Shadowstripe Reviews

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest (2019–2024)

disjoined story with massive pacing issues !

[3/10 · 19 March 2024]

I found myself stopping and restarting this show because it was so mind numbing I was finding it hard to focus on what was going on.

First up it does the old "out of order" /flashback storytelling which is good when your content is compelling, here not so much it just makes it muddled and hard to follow.

It will often have an entire episode that is nothing but fluff like a bossfight that just goes on and on and on and on and on and then maybe has 30 seconds of anything meaningful to push the plot.

Show, your edgelord guy isn't compelling enough to carry the whole show on his back using fighting skills alone.

The artstyle is bad, its mostly the same copy paste gloomy dungeons filled with terrible quality 3d monsters, some of the anime characters are cute though.

Most of the characters are boring, the main character screams bellows talks to himself in a way that is cliche, not new or entertaining.

The whole show feels like it's treading water, lacking plot and mostly just boss fights, example episode 5 rehashes the first 4 episodes and one of those episodes is just a boss fight ... why ? #padding #filler

Now the elephant in the room or metal spike "in" a dragon as it were in this case, I can't believe it was part of the same show, it's super wrong but actually plays into the characters personality kinda works, is played for laughs and the only reason I gave it any stars at all.

This one is maybe watch season 1 pisode 9 otherwise Skip it.

Shomin Sample (2015)

not gripping ...

[4/10 · 17 February 2024]

Quick look at the reviews (all 4 of them) are all rated above 8 ... guess they can't be commoners !

The show is about the only boy attending an all girls school who has to pretend to be obsessed with men or lose his "privileges" (both of them) as a man.

So the main unfunny "joke" about this show will run over and over into the ground is all the school attendees are 'upper class ' (read idiots) though I don't think it ever calls them upper class but does call regular people commoners.

The spin is that he upper class instead of seeing themselves as superior and looking down on them, they are infatuated by the commoners, imagine a person that has to dress and cook for themselves? That doesn't have servants ? That pays for this using money from their own pockets wow ! Fascinating ! Commoners are so cool.

What strikes as even more odd the upper class people are supposedly so far removed from society they don't even know of simple things such has a travel pass, a cellphone and are awestruck by stuff like this, I don't know who or why anyone would force a group of people to live under a rock that hard making them completely unprepared for real world?

Not joking scenes like that, explaining how dumb all the girls are happen too often, go on for too long and just aren't funny.

One example I don't care how isolated form normal society someone is, no one is naive enough to believe rolling on the floor and barking like a dog will grant wishes.

One other creepy thing about this show is one of the characters constantly strips out of her clothes and starts writing on a floor / wall /whatever and to double down on the creep she is supposed to be the same age as the rest of the school attendees except looks to be about half that. (at least according to the eng dub)

the ecchiness/fanservcice with other (less creepy) characters is pretty low, sometimes maybe happening once per episode and most of the time is not much more than pantsu shots.

The comedy and jokes aren't great and so far has yet to even get a smirk from me, I would have given this an average 5 if it didn't have boring scenes with no value that just seem to dragged on so its a 4/10

if you got to pay money to watch this one give it a pass.

Rick and Morty: Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie (2023) Season 7, Episode 8

entertaining, intelligent, nuanced, interesting

[1/10 · 6 December 2023]

This episode was none of the above, I disliked this enough to dust off my IMDB account after years to come here to talk about how much I disliked it !

Sins this episode commits for no reason ..

lack of rick, I think it can make sense in a story way "rick has been captured so this episode has no rick" but even in the old format we would have a cut away B plot to captured or holiday rick! Or whatever, no, not every episode has to have a B plot but there is no reason for no rick here in a show called rick and morty?

Bringing back pointless characters, there are loads of characters they could have visited that would be more interesting than Ice-T which was an unfunny pun at best that didn't really deserve anymore screen time, we could have had a Gearhead, bird-person, Zeep Xanflorp or even Jerry headrick episode? Instead we are stuck watching this, because characters with unfunny pun names that are made out of letters " lol " I guess?

