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1/10
What is there to like about this?
17 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
When I saw the High Guardian Spice trailer for the first time, my reaction was a bit different from most people's.

While most people complained about the ugly artstyle and the self-insert characters (which are valid), my focus was on the aesthetic. It seemed so uninspired. This show's whole schtick is that it takes place in a world of magic and the main character goes to a school where she can learn how to master the world's magic. Which isn't bad a idea, but so many shows have already done that - RWBY, Little Witch Academia and My Hero Academia - so if you're going to make a show with that premise, you have to make it stand out, and you have to make sure it can be on par with aforementioned shows. This show's character designs and artstyle looked like it was drawn in one day, based on the most generic European medival fantasy background ever and no one decided to do a second take.

And thats my first problem with High Guardian Spice. It doesn't stand out - not in terms of characters, plots, character arcs or anything. Which begs the question, if you're going to copy everythig from another show or make it generic, why even make the show in the first place?

Rose is a vanilla protagonist, what we know about her is that she acts like a child, she misses her mom, she looks like an ugly Chibiusa from Sailor Moon and she likes fighting. These traits are never developed or used in an interesting way, she's not particularly witty or outstanding compared to her peers, and whenever she is the focus of an episode, it's easy to predict what'll happen next. Her character isn't charming, unique or relatable, or even likeable despite her flaws, and there is nothing to set her apart from the vast sea of self insert characters from fanfiction. Despite her genericness, according to other characters, she apparently "has a penchant for justice" (said by Wyverna Dretch in Episode 2 - because other characters shilling up how good your character is good writing). She's also so qUIrKy because she's a ditz, she almsot hit Thyme with her sword and she finds Professor Caroway's dangerous adventures "cool".

This lack of development and singular trait thing is something present in the rest of the characters too. It's like the writers decided to pull up a checklist, assign a few similar ones to a different character, and call it a day. Sage is a crybaby, sensetive and bashful about her skills. Parsely is motherly and overprotective. Thyme is sarcastic and distant. Amaryllis is rude and snotty. Not once are these traits expanded upon, challenged, explored or deconstructed - they're the status quo. The villains are thrice as flat, we're given no information on them except "they're just bad, okay". If you want us to be interested in these characters, at least give us information about them.

That's not the only lack of information, we don't know anything about the lore of this world. What is a "guardian"? Why are literal children being sent to become them? Why are literal children tasked with jobs like handling scypeths? If being a guardian is such a honorable job in society, why are there only like 20 people in the whole school? Why are creatures like mermaids peaceful but creatures like dragons aren't? Why don't they have their owm guardians? How hasn't humanity been wiped out from handling dangerous monsters and missions? If this society is advanced enough to use magic as a way to shapeshift why didn't they use the magic to invent surveillance cameras and catch any spies? If Caroway is such a good guardian that he became a headmaster, why did the spies slip right under his nose? Why is Lavender hailed as a great guardian? Where does the magic come from and how did the humans mold it under their control? What will the villains gain from killing the students/teachers of High Guardian Academy? The show doesn't handle these questions, but you wanna know what it does handle? It spends all of episode 10 exploring if Rose likes Sage and going through flashbacks that don't add anything to the plot.

The few times the main characters are called out for their flaws, it's usually resolved in the span of five minutes. Any time there's a hero/villain conflict the heroes always win by displaying little to no effort, hell in episode 9 a villain runs away because she gets stabbed ONCE, like god, you do realize thats a normal part of fighting right? Why are you running away? WHO HIRED YOU? And if the villains are so intent on killing the main characters, why did they hire someone who said more than once THAT SHE DIDN'T WANT TO KILL PEOPLE?

If you're going to have unoriginal characters, the least you can do is add an original plot, but that's too much for the staff at Crunchyroll, so they went back to their checklist of cliches and used them for plot points. Yes there's an episode when they go to the beach, an episode where they go to a costume party, an episode where the bad guy decides to join the good guys for no reason (if Olive was so against killing why didn't she leave earlier) and an episode where the main character tells spooky stories.

The voice acting is off-key, for some reason they hired complete newbies to voice the characters, except Slime Boy, and he has the worst voice acting. The music is like if someone added a BGM to a Skype call. The animation is like a powerpoint presentation.

After I was done watching all 12 episodes I couldn't even remember what happened accurately because my brain was so numbed.

