Don't look back: Heroes Ep 2

 I had forgotten that we don't get to actually meet Sylar in Ep 2, so I'm not sure when we see his face for the first time. I do remember Zachary Quinto's bone chilling portrayal of him so I'm really looking forward to the first time we see him. In this episode, we got a new hero: Matt, a down on his luck cop who can't seem to pass the detective exam but happens to realize he can read minds when he hears a little girl who was presumed missing where she is hiding in a secret passageway under the staircase in the house where her parents were murdered. The lead detective investigating the Sylar murders arrests Matt on suspicion that he murdered the parents to set himself up as the hero since Matt can't really explain how he heard the little girl when the house was full of policemen and detectives. We see two of Sylar's victims in this episode and we know he was in touch with Mohinder's father because Mohinder discovers an answering machine message where Sylar calls him and Mr. Suresh argues with him about what he's done. Here we learn that if he'd never met the old man, Sylar would not have begun his murder spree. We also get to see a few of Sylar's powers' residual effects because the father of the girl (obviously the target since his head was cut open and his brain removed) is frozen solid and the mother seems to have been levitated before being impaled with several sharp objects.

Niki (sorry I misspelled it earlier; in this episode, it shows her name on a car registration so now I realize how it should be spelled) keeps missing time. She tries watching the tape and before she knows it 4 hours have passed and she's in different clothes. When she goes back to try to clean up the mess, she finds that the bodies are gone and the blood splatter in the garage has been removed. There are keys to a red convertible which is registered in her name and instructions to follow the map in the trunk. The map is on top of the two bodies which have been dismembered. She drives out into the desert until she reaches the spot where there's a shovel waiting for her. When she starts digging, she finds a skull (proof that someone has used this same location to bury bodies once before). We also get a bit more info on Micah's dad. It seems the cops are after him. Niki's friend suggests that it was him who killed the mobsters, but Niki doesn't think so.

Hiro finds a comic book written by Issac Mendez (yes that Issac) which chronicles the discovery of his powers. He uses the address on the comic to find Issac's studio where he also find's Issac dead with the top of his head sawed off. Before he can even react to the discovery, cops burst in and place him under arrest. As the police question Hiro, he insists that he teleported from Japan the day before. They call his friend who answers that he hasn't seen Hiro in five weeks. Hiro thinks it's Oct 2, but the cop shows the paper (with a picture of Nathan Petrelli's landslide victory) and the date of Nov 8. As it dawns on Hiro that he has time-traveled, the explosion that Issac predicted hits and right before the shockwave gets there, Hiro manages to return to his own time back on the same subway he teleported from in the first place.

For Claire, her father tries to make excuses about letting her meet her birth parents saying it's an adult decision. Then Claire goes to school and learns that the firefighters are looking for the girl who saved the man from the train wreckage. Another cheerleader takes credit for the deed and gets honored for it. The teen who recorded the tape tells Claire that it's missing, and she tells him he needs to find it right before accidentally becoming a tackling dummy and getting her neck snapped. Claire is fine, of course, so she plays it off as though the tackle did nothing to her. I found this a little unbelievable. If the force of a tackle was enough to snap a neck, there would be such injuries all the time in football. I don't buy that the size difference was great enough that a tackle would do that much damage and felt it was an unnecessary show intended to further illuminate her healing powers. 

Peter Petrelli learns that his father suffered from depression and committed suicide after Nathan tries to gaslight him that he jumped to kill himself not because he thought he could fly. Peter, at the end of his rope goads Nathan by threatening to jump again unless Nathan admits he flew. Nathan finally admits it, but tells Peter that he flew as well which Peter doesn't believe at first until he walks on the air without thinking about it only falling once he realizes what he's doing. A character I forgot to mention in the last post was Mrs. Petrelli. Mrs. Petrelli is an interesting character, because she seems a bit eccentric at first (we meet her after she has shoplifted some socks she didn't need in order to "feel alive") but right away we can see there's something off about her dynamic with Peter. So when she tells Peter that she hid Mr. Petrelli's actual cause of death to protect him in this episode the viewer is left wondering if she was really trying to protect him or trying to control him.

Mohinder meets a young woman from his father's building who was keeping him company and who says she was unaware of his death. This woman's name does not come up in the episode. After Mohinder introduces himself, she rightly guesses that he is the older man's son (probably due to his pet lizard also being named Mohinder).