The story is pointless and boring, and no a story dosn't always have to go somewhere or be part of a bigger arc but it at least has to be interesting, I just can't explain how uninvested I was in the letter people, their entire race could have been wiped out and I would not have cared.

Some episodes have you glued to your seat, feel like they end way too soon, this one had me checking the clock, I saw someone saying it this could have been written by AI but I think AI would probably write better than this.

This one was called in and I really hope they don't do more like it.

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)

thoroughly enjoyed it!

[9/10 · 21 May 2022]

Full of subtle adult humor but nothing crass that you couldn't also take the kids to watch, really fun for all ages, I think from the amount of hidden Easter eggs this may even be worth watching a few times just to spot them all!

The effects were a little sketchy in places like where they have 3d and 2d character interaction with real objects (juggling) otherwise was highly polished. (Dales cgi model was super cute and lovable!)

Story was a simple one but still enjoyable to watch, the humor decent, I really think it's self aware but that might get lost on some.

I almost can't believe this is Disney due to it lacking politics and having a south park character show up in the background when SP openly mock them!

Overall if you hate memes probably skip this one otherwise you will probably have a good bit of fun and get a few chuckles.

Addressing the critics ! I honestly don't care that they recast the voice actors there were probably reasons for it, a show I haven't watched in maybe 20 years I can let that slide, also just because it mixes cartoons and live action does not make it a "roger rabbit" bootleg!

Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 (2017 Video)

I didn't like it

[5/10 · 2 November 2021]

This felt way too short and the plot basically a deus ex machina and the ending more or less leaves the universe how it started.

To pad the review out a lot didn't make sense to me.

Why make a new series of nexus without an expiration date ? It was supposed to be the fail safe ! Asking for trouble.

Why would humans basically go on an all out war hunting these new nexus? Considering blade runners exist for this purpose?

Where are the blade runners, we don't see any and it's supposed to be upto them to take these nexus out ?

Don't they have any kind of way to restrict nexus models coming to earth ? Really ? I assume they would have to come in through some kind of a port ?

Really it was too short and the plot felt way too simple and resolved way too easily but ultimately the story left the world how it began just with different names.

Critters Attack! (2019 TV Movie)

Critters 5? : They're woke?

[3/10 · 13 March 2021]

Its not so bad? you know? that was my thought right up until maybe the last 20 or so minutes.

no good or relatable male characters, none! of the 4 main characters 2 are male, one is the bratty younger brother type the other is a mute...

actually there is only a single good male character in the entire movie I can think of he seem to have some charm, is hansom and is then almost immediately used nay devoured in a bit of slapstick. it did get a laugh but I am unsure if this was the intention.

lore breakers?

the critters could always bite and would take chunks out of people now when one bites unless its a designated kill their teeth don't even leave a mark.

they fire poison darts that are supposed to near knock a person out but for whatever reason these are just darts don't do jack but "look cool" when they are sticking out of your neck and you can just leave them in there, what harm can they do?

bountyhunters or lack of them, a "hunter" of sorts is introduced pretty early on with zero explanation or depth, she isn't an alien or at least its never stated, seems to originate on earth, just exists with intricate knowledge of the "crites" and somehow has weapons specially designed to kill them.

introduced a new weakness to sound for no reason. they already have a weakness to bullets, I figured it was going to be macguffin to use the schools PA system to make sound/kill them all but that just never happened so why ?

the worst of them all... the female critter! she looks like something you would see from a furry fanart

critters have always laid eggs but this is the first time we are ever seeing this (implied only one of) female critter, but but I was willing to give it a pass but...

female critty is faster, bigger and stronger than all the other 'boy critters' can easily take out a whole room of them alone, is also a "goodie"and a princess too because why not?

ohh and her mission and probably as much plot this movie has.. "you came to earth to stop all the baddie boy critters"

the ending is extremely anti climactic too, the hunter shows up the critters all get into a convenient ball and are shot in an offscreen, fade to black, roll the credits, we're done! not even an after-shot showing them covered in critter goop or anything, would have been a prefect time for the hunter to call in a clean up crew and explain ANYTHING about her...

overall the story wasn't great, not sure if intentional but feel what little plot and characters the movie did have seemed female centric, I watched the old critters movies a bunch, won't be rewatching this one.