I'm 99% sure this show only happened because the creator of it had connections. It saddens me that instead of investing money in actual original and entertaining shows, instead the time and effort to garbage like this that nobody asked for, or wanted. This was made to validate the creator himself, it has no love, effort or heart in it. It makes me happy to see that this is getting backlash, as it should, and hopefully this backlash will lead to us getting better cartoons in the future. But with the state of how terrible most cartoons of this year are (sans Centaurworld, The Ghost and Molly McGee, Pibby, Kid Cosmic and Invincible)...its not hard to see why anime is beating comics and western media in terms of sales and fandom.
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8/10
A beautiful nightmare
24 June 2021
Most of my exposure to gore, murder and violence comes from anime. But watching this movie, no matter how saturated your brain is due to overexposure to blood and death, is like watching a death in a film for the first time. The more the film went on, the higher the stakes were raised, and like all Bong Joon Ho films the ending will stay in your mind after its over.
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Wolfwalkers (2020)
9/10
Cartoon Saloon's best film yet
24 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Wolfwalkers is a story about a British hunter family investigating the Irish lands for wolves, but more importantly, its about finding happiness while being in a cage. The way it chronicles its protagonist Robyn trying to handle her own independence from her overprotective father is amazing, and it shows respect to both sides instead of painting things on the side of one person. Wolfwalkers, and Cartoon Saloon films in general, capture some sort of spirit that you look for in Disney, but it isn't quite there. Every little step and scene means something, and the stakes climb higher and higher. Combine all this with amazing animation and angelic music. My favorite character was Mebh due to the rawness of her emotion and how she never stopped fighting for Moll, even in a town full of people wanting to execute them both. The scene where she screamed for her mother was tearjerking.

Now, spoiler time. Remember what I said earlier about Bill, Robyn's father? I think what was important about the film showing his side with respect was that, in a lot if ways, Bill was becoming Cromwell, even though his intentions were to keep Robyn safe. If it wasn't for him realizing his ways earlier, he would have become no different from the man who wanted to kill his daughter for who she was. Bill thought he was an ally of Cromwell, but at the end of the day he was someone who Cromwell saw as just as disposable as the rest of the wolves. What stopped him from going down that path was doing what broke him down the most, and letting Robyn go. He wanted her to be happy, and the only way for that was to let her be herself, and she could only be herself if she was free. The movie repeatedly brought up the theme of freedom contrasted with safety, and in the end, they all earned both together. An underrated film, it deserves more recognition and revive a new genre of children's movies and 2D animation.
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Dhar Mann (2018–2024)
1/10
I can only watch them if Charlie is commentating on them
24 June 2021
Dhar Mann is a YouTuber who is known for making videos on how to be a good person and the after effects of being a bad person. Usually these videos give some message at the end, but anyone in the Youtube sphere would know that his cringe, feel good videos are basically fodder for reaction channels (I found out about him thanks to penguinz0).

Yes, almost every reaction channel has clowned on him, but its not hard to see why. Apart from the lessons in some of his videos being bad (e.g. Don't be racist, because the person could be rich and do something to benefit you), some are just absurd. Like that kid who wanted to be like SSSniperwolf. How about you pick a better Youtuber to idolize (also ironic that it featured someone who's been accused of bullying several times). What was the lesson of the second SSSniperwolf one supposed to be, pay off your bullies? Because that's not gonna work for kids who are bullied for being poor.

His response to everyone critisizing him was to make a video where he claimed YouTubers who reacted to his videos and didn't lick his boots for teaching "inspirational" messages were "bullying" him for "spreading positivity". He also tried to use the child actors as a shield by claiming that they were the ones most affected, even though no reaction channel (at least not the ones I watch) have mocked them, its only Dhar who's on the end of their mockery.

As bad as all the characters in the Dhar Mann Cinematic Universe are, shout out to Steve, who for saying no to his thawt of a babysitter.
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The Good Place (2016–2020)
9/10
Under its happy and shiny exterior, there's something more
24 June 2021
I don't usually watch sitcoms. I've seen the basics like Modern Family, the Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, but apart from that I hate the sitcom genre in general due to how unfunny it's become. But a friend made me watch this with him and I ended up loving it. It doesn't matter if your sick of sitcoms and want something new or love the genre and what it brings - this show is going to fit your tastes because its amazing. Even after three episodes, I already felt like it wouldn't waver in its quality, and I was right. There's no show that makes you laugh and question your own morals and philosophy at once like this one.