I felt this episode helped us get to know the characters a bit more and learn more about their powers. Although I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to meet Sylar yet because he's such an amazing villain, I still thought this was a solid episode. I give it an 8/10.

Genesis: Heroes Ep 1

 I will admit this is not my first watch-through of the TV show Heroes, I have seen the whole thing before and remember most of the salient plot points. The story begins with our narrator and resident geneticist Mohinder Suresh talking about the evolution of mankind. What struck me about the voiceover this time around was the comment he made about God being a cockroach (if a creator were to make a being that in their own image because the cockroach is more evolutionarily advanced since it can survive in conditions that are unsurvivable to many other species) because later on, when Mohinder decides to move to New York and take over his father's research, his first day in the father's building has him crush a cockroach on sight. I just thought that was a funny little detail. The show follows a group of people with varying powers. Peter Petrelli feels like his career of hospice nurse is not his true calling and he keeps having dreams about flying. He tells his big brother Nathan (a douchbag politician) about the dreams and the feeling that he was destined for something greater, and Nathan gaslights him and talks down to him about it. By the end of the episode, we find out that whether Peter can fly or not, Nathan can and he obviously already knew it before Peter came to him since he uses the power to save Peter after he jumps off a building. (I already know how this is going to play out, but I'm trying to come at this from the perspective of a first watch through). Claire is a cheerleader who seems impervious to harm. She has been making attempts on her own life to test her limits and having a friend record them on his handheld camcorder. By the end of the episode, we also find out that Claire is adopted and that her adopted father is probably one of the people responsible for what happened to Mohinder's father, since he was the one trying to hide evidence of the elder Suresh's research. Nicki is a single mom (there are references to Micah's father but he's definitely not in the picture) who is trying to use online sex work to make money after borrowing a stupidly large amount from a mob boss to get her genius son into private school. She keeps seeing someone else in the mirror. She tells a friend that she thinks she's being watched before going home to find two mobsters in her house. They take her to the space where she was doing her sex work to exploit her a little since they think they hold all the cards, but when she stands up to them, she blacks out and wakes up in a space with their dead, brutalized, bodies and covered in their blood. Her reflection puts a finger to her lips as Nicki looks at the carnage in horror. Hiro Nakamura is a Japanese office worker who is a comic book nerd. He begins by slowing and then making time go back a second. His best friend (who it turns out is one of the pervs paying Nicki for her services) doesn't believe him and calls him crazy. Hiro ends the episode by teleporting to New York from the subway in Japan. Finally, Issac is a drug addicted painter who paints the future whenever he's high. He is responsible for Peter ending up jumping off that building in the first place, since he painted a picture of Peter flying. By the end of the episode, he's painted a nuclear explosion hitting New York and he's mumbling how he has to stop it.

The show uses a solar eclipse as a way to connect all the characters even though they are sort of connected through other means as well. Issac is dating the daughter of the man Peter is a hospice nurse for. She drags Peter to her boyfriend's studio to administer some morphine which she is hoping will keep him from going through withdrawals since he is trying to quit cold turkey and behaving erratically, but Issac has already overdosed by the time they arrive. Claire is the adopted daughter of the man seeking to bury the late Suresh's research. Hiro travels to New York (where Peter and Issac live). Even in just the first episode all the characters besides Nicki have some superficial connection to each other. What I disliked about the eclipse scene was how many of the people just looked at it with their naked eyes. Sure, it showed them squinting, but I was ready to shout at the screen. Nicki watches it through a device her son made (which allows you to view it without looking directly at it) so only her viewing was safe.

As far as first episodes go, it was pretty intriguing. I admit the part where they try to explain the powers scientifically always loses me a little. Like how are you going to explain through genetics the power of flight? I think I like the original Superman explanation better (originally Superman couldn't fly he just had the power to jump very high). I know there's a certain amount of suspension of disbelief in all these shows, but sometimes I wish they didn't try to make up "scientific" explanations for it. Overall, I rate the episode a 7/10. It kept my interest and was a good introduction to all the characters, but I thought some of the lines were a bit cheesy and hated the exploitation of Nicky (the gangsters could have just tried to rough her up without trying to make her strip for them and the end result would have been the same).

*edit: I said Nicki wasn't connected to the other heroes yet, but I forgot that Hiro's pervy friend was one of her only fans customers. 