Dr. Stone (2019– )

good premise but falls off a cliff

[4/10 · 17 February 2020]

The first handful of episodes are great! pretty much wow! compelling mystery, why have people turned to stone, what kind of adventures are these two people going to have trying to rebuild society or just survive in this unpopulated post apocalyptic world !!

Where I think the story started to go down hill was In one of the first episode's they talk about how "we can't just go reviving anyone, what happens if they turned out to be a killer?"

The very first person they are forced to revive due to a continent plot device and one of only two people they actually ever revive! turns out to be said killer.

I was still in at this point!, I thought it was still interesting but the writers for whatever reason decided to drop the companionship ignoring two of the characters and bonds they setup just to follow Senku as he tries to woo a village because he is amazing and knows _everything_ ever since he was a little kid.

the village that has survived for 3000 years?...

founded by extremely intelligent people (astronauts) in an age where all current technology exists, 3000 years later has not developed forwards from the current levels of technology into a huge city as it should. It instead devolves into a tiny village lacking even the basic of technology.

they should have tech! books and stuff still existed when the astronauts landed, in 3000 years it's population should be in the millions at the least!! but alas seems they were just sitting around all this time twiddling their thumbs dying from disease or whatever waiting for Senku to show up and save them because Senku is amazing and did I mention he knows everything?

its going down hill fast now, abandon plot! while we do stuff at this pointless village that should be bigger and more advanced since it has been around 3000 years and we do it for probably over 10 episodes!

Forget saving the stone people, forget your 2 friends, forget the big bad like him go around killing all the statues he wants because they don't look like the right kind of people.... how you can tell from how they look I don't know?

anyway in summery the village feels like an excuse to instantly inject lots of random characters at once, inject story filler without actually advancing the plot all while ignore things like established characters, the main bad guy etc and lasts way too long

starts out strong but goes downhill, couldn't finish it, overall mostly average 4

Overlord (2015–2022)

its ok, probably could have been better

[5/10 · 18 August 2019]

The main character is so overpowered as a max level rpg player gone full "no lifer" he owns every rare epic legendary godlike item that has ever existed in the game, nothing is a challenge, he is pretty much the Sherlock Holmes of rpgs, he can understand explain and counter any setup just without any of his flaws.

minor gripes some of the rpg mechanics aren't consistent, in one episode the overlord has to equip a cham to grant himself the power of flight in another he simply calls out a spell name. also for a necromancer his spell types seem all over the place and not really restricted to necromancy magic.

in my opinion the worst thing part about this show it could have been set 100% in an actual fantasy world about the last 'supreme being' waking from a slumber in his tomb finding all the other 'supreme beings' had left and be nothing todo with a guy sucked into an rpg and nothing would be lost. not to say that is a bad thing but the rpg premise is wasted.

first season was at least semi interesting you have the evil overlord type guy actually being the good guy for a change, the trapped in an rpg as an undead but my interest was lost somewhere in the second season where it seemed they weren't going anywhere with it.

Chappie (2015)

wasn't bad but could have been better

[5/10 · 27 September 2018]

Just going to list a one a few gripes with this movie, others have more comprehensive reviews.

chappie is probably one of the only likeable characters!

chappie's creator spends maybe 5 minutes tops interacting with chappie (and I am being generous), gives him a book, a chicken and this is somehow long enough to create some kind of bond? most dialogue between him and chappy boils down to greetings, saying "I am your creator" and addressing chappie, every time he goes to visit the badguys they throw him out!! its hilarious, and he usually leaves yelling things like "he is mine" and morally motivating things like "don't do bad!"

the only other characters chappy gets to bond with and the criminals that for some inexplicable reason he likes after they tried to get him killed and lied to him about almost everything repeatedly! and he somwhow still feels a bond towards them.

too many convenient plot points and the ending was a little meh too, they could have ended it at the grave, think that part afterwards and the usb drive didn't need to exist

Altered Carbon (2018–2020)

Impressive visuals, very watchable but not edge of your seat stuff

[4/10 · 14 July 2018]

While I enjoyed the show as a whole it seemed like it had issues.