The main cast of characters are all loony in different ways but the way they bounce off each other is what pulls me, as an audience member, in. Even though you know they're not all good people at heart, you can't help but love them, even Michael. It makes you take a good, hard look at everything you've been taught about psychology and philosophy with subtle commentary. I don't usually like shows that cram their messages down your throat, but thats the beauty of TGP - you aren't someone who needs to be "taught" - this show respects its audience and treats them no different from a character developing.

Definitely worth binging and it gives me hope for how future sitcoms will be, and the future in television in general.
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1/10
Honestly of all the episodes this might have been the worst
24 June 2021
And yes, worse than the episode where Alex shoots menstrual blood out of herself. If it wasn't for the fact that this is aired on Public TV I would think it was someone's fetish animation. Almost every scene starts with a close up on Alex/Daisy's bodies (for some reason the show is obsessed with showing us how they're naked, the first three episodes gave us too much information about their unhygenic habits) and it tries hard to pull off being the 21st Century Sailor Moon.
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Oldboy (2013)
1/10
Makes me never wanna put my eyes on a screen again
24 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I had my expectations low as it would be pretty hard to break through the bar set by the original film directed by Park Chan Wook, but this film makes YouTube movies by unfunny hipsters like Logan Paul and Lele Pons look therapeutic. Even Niel Breen movies are better than this.

You know your protagonist is bad when he makes Dae-su of all people look kind. In the original Oldboy, Dae-su wasn't a nice person by any means - he was a drunkard, he was careless, he was an a----le. But even then, we as an audience could love him. He may have been an a----le, but he was an a----le who cared about his daughter, an a----le who wanted to see his beloved family again, an a----le who fought for his truth and future no matter how much is tore him in the inside. He was an a----le second, and a rabid machine who pushed himself through a world that wanted to see him lose first. Choi Min-sik's performance validated it all.

However this film's version of Dae-su, Joe Doucett, spits on the original, and everything that made him badass. Joe Doucett is an a----le, and not in the fun way Dae-su is. They took away everything that made him admirable and replaced it with narcissitic and apathetic traits. Doucett doesn't care about anyone other than himself, he doesn't care about his family, he treats his best friend like he's replaceable and he's a little b---h compared to his Korean counterpart. Honestly, at the end we were supposed to sympathize with him, but if anything I straight up took Lee Wooji-I mean, Adrian Pryce's side over his. Remember how in the original Oldboy, he was made to suffer as much as Woojin, by Woojin, and the fact that we could sympathize with both was what made it so impactful and hard hitting? Well, here they decided to make the protagonist someone who escapes the consequences of their actions and the antagonist a whiny b---h who has daddy issues. Oh Dae-su is an a----le second and a hero first, but Joe Doucett is just...an a----le.

Now lets talk about Adrian Pryce. I'm 110% sure his mom and dad were siblings, because there's no way else someone can be this stupid. He wants Joe and Elizabeth Olsen to fall in love, and he has no issues half arseing the whole plan. First, he wants Joe to care for his daughter (you know, the daughter he said in the first part of the film that he didn't care about), and he does this by making someone act as her, being featured on tv for her music playing skills. How is THAT supposed to make Joe care for her? If he never cared about her before, it is pretty unlikely that he'll care about her again. Also, how did he know Joe was watching that specific channel on the TV? What if Joe was like, some massive weaboo who preferred to watch the anime channel or something rather than some boring cello. Then when he releases Joe, he doesn't even hyptonize Joe or his daughter, and just expects that they'll fall in love. Hell, the chance of them even MEETING is half-a--ed, because Joe could have easily effed off after meeting her, but for some reason he didn't. This plot point could have easily been resolved if they decided to hyptonize Chucky to push them together as a couple (even though it has less impact) but nope. Effort is too much for this movie. Joe and Liz Olsen have none of the chemistry that Dae-su and Mido have, hell they don't have the bare minimum of relationship chemistry. The whole time I was watching them, I felt as if there was a gun pointed to their heads if they dared to not fall in love with each other.

