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First off, let me state that I'm a huge fan of star wars. When it comes to reviewing the product, I try to be as neutral as possible, but undoubtedly, theres going to be bias there, as there is with anything. With that, lets see how this newest instalment to the cultural phenomenon stacks up.

It's good. Like pretty good actually. Now in my head, I had imagined this to be 9 long form products (movies or series) that would each be marked on their own merit, but I must of missed something somewhere. I was a little upset when I realised it was 9 short ... stories. But nevertheless, I hoped for the best.

Each short story has its own thing its trying to do, and they all do it to varying degrees of proficiency. The first is mostly an art piece based around the CGI, the 3rd is exactly what you would expect from trigger (hype, themes and good animation) etc etc. All except for the 9th one. The 9th one is weird. It has ideas on destiny and choice, but then seems to give a nihilistic ending. Now as far as i'm aware there is no second season planned. So this 9th episode is just very weird and I don't really understand the point of it.

It's hard to talk about any aspect on a consistent level as it varies from episode to episode. But for me: episode 1 was the best visually and atmospherically, episode 4 was the best on a music level, episode 7 was the best "star wars" episode and Episode 3 was the best overall. I really liked the aesthetic of episode 6 (sort of an Astro Boy feel), but the pacing was really fast on that one, which ruined my enjoyment a bit. Episode 8 was also really solid all around, and with a bit better execution could of been the best overall. A few episodes peak up to 10's in some aspects, and very few drop below a 5 or 6 on any. Most end in this sort of 7-8 range.

Overall, I'm pretty happy. I even would of liked to see some of these in more of a long form. I would happily sit down and watch a 13 episode series for episode 1 and 7, a movie for 3 and 8 etc. So yh, if you like star wars, give it a watch.

Slight spoilers ahead.

I’m on the record saying I didn’t think Megalo Box needed a sequel and that I don’t think a sequel could even do much. Boy, was I wrong, and i’ve never been happier to be wrong in my entire life. This season of Megalo box is a masterpiece. It takes everything good about season 1: setting, animation, aesthetic, and soundtrack, makes them better, then just makes everything else better while its at it. It improves on the established characters, introduces interesting new ones, and has a more engaging story, all while being thematically brilliant.

This season improves upon every character, showing the effects of ... the previous season on them, but also producing new arcs for certain characters that feel incredibly organic, but also personal and emotional. This season is significantly more “noir” in feel then the first season, so much so that the opening looks like it could be attached to something like reservoir dogs, and the characters reflect this. They are selfish and quite often do the wrong thing for their own personal benefit, both emotional and financial. Joe himself is especially standout in this season, which given the level of character writing is very impressive. They take previously established ideas about his character, such as his drive to feel alive within the fight, but also using the ring to move forward in his life, and deconstruct these elements to show how these ideas can negatively impact him and the people around him. The other stand out character for me this season was Chief. Chief is a character we meet early on who helps get both the story and joe’s character arc rolling, while being a thematically brilliant character. His and Joe’s dynamic is one of my favourites of all time.

Story wise, this season is very different from the first. Whereas the first was a simple underdog story focusing completely on the sport, Megalo boxing takes a major backseat in this season, used only for character progression. It becomes a true character story, with almost a seinen feel to it. Now for some who came for the boxing itself, this may be a drawback, but for me it most definitely wasn’t. A strong focus on the themes and characters within the narrative allowed for far more emotional moments then the first and has seriously endeared me to characters within the story this time round. Without spoiling too much, the story is simply about joe hitting rock bottom and what he wants to do now he’s here and this story helps explore many of the character's from a completely different angle from before, which helps keep the season feeling incredibly fresh and new, despite being a sequel.

The visuals of this anime are just amazing. This is a superbly directed anime, with an incredibly unique and engaging visual style that really helps set it apart as something different. While it may not always have the insane sakuga moments of many a shonen out there, that’s not to say they don’t flex their artistic muscles at all, because they do. There is still plenty of moments of brilliant sakuga to be seen, made ever more appealing by the brilliant directing and visual style. One visual motif omnipresent within the season is the hummingbird, which is used to great effect within the anime as a symbol of home and a visualisation of what people are fighting for. Everything from the style, direction, cinematography and visual motifs are great.