I didn't mind the violence or the nudity but feels like they had tried their hardest to make Takeshi an unlikable character all the way to the end! Several times during the show says he only cares only about himself, makes several suicidal discussions, will be 100% idiot.

he does not care for himself so why should the audience care for him? because he is hansom?

I probably enjoyed it for the support characters, like Takeshi's team, the AI who wanted to be human kind of. the mixedgender couple were likeable! even liked the cop. I wish they had more focus though

His support cast were enjoyable which made me dislike Takeshi even more for the derision he takes at the very end.

unanswered question who is the girl that dies in Takeshi flashback at the very start of the show? they make it a point to ask "who was she" but never answer it themselves.

plot issues: backups don't work like that, anyone who uses computers know you have maybe a week or more worth of tapes, disks images, mirror drives whatever.

if an a backup is upload over some data stream and it happens to die it dosn't matter, your fresh backup should be going to a blank medium and the previous backup would still exist.

tldr no one can ever die, exepct anyone to show up at anypoint and be all whoops yeah, Im backed up and cloned and blah blah whatever.

other plot issues:seems they can clone bodies in seconds, people can still make new bodies by reproducing so how are there are shortages of bodies where often you just get sleeved into whatever, given worn out old bodies, I don't get why?

Conclusion wish there had been more focus on the mystery it is what gave Takeshi a reason to live and what kept me watching

Attack on Titan (2013–2023)

to be continued!

[8/10 · 24 April 2017]

I originally watched the first season almost back to back on DVD, it has great action and good character development and the concept was unique enough to hold my interest.

but something I hadn't realised when watching the show back to back like that sort of hit me when watching seasons 2.

This show is so slow!!! it feels like they manage to put out 15+ minutes of drama for every minute of action but that isn't bad, things need a good mix but what really slows things down are the cliffhangers.

literally every episode is slow slow slow ow ow ow what's this ?!!? wow is this really going to happen? *Roll credits* ¬_¬ yep they did it again another cliff hanger.

the next episode usually quickly wraps up the cliffhanger by either concluding it quickly then moving onto the next thing or avoids it until the end of the episode by going into some "x hours earlier" for 80% of the episode.

It is still an enjoyable show just don't watch it one episode a week as the bad pacing can easily create frustration at the show and how slow it can be at times.

get it binge the whole thing back to back and not have to wait for answers to those end of episode cliff hangers and you probably wont be disappointed.

Time After Time (2017)

so bad

[2/10 · 21 April 2017]

I don't know what is more annoying that H.G Wells have a to be a character who invented the time machine or that 'writers seem to like to call Him "H.G" call him Herbert or Mr Wells, and when was he ever a scientist? Anyway Wells has a time machine he has created in his basement and has a bunch of nobles/posh friends around in what looks very similar to the start of Blackadder: Back & Forth (which is probably a nod to Wells in the first place) The Time machine is stolen by "the ripper" we don't have a second time machine to go chasing after him but conveniently the time machine returns to where ever the key is! wouldn't it make more sense for the key to be required for the machine to work? but then how would you chase him? #plotdevice bad science: sometimes the time machine actually poofs out of existence in current time and appears at the new time and location even able to cross continents other times its played out as if the machine it self is static has to be physically moved and maintained while only its contents travel, the writers haven't quite decided and change based on whichever they wanted it to be at the time.

there's a weak romance sub plot akin to a chick flick fan service mostly uninteresting and lacking any chemistry.

Wells adapts to the future far to easily and the actor who plays him seems to be always standing off to the side somewhere grinning like an oblivious Cheshire cat.

I think hiding H.G. Wells works in the show should be cool Easter egg type things but they don't make any attempt to hide anything. he runs into his own creations far too often and its more cringe than a nod.

the story goes round in circles tries to make characters complex and just makes them look like they don't know what they are doing.

probably give this one a miss.