Then the villain flashback scene. The original Oldboy's flashback was something that made Quentin Tarantino weep for the villain. This one straight up destroys any sympathy for both sides. Joe is a bigger astronomical Richard than one can imagine, and he mocks a young child being a victim of her father's grooming/sexual abuse. Adrian makes excuses for him "waaaaaaaaah my dad groomed me and my sister but he's a good person". He is unintentionally funny, he pronounces w---e like "HAWH" (this could be because he is British and has horrible teeth). Not to mention the "FATHA" scene. Also, this Oldboy was trying to one-up the original one, so they changed the plot twist from Woojin being in love with his sister, Soo-ah, to a dad being in love with both of his kids. Why was that necessary? We can all agree that sibling incest is bad enough, you didn't have to go over the top. Hell, why don't you make Joe and Adrian long-lost half brothers and make EVERYONE screw each other in this circle you people call a family tree since your so dedicated. There's no emotional depth and the change was clearly there for shock value. The ending has Joe go back to the place he was imprisoned (it makes no sense for him to do that, but okay) which defeats the Korean film's original point, of having Dae-su live with his actions, so he can feel what Woojin did.

At the end of Oldboy (2003), you just wanna see Dae-su happy, but at the end of Oldboy (2013), your glad to see Joe gone.
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Caillou (1997–2018)
1/10
All my homies hate Caillou
18 January 2021
Caillou is a despicable, spineless 4-year-old boy who cannot do anything. He can't grow hair, not because he has cancer or progeria, but because he sucks, and even his own body recognizes that he does not deserve hair or food or love. He has a baby sister who dominates his life because she is a normal, loving child who does not whine about the slightest fart of the breeze. Caillou's parents love her better because she is a better person.
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The Owl House (2020–2023)
1/10
It's like a 5th grader's badly written fanfiction published and taken seriously by people.
27 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The Owl House tells the tale of Luz Noceda, a girl sent from earth to the Boiling Isles and learns magic under convict Eda Clawthorne. She then goes to a magic school and meets top student Amity Blight, who at first she considers her a rival, later turned friend. However the world she's known is threatened by the Emperor Belos, who has ties to both Eda and her sister Lilith, and the curse that was placed on Eda as a child.

This sounds like a good plot on paper, and it could have been a good plot on screen had it been well written and original. Unfortunately it's none of those things. So let's go one by one about it.

First of, the characters are unsympathetic. Luz is a hyperactive kid who's stupid and is usually the main cause of the problems of the episodes. A character that's an idiotic hero can actually be entertaining, and the way to write them well is to ensure that they have some redeeming qualities to make up for it. But does Luz have those qualities? NO, because she screws up and causes problems AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN. Her IQ is literally below room temp. It's literally the plot of almost every episode and it makes it difficult to take her seriously. We're just supposed to side with her throughout her stupidity because she's the good guy.

She never faces any consequences for her actions either. I know this show ripped off Pacifica and Stan from Gravity Falls, but can they at least rip off some of the good writing from there too? Mabel Pines, like Luz, was obnoxiously over reactive but at least she suffered for her actions, and Dipper had to bail her out.

Because it's hard to take Luz as a person and a protagonist seriously, it sours the viewing of the whole show in general. And usually, the remedy for having an unlikable protagonist is to have side characters that are better developed. And then we meet our other characters, Willow and Gus.

Willow is Luz's best friend and Amity's former friend, and she is the cliché "nerdy girl who gets bullied". There's literally nothing more to her character than "Amity was mean to me and my only purpose is to serve Luz's adventures!". Clichés aren't bad if you use them right, and to use them right you have to lend your own twist or originality to them. But Willow has none of that, and as a result she is boring. I literally do not see why I should be interested in this character, she has no backstory, character arc or personality that's interesting. Yes, her relationship with Luz is touching, but having characters with good relationships to one another is the bare minimum of writing.

Gus, Luz's other friend, fetishizes her for being a human and this also leads to him getting Chronic Luz Syndrome where he acts stupid, and even goes as far as to get in trouble at school for her. This is also inconsistent writing, because isn't he supposed to be someone who desires to be taken seriously at school? No, he doesn't have any character traits that are charming, entertaining or humorous either.

Edalyn Clawthorne is the character who I am torn on. She's entertaining and funny, but she's a blatant cutout of Grunkle Stan. At this point it's obvious to the viewer that Dana Terrace wants the credit and praise for her writing but doesn't want to do any of the effort required, so she steals. She then chucks it at her viewers who eat it up because people have low standards for cartoons these days.

And you know the saddest thing? This could have been easily averted, the characters don't have to be so needlessly boring. They could be thrown in situations and have character arcs that would make them more dimensional and well rounded. But Dana doesn't want to do that, and as a result her characters stay bland. Or rather, because the only thing Dana knows is ripping off other people, once she has something that's her own she literally doesn't know what to do with it. I know she used to work on Gravity Falls, and instead of learning how to write well she just thought that effort wasn't worth it if people are willing to eat it up. And she decided to throw in some LGBT representation to appeal to more demographics.