The soundtrack. What to say about the soundtrack. Mabanua is a genius. The soundtrack of season 1 was already brilliant and one of my favourites, but he somehow made it better. With this effort, Mabanua has easily cemented himself as one of my favourite musicians within the industry. On top of that, the voice actors give an amazing performance and everything within the sound production is solid. Genuinely nothing to complain about, and a lot to love.

And to top it off, it’s also thematically brilliant. It uses the first seasons ending to bring forward these ideas of dreams and how joe has impacted the world but uses the same characters that have been impacted by these dreams joe has shown them to show the importance of its other theme, home. This inner duality is present within all the main characters, but also within a lot of the world building. The show also tackles other themes, such as drug abuse and physical trauma within athletes, immigration and morality issues within the realm of technological progression. Its an incredibly diverse, but compact and tight thematic piece that sticks to these themes above all else.

I can already tell there will be people who think the ending is anti-climatic, and while I understand why they think this, I think this is the only ending that really makes logical and thematic sense and they definitely didn’t drop the ball on these aspects. As far as this “version” of the ending goes, it definitely did it well. This season got me emotionally many a time throughout all the season and has been an absolute treat to watch every week. This will be my choice for anime of the year.

Spoilers ahead

Osamu Tezuka was a veritable giant within the manga/anime industry and left an equivalent legacy behind when he passed in 89’, but his most iconic work to this day remains Astro boy. Pluto is a seinen adaptation of the aforementioned Astro boy, written primarily by Naoki Urasawa and despite having to live up to one of the mostly widely known manga of all time, it not only accomplishes it, but surpasses it with ease. In Pluto, Urasawa wields Astro boy’s world to create a thematically profound tale that encompasses themes of war, race, human nature and its central theme, Hope vs Hate. In 65 ... short chapters, Urasawa achieves what most manga can’t in 150, with a stellar cast, an interesting and engaging mystery and consistently amazing art that feels so nonchalant its almost laughable.

The story starts off with the destruction of one of the 7 most powerful robots in the world and the murder of a human, both of which, it is soon discovered, could have only been done by a robot. However, due to the 3 laws of robotics that govern the robots in this world, its nigh-impossible for a robot to kill a human and has only happened once in recorded history. And as such, we have the central mystery of the story, which spans the entirety of the manga. Like most of Urasawa’s works, Pluto has a habit of shortly detouring to explore characters and ideas before tying them back in to the central storyline, often switching protagonists by doing so. This can be a double-edged sword, as switching to a less interesting protagonist then the central one can lower one’s engagement with the story, especially within a story like Pluto, with an amazing protagonist already within there. Pluto pulls it off regardless. Without spending to long on the characters, Pluto uses this style of storytelling to great effect to keep the story fresh and flesh out the characters when needed, but without overstaying its welcome within these side plot points. Overall, this tight narrative allows the story to explore everything it wants to, but without ever wasting your time.

The characters of Pluto are nothing short of the amazing. Our central protagonist, Gesicht, has proven to be one of my favourite protagonists of all time and remains in my personal top 10 characters to this day. His journey is a thematically profound and emotionally resonant piece that really brings the story to a whole new level. Even without an amazing supporting cast, Gesicht alone would carry the character section for me. However, he’s not alone. The rest of the main cast includes Atom, Pluto, and Abdullah. All of which are amazing characters in their own right. One thing that binds the main cast is hate. As mentioned before, hope vs hate is a central theme of Pluto and these ideas can be found in each of the main cast, and drives much of their actions. However, this hate isn’t just from anywhere, each character has his own past, usually tying into the emotional catalyst of this story, the war between U.S. of Tharcia and Persia. War is hell, and Pluto drives this idea home, showing just how deeply the war affected not only our main cast, but much of the side cast as well, specifically the other 5 strongest robots in the world. Outside of the robot cast, we find two of our most important characters, Dr. Tenma and Dr. Ochanomizu, who once again embody this duality of hope and hate. Dr. Tenma is an especially interesting characters whose self-loathing and hatred corrupts his mindset into the belief that to be human is to hate. Dr. Ochanomizu offsets this, and after the war has set his mind to trying to make the world a better place, even if the kindness is as small as fixing an abandoned robot dog. These character, plus plenty more, such as Brau-1589, Uran and Adolf Haas make this cast one of Urasawa’s best and one of the best in manga full stop.