Heartfelt Apologies

 I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for going MIA from this site. I've had a lot going on in my life recently and this has taken the back burner for a while. I fully intend to review more movies, TV shows, and books in the near future. I just need to get some semblance of normalcy in my life again to do it. I noticed that my blog has gotten some attention despite the fact that I haven't written anything on it in a while, so that's good. Maybe Adsense will see fit to restore my account and let me earn money off this thing (paltry as it might be). If not, these reviews might help to showcase my writing style to potential clients who wish to hire me, so I'd still like to continue. 

Adsense aside, if you know any sponsors who might wish to fund this endeavor, feel free to have them reach out to me. I can see all the comments on this blog even though I moderate them before posting (those of you who were following me from way back know why) so that is the best way to reach me about a possible sponsorship. I might start an accompanying tiktok account (still not sure what I would post there, because I'm a bit camera shy) or another type of social media account to help promote this. I would love for this blog to be a stepping-stone to reaching my ultimate goal of having a writing career, but so far, it's just a way for me to exercise my skills.

Also wanted to say I fully intend to review the most recent addition to the Interview with a Vampire series aka The Vampire Lestat because I have some thoughts after finishing it, but I need time to go over everything in my head, and I might need to rewatch it as well.

Stay tuned for more and thank you for reading. 

Review of the Thai BL Top Form

Let me start by acknowledging that the manga (at to a lesser extent) the anime based on that manga which was the source material for this BL was extremely problematic. Despite this, I found myself growing attached to the relationship between the two male leads and this show was essentially my introduction to the great world of BL. When I began watching the show I did not even know it was going to be BL, as the Japanese refer to everyone by their last name and I don’t believe there were any pronouns in the anime description on Crunchyroll. Fast-forward about six years and I’ve become practically a BL fanatic. I discovered that I really enjoy queer media in general and have consumed a lot of other gay and lesbian stories as well, but BL unlocked something inside me that I didn’t really understand at the time.

What I really loved about the Thai BL Top Form is that this adaptation removed the most problematic elements of the story (the only reason I considered this one to be a guilty pleasure) and kept everything sweet and wholesome about it. It even told the story in the order I wish it had been told originally, by starting with their first meeting instead of showing that as a flashback later. One thing I’ve always hated about Yaoi manga and (sometimes anime) is the non-con elements that often permeate the media. This is in no way a condemnation of those who enjoy stories that include this (as it can be a safe way for people with such fantasies to explore them without getting hurt) but I’ve never been a fan. Color me shocked when I found myself thoroughly enjoying the anime Daikaichi in which the top essentially blackmails the bottom into sleeping with him the first time (it’s worse in the manga since he rapes him). Over the course of the show, the two become the cutest couple, but that part always bothered me. Another issue that I had with the show was with the character of Ayagi (who tries to rape Takato after he gets drunk but changes his mind only because Takato drunkenly calls for Chunta which is his nickname for Junta) and how Junta handled the situation after Takato tells him he doesn’t remember what the two of them did because he was drunk.

When I say Top Form fixed all this, it is the understatement of the year. First, let’s examine why telling it in chronological order instead of beginning with their first night together works much better for a healthy story. In the anime and manga, the first time we meet Takato he has just been surpassed by Junta as the sexiest man alive and also begun a new working relationship with his old rival. Starting it here gets us to the sex faster, but the story-telling suffers because without seeing the depth of connection they shared after working on that first project together and the way it impacted Junta in particular, it’s impossible to see their relationship as being anything more than a fanboy living out his fantasy by finally sleeping with his idol. Once I saw the episode with their backstory I wondered why the story had not started there and thought it would have been much better if it had. I was right. Top Form starts with the original drama (the nature of the drama is changed for the Thai adaptation, but the heart of it remains the same) where Jin (Junta) and Akin (Takato) meet for the first time. It is also told beginning with Jin’s perspective which I appreciated since Akin is a bit of a Tsundere type which makes it harder to gauge his feelings right away.