Now I'm going to talk about imitation, inspiration and originality.

I don't think inspiration is bad. In fact I love it. It's a way of letting creativity flow inside you. But there's a fine line between imitation and inspiration.

What separates the two? Well, inspiration is seeing something and creating something of your own based on and influenced by the original source. Imitation on the other hand is copying something that already exists and barely changing it.

My point is, when you don't put effort, it shows. And we can clearly see that The Owl House has ripped off characters from several sources, and the few characters that are not ripoffs are extremely bland.

Luz is clearly a poor man's Akko Kagari. Down to the adoration of an idol and being a muggle in a magical world, what makes Akko stand out is that she's flawed and works to improve them. She acknowledges that she's a bad student and that she's sometimes too immersed in her thoughts to think straight but she has wit and creativity in other forms. She also gets punished, unlike Luz.

When she screws up, people are allowed to be mad at her and scoff at her. Akko is allowed to grow through her flaws and be a better person. Luz, on the other hand, is a complete Mary Sue who gets praise by almost everyone (sans Amity and Boscha, but those are the characters we're supposed to hate).

Luz is basically considered PERFECT by everyone and there are some episodes that blatantly are behind-pulls like the one where her phone manages to make a glyph despite being broken. And in the finale she takes out the guards and can make ice with a staff without magic paper, despite it being earlier established that as a muggle, she can only use magic paper.

There are also way, way too many "how do you do fellow kids" moments like how we had some jarring dialog referencing her love of being an anime fan and a whole scene showing that she writes fanfiction (seriously, have the ppl behind this show never learned of Show not Tell?).

Amity is watered down Diana Cavendish. What made Diana and Akko's dynamic interesting was that Diana didn't resent Akko for being a muggle - it was her attitude towards magic that irked her, and it was 100% valid. It was interesting to see them fight and even though they weren't romantically attracted to one another, their relationship in my opinion was stronger than anything Luz and Amity had. Amity started out being a complete pain to Luz and Luz didn't take it seriously. And it was only in one episode that Amity showed her affection of Luz. Yet you want me to believe that she went from thinking Luz was below her to wanting to ask her out at Grom. Instead of developing Amity they flanderized her. They wouldn't even have this problem in the first place if Amity isn't trying to emulate an already popular, better written character.

Here are some other forms of inconsistency: *Everyone hates Eda to the point she always has the cops called on her whenever she's in public but in the Season Finale they suddenly decide that she's a hero and want to defend her *Amity has strict rules imposed on her by her parents but for some reason Edric and Emira don't get the same treatment? If they cared about their reputation so much wouldn't they be concerned that they're children are pranksters? Amity's parents are supposed to be strict but she mouths them off in S2 with ZERO consequences.

*The Emperor's Coven in the Finale were shown as these really powerful magic users yet they were taken out by Luz like they were nothing. These are really the people Amity wants to join btw. (see what I mean by her being a mary sue) *Luz claims that on earth, she was seen as a "wierdo" and discriminated against but from what we saw, SHE WANTED TO LAUNCH FIREWORKS IN THE SCHOOL THAT COULD HAVE KILLED PEOPLE.

Its sad that this show got greenlighted when there are much better stories out there that could have been told. I hope it gets cancelled because my god I have never cringed harder at any show.
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1/10
Watching leaves photosynthesize is more entertaining
11 November 2020
As someone who grew up in 2003, I was exposed to tons of good Western Animation and Anime, and it fueled my deep love for both the genres. That's why when I heard that a show that was combining both genres, I was excited.

And oh god I wish I wasn't.

This show is exactly what the problem of every modern genre of Western television is. I know that sounds absurd but you'll understand as I explain.

Let's start with the most important part of any story, the characters. The main characters are Alex and Daisy, two New Yorkers who are roommates. What are their traits? Well, Alex is lazy and a brat who doesn't like putting effort into anything with no redeeming qualities and Daisy is a hardworking pushover, and while she's miles better than Alex, she's not an interesting character in general and offers nothing unique or special to the story. You can swap her out with any of the background extras and it wouldn't make a difference, because everyone in the show has the personality of A) An ice lolly stick after it's melted or B) A complete rhymes-with-brass-pole. She's also a mouthpiece for the creator of the show's opinions and fires them off at random. Half her lines are unfunny jokes or references to other media. We learn nothing about the story and who she is from the dialogue, it's just John Wick reference after John Wick reference or something critiquing capitalism.