Urasawa’s art and panelling has always been at least consistently strong, and Pluto is no exception. His panelling remains consistent and easy to follow, even if its not especially inventive or unique. In fact, one criticism that can be levied towards Urasawa’s art is, while consistently good, it hardly ever peaks in the same way other stories do. However, Pluto offsets this trend and allows Urasawa to really flex his creative muscles, producing some of his absolute peaks for his art. One such aspect is Urasawa’s architectural panels. With the futuristic cities in Astro boy, Urasawa’s talent is really let loose on the panels of different cities. It also can’t be ignored just how unique and effective his style of character art is. Their slightly exaggerated features give them a sense of realism, but also uniqueness that immediately allows you to recognise them as one of the Urasawa’s characters and drive home the idea that these are real people.

However, the themes of Pluto are really where this manga shines. In a 65-chapter manga, you can only do so much. You don’t have the endless content to explore characters in the same way other stories do, so you need to create impact in another way, and the perfect way to do this is through thematic execution. And Pluto doesn’t even slightly miss. Human nature, war, race conflict and most importantly, hope vs hate. Every character and theme serve to enforce this hope vs hate conflict, which crescendos in the final chapter. There is no fix all solution here, there’s just the faint hope. That maybe, just maybe, by one person’s decision at a time, we can overcome our own hatred.

Overall, I adore this manga. It hits every note it needs to and never really misses. And that's why you should go read it. Even if it doesn't live up to the hype i've given here, it's only 65 chapters, you'll be done in no time.

Ok, lets try and make as much of a non-biased review as possible shall we. The problem with this manga is that by the nature of its story, it became heavily, heavily divided in terms of fandom. I wont spoil too much, but the fandom split into two main camps, and one camp didn't have it go the way they wanted to. Therefore, the story is now terrible in their eyes. Personally, from a writing perspective, the last arc and its finale could of been done better. If it was done better, id give it a 10 for story. But it isn't terribly written. (small ... spoilers ahead).

Story: 9

The story is incredibly well done for the most part. I kinda feel like I'm disrespecting it by giving it a 9 because of just how well the mystery plays out and how great some of the arc's are. I'm mainly not giving it a 10 because of the finale, but honestly, when I look back on this, theres a chance i'd give it a 10. The world building is stellar, the characters individual stories flow brilliantly together and the setting both pre and post time skip is fantastic. Details are foreshadowed as early as at the start of the story and then revealed as late as the last chapters. A lot of thought and care has been put into the story and it shows. Normally, such a mystery type story would lose impact on the second read, but surprisingly it doesn't. It does have plot holes and pulls plot points out of thin air sometimes, but for the most part, it doesn't affect the story too much. Before the final arc, the themes and tone are very well handled, but it loses it on the final arc and the ending.

Characters: 9

Previous to the last chapter I would of probably given this a 10. Even with the last chapter, I would of given this a 10 if it were not for Eren's execution in the final arc. Still, the characters in this story are incredibly well done. Some have character arcs that span the whole series and are very well handled, some have shorter arcs which can be just as impactful. Nearly every character, even characters I thought were one note/comic relief at the start, receive at least some development throughout the story. The story has produced some of my favourite characters of all time, so its hard for me to bad mouth it, but Eren's handling in the last arc is quite bad. His characters development makes sense, it was just handled quite badly to the point where a lot of people didn't see it coming, so they were annoyed instead of sad.

Art: 7

Honestly. Isayama isn't great at drawing for a few volumes at the start. He does manage to improve steadily, and by the end, his art is pretty decent. He gains a good understanding of when to use double spreads for impact and the panels where he focuses on his art are usually great. His style also allows for a good amount of facial expression, allowing some of the more subtle characters to be characterised really well. He also places a large amount of emphasis on the eyes, which works to great affect.

Enjoyment: 9

I still love this series. Even with the meh writing, the ending was still emotional for me. This story isn't perfect, but the people review bombing this now are just angry more then anything. The thing you should take from that is how well this story is able to entrance you in its world. Its made some people so mad that when it didn't go the way they wanted it to, they brought it down from a 10 to a 1, that's how invested they were.