Reviews

Thank You, My Hero

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Warning: The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Final Season, now streaming on Crunchyroll. Some sections are more spoilery than others, so I’ll try to label when I’m diving into the thick of things for those who might just want my general thoughts on the season as well as the series at large.

This coming April will mark 10 years since the TV anime adaptation of My Hero Academia began at Bones Studio C, the same production house that gave us Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), Soul Eater, and Ouran High School Host Club. And nearly just in time for that anniversary, the series has concluded its eighth and final season – the shortest, in fact, at 11 episodes. 11 episodes of dazzling spectacle, heartbreaking sacrifices, and monumental strides for its world and characters, and not a single week passed that the gravity of it all did not bring me to tears.

When it started, I was in my senior year of High School. I loved all the characters, I loved the animation, and I had a crush on Deku, because he was (and still is) adorable and ideal boyfriend material. Now I’m approaching my 30s, and despite the uncertainty of the future, for which this series’ text aptly latched onto as it progressed, I’m living my best life. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that My Hero Academia contributed to the heights of my life at this juncture, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that its whimsy has helped lift me along the way. It is a story that found me at the right time and grew with me, becoming more resonant than I ever expected.

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I Thought I Would Hate Virgin Punk (And I Was Dead Wrong)

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[Trigger Warning: This review covers a film that touches on some sensitive subject matter. Namely, a villain with a lolita fetish and a main character being forced into a younger version of her body and being controlled by said villain. There is – thankfully – no sexual violence depicted in this film, but I felt the need to put a disclaimer anyway.]

During Aniplex Online Fest 2024, a trailer dropped for a film that instantly captivated my attention like nothing else. A cyberpunk action story, but one that traded the traditional neon-drenched eerie gloom for a bright, sun-drenched European-inspired city that might look utopian if it weren’t for all the blood being shed. Gunfights, explosions, sinister men, and amid the chaos, a young woman in a cybernetic body, dragging a large attache case and toting a mean-looking pistol. This was Virgin Punk, and I couldn’t fucking wait to watch it

It was to be the start of a new series from Yasuomi Umetsu, a beloved director and animator behind Kite (1998) and Mezzo Forte (2000), two OVAs famed for their gunporn, to say nothing of the actual porn in their extended editions. Yep, they were hentai, albeit with enough exciting action and competent attempts at weaving revenge stories and crime thrillers that they could cut out the sex entirely and still find an audience. And that’s exactly what happened when the OVAs found their way overseas, not that there was much choice when the uncensored versions were banned in multiple countries.

But see, I didn’t like Kite. It’s actually one of my least favorite anime. I found it a little gross, to be honest, and even the highs of the action weren’t enough to compensate. It was heralded as a classic, but I found it lacking, such that it stained my perception of the director and his work. You might wonder why I’d be so excited for Virgin Punk in that case, but I think the trailer speaks for itself. There’s just one problem: the trailer speaks for itself, and once it got subtitles, I feared that this new film would fall victim to the fetishes of an unfortunately cracked director.

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Bones Film and the Hunger for Longer Anime Seasons

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So earlier today, I watched the new trailer for Daemons of the Shadow Realm, the new Hiromu Arakawa adaptation, and unsurprisingly, it rocked. Though crucially, I don’t believe it’s just because of Arakawa’s namesake. Don’t get me wrong: Fullmetal Alchemist‘s acclaim and staying power in the cultural consciousness are a testament to some wonderful writing, but they’re also inextricably tied to the artistry of Studio Bones. Frankly, if it weren’t Bones – oop sorry, Bones Film – handling this adaptation, I might actually be less excited, if only because few studios can evoke such trust in me by reputation alone.

Like, honey, look at the material. Mob Psycho 100? My Hero Academia? Noragami? Kekkai Sensen? Star Driver? With a resume like this, even something as huge as Fullmetal Alchemist is practically just a blip on the radar. Glazing aside, Daemons of the Shadow Realm‘s anime has only done itself more favors the more that’s been shown, and all from Masahiro Ando, the director of one of the studio’s greatest gems, Sword of the Stranger. Plus, with music by Kenichiro Suehiro of Fire Force and Re:Zero fame, it will probably be one of the best soundtracks of the season.