The characters give us no reason for us to root for them because apart from being jerks they're straight up idiotic. In the second episode, instead of using their powers to further the story and progress the plot, they waste it on fake celebrity paraphernalia. I should also mention if you are disgusted by bodily dysfunction jokes, then avoid this show, because this show mentions Daisy's gross habits a lot and Alex uses her period blood as a weapon in episode 3. It's ironic how this show criticizes geek fanboys (in one episode, there are three dudes with T shirts that have the words "Pepe" and "Gamergate"...like dude, Gamergate was YEARS ago, not even the people in Gamergate talk about it anymore. And nobody wears shirts like that) but expects us to root for Daisy despite her degeneracy (she blows Alex's hard earned rent money on underwear and writes fanfiction of her dating Scully. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, we all use fanfiction as an outlet, but why is Daisy portrayed as in the right and the Gamergate fanboys are depicted as in the wrong?).

The show feels like a sitcom where they take all the magical girl tropes and do nothing new or unique with them, it has the sitcom humor, the characters going on long speeches about political opinions (like Brian from S8 Family Guy) and a boring plot. The villains looked more interesting, but they, like the heroes, were also later shown to be flat as cardboard and petty (Veerus and Nut are exes and Corvin changes sides on a whim because Veerus is too stupid to appreciate his work for her).

Also this show tries too hard to identify with the millennial/Gen Z demographic. It's not just the constant dropping of references, it's the fact that Daisy's entire schtick is that she's a stoner and smokes. And for a show that tries to highlight the difficulties of being a millenial in this day and age, it fails at that because Alex and Daisy literally can send a mushroom species to space and not face any consequences for it. That and Nut makes no effort to improve them or prepare them as warriors. Instead she joins in with their laziness .

The animation is horrible too, I hate the way they move. It seems like they took a page out of 2016 PPG. There's no flow or smoothness to follow up on. The story makes it obvious that there's no writing staff. I'm surprised how this even got to air on TV and I'm 100% sure it's because of connections and networking.

If you want to watch this genre done better in parody form, Panty and Stocking has got you covered.
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2/10
A failure
17 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Wooooo boy. After hearing good and bad reviews of it, I watched it myself and concluded that it's a failure in almost every aspect. This is one of the most low effort projects I've seen in my life.

She-Ra and The Princesses of Power follows Adora, a Horde soldier who defects after learning about the true nature of her side, and chooses to aid Queen Angella and the Rebellion to stop them. Her defection angers her childhood best friend/love interest Catra, who views it as her abandoning her, along with deep bitterness about always being second best to Adora in the eyes of their narcissistic mother figure, Shadow Weaver.

Right off the bat, we are instantly made sympathetic to Glimmer and Adora, and to a lesser extent, Bow (he has less screentime compared to the two). As Adora trains to get stronger, Catra amps up her forces to be the villain Adora could have been had she not seen the wrongness of her actions. Adora's new friend group are the princesses from the rebellion, who the show expects us to care about despite them being one dimensional and boring.

And that's my first problem with the show, the lack of development of the characters. Perfuma gets one episode in the limelight, then spends seasons retaining her annoying hipster personality, until S4 where she learns to tolerate cacti. No real development is done nor is her behavior changed. Mermista is kind of funny but her indifference to the suffering of the citizens of Salineas, and one episode where she '''grieves" by eating ice cream in the bathtub makes her come off as privileged and unsympathetic. Frosta has no traits other than being annoying and a nuisance. These characters are supposed to be considered important to us but it just makes me think "uughhhhh, not these guys again, when are the cool characters going to show up".

And I'm not saying flawed characters shouldn't exist - some of my favorite characters like Zuko, Yuichiro Hyakuya, Will Vandom, Sakura Kyoko, Yennefer of Vengerberg and Trevor Belmont are MASSIVELY flawed. But Noelle Stevenson refuses to EXPLORE these flaws and leaves the characters one dimensional and like cardboard cutouts. She refuses to develop and experiment with them, leaving them boring and forgettable. The few characters that ARE flawed and explored in terms of their flaws are Hordak, Adora, Catra and Glimmer. And in a cast full of characters that only has FOUR 3 dimensional characters isn't a good thing.

