only annoying inconsistency I spotted was that there was an entire episode dedicated to finding a wife for Faxe, the dumb giant of the group, but his bride was never shown again after that episode. In fact, in a much later episode we see that Faxe is unmarried and in love with a totally different woman.

Vickie, who is the main character, stands out amongst the vikings by being far more intelligent than the others. Whenever there is trouble, he gets a brilliant idea that solves all their problems. Sometimes the ideas are actually clever and would work in real life, and sometimes they're reaching and/or entirely implausible. Vickie might be an annoying character with his fast wits if not for the fact that he's a coward who routinely runs away from danger or trembles in fright whenever things get bad. It makes him feel like a balanced character. On top of that, he's genuinely good-hearted and tries to reason with the others when they want to do something evil.

ANIMATION

The animation is simple and sparse, but since the character models aren't very complicated, the style and quality stay on the same level pretty much all the way through, with one exception. Short segments of the first episode are so crude and badly drawn that I simply can't understand what's up with them. Thankfully, there's no sign of this after that, and most of the time I felt that the animation worked perfectly for what they were trying to achieve. But the series definitely shows its age and won't awe you at any point.

MUSIC

I watched the series in German, so the background music was by Karel Svoboda. I think the Japanese version may have a different soundtrack. I have no sources for this, but I know some other old anime series that were shown with Svoboda's music in Europe had entirely different music in Japan. In any case, Svoboda was a genius and his music works perfectly here. It's upbeat and funny but can get dark or touching when needed.

OVERALL

This is a fun children's series from which you can watch pretty much any episode in any order, though there are sometimes multi-episode storylines. There's also no need to watch all of the episodes, either. In fact, watching all 78 episodes might make you sick of the series pretty fast, so I would suggest not marathoning it. But an episode every now and then is a nice snack, particularly once you begin to enjoy the characters and just want to see what weird things they end up doing next. The only episode I actively disliked was the very last one because I felt it went against established characterization and was a pretty weak, almost depressing way to end the series.

Since there are so many episodes, here are some of my favourites in case someone wants to give the series a try: 25, 26, 31, 32, 34, 44, 56, 59, 63, 68, 70.

Kaiketsu Zorro is a series that I think most people will either love or hate. If you watched it when you were a child or you like children's series in general, you will probably find it entertaining. If you're expecting a faithful Zorro adaptation or a mature story, you'll most likely be disappointed.

First things first, the creators of this anime have taken some liberties with the characters and premise. The basics are the same - Diego de la Vega returns home to Spanish California because his father is worried about the state of things and the corruption of the army. Diego realises that he can't ... fight the injustice openly, so he dons a mask and becomes an outlaw in order to stop the army from terrorizing the people. You will find a lot of the iconic Zorro elements in the series, such as a bumbling sergeant, a beautiful love interest who adores Zorro and sees Diego as a weakling, corrupt army officers and bandits and so on.

So, what's different? First of all, Zorro gets a young sidekick who also wears a mask and a cape and provides a lot of the comic relief for the series. Almost every main character is blond for some reason. Zorro's horse is white instead of black. Diego has no moustache, and when he dresses up as Zorro, it's mostly in white with a black cape. The legendary image of Zorro in all black cannot be found anywhere in the series. If these changes don't bother you, you might enjoy the wacky adventures and humour that the series provides.

CHARACTERS

The main cast consists of characters you'd expect to see in any version of Zorro, but they're a little different from usual. Most versions portray Diego's cover as a cultured intellectual who talks about philosophy and believes conflicts can be resolved through talking. Here, Diego is simply a loser. He spends his days napping in the sun and getting scolded and laughed at by all the other characters. This provides lots of funny scenes, but it can also be annoying. When he becomes Zorro, he's dashing and handsome and defeats his opponents in the blink of an eye, never forgetting to lecture them about justice.

Zorro's sidekick is a young boy servant called Bernard who works for the de la Vegas. In most versions, he's deaf/mute and an adult, but here he's a normal kid, maybe so that the target audience has someone to identify with. There's really nothing special to say about him, except that if you think the idea of a little kid tagging along on Zorro's adventures together with a bulldog is annoying (the bulldog also gets a mask!), you may want to consider if you want to watch this. However, toward the end of the series Bernard gets to have a few serious scenes that really make him stand out as a character.

The role of the love interest is played by Lolita, Diego's childhood friend who is openly disappointed by his laziness and cowardice. She's very opinionated and usually the first and only one among the citizens to object to the army's actions. Despite this, she has to be rescued on a regular basis because she keeps getting kidnapped and harassed in the streets whenever she goes out. Her constant nagging at Diego also gets tiring after a while, but there are enough scenes showing her good-hearted nature to make up for it.

A lot of the comic relief comes from the incompetent but good-hearted sergeant who goes by the name Garcia or Gonzales, depending on which language you're watching the series in. He's more or less the same as in any other version, except that he gets to play the hero and be cool towards the end of the series.

Finally, the villains. The main antagonist of the series is Commander Raymond who plots to overthrow the General-Governor and rule California himself. He's entirely ruthless and the only character in the series who never gets involved in the crazy nonsense that often engulfs the other characters. He mostly operates in the background and always manages to look good even when his plots fail, but those few times he decides to gets his hands dirty, he's a truly threatening figure.

Most of Raymond's schemes are carried out by his right hand man, Lieutenant Gabriel. He's arrogant and without mercy, but he becomes more and more difficult to take seriously as the series progresses because he's the butt of so many jokes. Eventually, he more or less forms a comedy duo with Garcia. However, the last few episodes get him back on track. Episode 44 is also interesting since it revolves around him and shows just how rotten he is inside.

PLOT

The series is very episodic and there isn't much of a story arc. A few side characters show up in several episodes, but other than that every episode is as if none of the previous events in the series had happened. The only significant event is the introduction of the corrupt British businessman Kapital as he shares the role of the main antagonist with Raymond for a while. However, episodes 47-52 pick up the plot, cut down on the humour and have continuity, which makes them among the best in the series.

ANIMATION

The animation varies greatly. Some episodes look horrible, but others are amazing and have such a Ghibli-style character design that I have to wonder just who animated them. Examples of such episodes are 31 and 51. Fighting scenes get recycled all through the series, but I guess that's nothing strange.

MUSIC

The opening and ending themes are great, but the music in the actual series is mostly forgettable and even boring.

OVERALL

If you don't mind that the series takes lots of liberties with the source material, you might enjoy it. It's light-hearted adventure with comedy sprinkled all over it, and with a few exceptions (such as episode 34 and the very last episodes) it never gets particularly deep or mature. But it's very good at what it wants to be, so I don't think it would be fair to blame it for not being something it never tries to.