But none of that is what really caught my eye. I wasn’t even gonna write about it. If anything, I was planning on writing about Gachiakuta and My Hero Academia dominating this season (and I still might). No, what really caught my eye were the final words of the trailer: “Airing for two consecutive cours starting in April 2026”. It’s just a simple detail, practically obligatory, to disclose the release date and whatnot, right? Right… But somehow it felt more like the answer to a prayer. Cause like, has anyone else felt like anime seasons used to be longer?

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To Be Hero X Is The Best Superhero Story of 2025 (Sorry)

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[Note: I watched To Be Hero X in Japanese with English subtitles. Any appraisal of vocal performances is made with this frame of reference in mind. However, from what I’ve heard of the English dub, it’s really well done, so if you prefer dubs, you’re in for a treat.]

In a landscape so saturated with superhero media, what does it mean to be truly original? Is it the ideas? The spectacle? Themes? Style? Sure, these can help new projects to stand out in a cluttered marketplace of origin stories and disparate continuities, but amid the genre’s worst lulls, finding originality can feel like a moot point. And frankly, is looking for “true originality” even productive? The foundations of these stories and their messages are timeless for a reason. It’s not about originality so much as nuance, and To Be Hero X might be the best superhero story in years.

And, you know, at the start of 2025, that might have felt like a low bar, especially after such a spineless shitshow like Captain America: Brave New World. Even with Thunderbolts*, Jake Schreier and his team’s commendable commitment to practical stuntwork, strong theming, and heartfelt character drama felt like the exception to the rule. But then we got James Gunn’s Superman, and less than a month later, Matt Shakman’s Fantastic Four: First Steps. These two beloved films weren’t just successful, but reignited faith in superhero movies, to say nothing of hope for humanity in general (especially in the case of the former).

So it’s fair to say this has been a strong year for superhero media, which makes my aforementioned take a lot more contentious. However, while I don’t want to undermine the merits of Schreier, Gunn, or Shakman, I genuinely think To Be Hero X clears all of them by *that* much. But what exactly is To Be Hero X? And why does it deserve to be recognized among the genre’s best and brightest?

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An Abridged Summary of My Thoughts on the Demon Slayer Anime For No Reason At All

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Hey everyone, remember in 2019 when I gave Demon Slayer a 10/10?

Probably not, and that’s fine. I mean, I didn’t give it a 10 in the post itself, but that is what I gave it on MyAnimeList.net when I finished it, and honestly, I still stand by that. Season 1 of Demon Slayer was such a fun and jam-packed adventure that really hit all the right notes. Animation, music, performances, heartfelt themes – it had it all, and from when it began to where it ended, it truly felt like we’d experienced an adventure with only more on the horizon.

Fast forward to 2021, and I reviewed Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train almost just as positively. It was kinda the first shonen anime film to prove that studios could feasibly continue the canon story through films rather than just making high-budget theatrical side stories that were dubiously canon at best. Mugen Train was awesome, and later, while writing for GameRant, I would go on to write about what I considered to be the most emotional scene, not only in that film, but in the series at large. That film rocked and made me even more excited for what the franchise held in store for the future…

… That is, until that future came. Now I’m just a bit sad.

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Lazarus Is Dumb (Fun)

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Warning: The following contains spoilers for Lazarus, now streaming on HBO Max.

A little over two months ago, I set my expectations low for Lazarus, the newest original anime project from Shinichiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo fame. I poked holes in its premise, criticized its mish-mashed tone and its overly wordy script, and expressed my disappointment in the early English dub. Yet, through it all, I was just as quick to praise its aesthetic strengths and held out hope that, by the end, I’d look back on a series that, while perhaps not excellent, wouldn’t leave me regretting the time spent with it.

Thank god I lowered my expectations, because the things this show has done well since the start have made each Sunday morning spent with it all the more entertaining. Its artwork was consistent and, on occasion, truly wowed me with exceptional action and choreography. The English dub improved as the main cast settled into their roles, and the show’s heights leveraged their simple but energetic chemistry to create a pace that was fun and engaging. Best of all, the music was really good.

However, the closer the series inched towards its finale, the more it felt like I had to fish for these positives; to remind myself of how impressive this series can be when it has its shit together. Then, I started to wonder if it ever truly had its shit together to begin with and furthermore, whether it ever had the chance to from the start, much less the time. I kept my expectations low for Lazarus, now let’s see how much that helped, how much that was needed to begin with, and what a measuring of expectations couldn’t save at all.

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