Second, Top Form eliminated all the non-con from the main couple leaving only the attempted rape after Akin gets drunk and Johnny (Ayagi) leaves a hickey on his neck but stops short of rape after Akin drunkenly calls for “Jun” which is his nickname for Jin. This helped me to more fully support the pairing (since the main issue I had with the original was the non-con and dub-con element) and made the story all the better for it. I still felt the rage over the scene with Johnny. In the original anime adaptation, I actually shouted at my screen during the ensuing scene with Junta where he blames Takato for the molestation because he got drunk and can’t remember what happened. In Top Form, they keep the essence of devastation that Jin feels without the blame by having Akin try to hide what happened and refuse to tell Jin that he can’t remember because he was too drunk. This makes it seem to Jin as if Akin has cheated on him so his ensuing anger can be seen as justified rather than inappropriate.

In Top Form, the only one to blame for the incident is Johnny (who I will never forgive for the sexual assault, he can get bent). Another change to the story is the addition of the stalker which makes it a bit more modern since there are fewer paparazzi types than there are fans with phones taking pictures inappropriately. In the original story, it was a fame seeking paparazzi who took the photos in the first place, but in this story, he just capitalized on what the stalker had already done.

If I have one complaint about the series it might be that I did not feel like the roles were evenly cast. I got a lot out of Akin’s character with Boom’s (Thai actors all have nicknames that they use in place of their actual first name for promotion purposes) portrayal whereas I felt Smart did not give a similarly captivating performance as Jin. I still like it, I just feel like it could have been better.

In the original Takato’s nickname for Junta is “horny angel” because he appears sweet and loving on the surface but he’s always dragging Takato off to the bedroom. The angel wing effect that accompanied Takato’s exclamations of “horny angel” were kept for this adaptation even though Akin’s nickname for Jin is “wooden boy” (a reference to his less than stellar acting when they first met not his constant horniness). I liked the inclusion of the effect since this version of the character does not always act on his desires but mostly lets Akin lead the sexual relationship.

All in all, I would give this adaption a 9/10 since I liked more of the changes than I disliked and Akin was portrayed brilliantly even if Jin’s character was a bit flat in comparison. It might just be that Smart is younger and less experienced than Boom (which is also true of their characters).

Update on Google Ads

 So apparently, my blog content is "low-quality" for the purposes of Google Ads and they refuse to let me remonetize it. No idea what that means, but I guess it means you get an ad-free experience (although I will not be able to make any money off my blog unless I am able to find advertisers who want me to display their content links {doubtful}). I will still try to keep this thing updated as best I can, but my current financial situation is less than ideal, and I really want to focus as much of my effort on fixing it as is humanly possible. Again, if you can think of any movie, show, or book related entities that might like the content of my blog and want to advertise here, feel free to shoot me a comment about them (or them a message about me). I'm really no good at finding and making connections in the writing world. 

Until such time as I can make this a profitable venture, it must remain a hobby, and I can only relegate so much time and effort to its upkeep. Thank you for your support and understanding.

Jujitsu Kaisen: Season 1 overview

 I've begun watching Jujitsu Kaisen with my eldest. Like most shonen anime, it has some disturbing tropes and overt sexualization of certain female characters. The protagonist is the typical shonen teenage male protagonist who is somewhat OP (in this case because he has unwittingly formed a bond with a powerful curse) and forms friendships easily with those around him (although they don't all like him, and a lot of the adults are actively out to get him). He has the mentor figure who is also OP, the gang of friends who each have their own quirks, and the monsters he has to face (including the one that lives inside of him).

I think this show has some unique qualities you don't find in other shonen anime, and the world feels very different even though the monsters (called curses in this one) can feel somewhat similar to other shows like Demon Slayer. The first element that seems different to other shows is that no character feels safe. At the offset of the show, we are told that the life expectancy of Jujitsu sorcerers is very short, and our protagonist is told right away that he needs to deal with the fact that he's not going to be able to save everyone and sometimes he might even need to be the one doing the killing. This is different to most other shonen anime where the protagonist is generally a white knight even when he is paired up with morally grey mentors or friends. This time, being that good is not necessarily the virtue that sets other shonen protagonists apart but could be the thing that gets him or a team member killed.

Another thing that sets this one apart is that there is no clear line between villains and heroes. Some Jujitsu warriors can become villains, curses are born out of human emotions and therefore are, in some ways, simply the dark side of humanity. One of the main antagonist curses in the first season seems to be born out of fear for the environment and the damage humanity has done to it. Another thing that sets these monsters apart from monsters in other shonen anime is that curses can be formed from nothing, or they can be humans who are unwittingly cursed. Although most low-level curses seem to be mindless zombies just feeding off the negativity around them (it is stated that low-level curses tend to hang out together) the higher level the curse, the more intellect and understanding it has. The most formidable are able to speak and communicate and even manipulate, as one of the main antagonists from this season does.

The part about no one feeling safe comes from the third or fourth episode in which the actual protagonist of the show dies for the majority of an episode, and everyone is forced to mourn him. Because of his bond with the powerful curse, he was able to come back, but this event shakes the faith that most shonen anime give the viewer that certain characters are untouchable. This idea that no character is safe gives the show a certain edge and makes the cliffhangers more intense since you are unsure if the character who is on the brink will pull through or be destroyed.

Some of the female characters are well written, but there is still that underlying sexism that seems to permeate a lot of anime (especially shonen). Even the best female characters are never shown to be the strongest and often are in need of saving by their male teammates. This is one of the most distasteful elements of shonen anime to me. Especially in an environment where physical strength has very little to do with power and skill development is extremely important to survival. There is no need to make the female characters always be the ones who end up needing to get saved. There should be equal times where they are the ones who do the rescuing and there should be no qualms about this either. 

The sexualization of underage characters (both male and female) is another disturbing element of the show. I understand that the target demographic is teenage males, and they are expected to be hormonal and horny, but I feel like this feeds into negative and sexist stereotypes that keep young men from growing up with a well-balanced view of the world. Just once I'd like to see a shonen show that treats all its characters with respect and decency, refuses to sexualize anyone, and does not rely on tired and sexist tropes. In the same vein, I'd like to see a shojo anime that does not have a love interest and where the girl protagonist is the strong independent type who (although she does not hate men) does not need a man to validate her existence.

Perhaps my criticisms of the genre are simply my age showing itself and I should stick to anime geared towards older people. I don't know. Anyway, for all elements combined I give season 1 an 8 out of 10.

Time and Tide

I haven't found a lot of time or energy to watch shows and review them here lately. Part of that has to do with just everything lately draining my energy. I'm currently working full-time but not making enough to get by, so I'm contemplating getting a second job. I applied to a transcription service, but I have no idea how soon or even if they'll get back to me. I'm not adept at SEO, not even sure what it might entail, so a lot of the writing opportunities that will pay are closed off to me without furthering my education on the matter (something that will no doubt cost money I don't have to spend). I got a notification from Google Adsense that they were suspending my account, which probably means they're keeping the (what was it $15 or so) in ad revenue I'd already made from this thing. They don't let you cash out until you reach $100, which I probably never would have hit anyway.

I thought about doing an affiliate link program at one time, but the biggest issue with that is finding an affiliate that both relates to the content of my blog and has values that I agree with. Not going to advertise anything that I feel contradicts my person code of ethics. I would love it if I could find an affiliate that supports the Trevor Project or any other pro LGBT+ cause, especially since that is something near and dear to my own heart. If you (my readers) have any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.

Since I've turned this into a review blog, I'd like to start on reviewing episodes of Frasier. The first reason for this is that the show never fails to make me laugh and I've been really needing some positivity in my life recently, but the second reason is that I've been meaning to do a rewatch. Watched a couple episodes with a friend of mine recently and got her into it too (love when that happens). I may also branch off into reviewing video games as well (although those will be limited because I currently can only play ones I can download on my mobile phone or computer). 

For this post I'd like to mention that I've recently started watching Jujitsu Kaisen (at the behest of my eldest, who has become thoroughly emersed in the show) and I have to say I am enjoying it (despite some of the problematic elements which I'll get into if I decide to write a full review). This is the first anime I have started watching in a good while. I also turned 21 on to Mob Psycho 100 in return so we've been taking turns on my days off watching first an episode or two of one, then an episode or two of the other.

If I can figure out finances, I'd like to take 18 (soon to be 19) somewhere for his birthday, but it is very quickly approaching and I'm not sure I'll have had a chance to find another income source by then. I am still writing, although I have stopped trying to get published. I think it may be something that will just never happen for me.

If there is a show, game, or movie you'd like me to review (any comment of The Bible will be unceremoniously deleted) go ahead and leave it in the comment section. Barring suggestions, I'll continue to review the shows I have been reviewing and the ones I intend to start reviewing as my mood dictates. I will try to update about once a week in the future.