Glimmer was my favorite character in the show, being a cutie who actually wants change and strives to it, and doesn't give up despite her imperfections. I shipped her with Adora throughout the show. Bow is an unnecessary addition that serves no purpose apart from being her only friend and the peacekeeper when things get out of hand. They had lots of opportunities - they could have made his knowledge help the cast figure stuff out, like Sokka in ATLA, but we only saw his knowledge being utilized in a few episodes. We also don't see much of his parents despite them being more interesting (one of them has a backstory that the Horde burned his village to ash). Nope, they're there for the sake of representation and not seen again.

My least favorite character would have to be Catra, being both physically and emotionally abusive to Adora, and has an ambiguous disorder reminiscent of Borderline Personality Disorder. As someone with BPD, I understand bitterness and fear of abandonment and how it feels to be the unfavorite child. I admit that I also had a childhood similar to hers. But that doesn't mean that her horrible actions are justifiable. Her actions cause Scorpia to defect, and she hurts innocent people like Entrapta in her desire for revenge and bitterness. She's easily forgiven for all the people she hurts, and the show expects us to do it too.

The villains are more sympathetic than the heroes, because while the princess alliance bicker over things like plans and squabble over things that make them come off as gigantic brats, Hordak, Entrapta and Scorpia are actually shown to have problems that they want to overcome, making them vastly more fleshed out and relatable. Hordak and Entrapta were my favorite shipping due to how they kept pushing one another to be better people ('imperfection is beautiful'). Contrast that to Perfuma who's biggest problem is "muh cacti" and defaults to the same old idea of meditation in dire situations. I swear, the princess alliance act like the Disney princesses from Robot Chicken. They never have any major heavy problems. You know your doing your job wrong when oppressive genociding space colonizers come off as more sympathetic than the main characters. Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio were more worthy of screentime too, especially Kyle, who strived to do the right thing despite his weaknesses. We also have Swift Wind and Seahawk amongst the main characters, who are the Minions of the show.

The flash animation is horrid and doesn't suit the show, and the character design is meh. I don't understand the controversy about Adora looking like a male, but I do think Glimmer and Scorpia have the most gorgeous designs. Double Trouble has the worst, and in particular puts me off with the fact that they are a negative stereotype of homosexuals (the gay accent and flamboyantness).

The plot....isn't anything new or unique or special. TV Tropes has a whole list of plots similar to finding out your destiny is something sinister. I wish Mara had a bigger role, that could have spiced things up.

People will praise this show for the representation, which is dumb in my opinion, because a show should be judged based on its merits, not identity politics. I feel that this show was more concerned with LGBT representation rather than telling a good and original story. And if you want representation, shouldn't it be positive? Because as I mentioned earlier, the main sapphic relationship of the show is abusive, with Catra blaming all her problems on Adora and physically harming her. Adora had to tell her to live with her choice and PUNCH her to get her off her back. That's NOT what I would call "positive representation". Their relationship is toxic on several levels. Imo, Glimmer x Adora should have been canon, they had a beautiful relationship and I loved it.

Don't go into this show with high expectations, if you like the plot and aesthetic it's for you but I really didn't like it.
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1/10
MY EYES! THIS MOVIE BURNED MY EYES!
16 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
M Night Shayamalan has completed his quest to make us lose our faith in humanity by making this awful, awful film. I criticize the cinemas who showed this film for not offering free healthcare right after because this film should be classified as a nationwide threat along COVID 19.

"Highlights" of this film are

  • whitewashing
  • "Ong"
  • The protagonist is a crybaby
  • Yue's hair is an interesting shape
  • Did you think Zuko was a whiny manchild in the original? Behold, he's a bigger one here!
  • Earthbenders putting all their energy into bending....only to reveal they're capable of moving a tiny floating rock
  • The earthbenders being imprisoned despite BEING CAPABLE TO ESCAPE BECAUSE THEY'RE ON THEIR ELEMENT
  • Ozai's glowing behind
  • Katara defeats a guy by grabbing his arms
  • "And you think my son might be this person?" (very long pause) "... YEEEEEES!"
  • Ozai's actor forgot his lines and stared at the camera
  • "ITS TIME FOR YOU TO STOP DOING THIS"
  • Sokka is implied to have HIT Katara, as she cowers and covers her head after accidentally drenching him
  • "We were forced under the water of the ocean."


Don't watch this, The Ember Island adaptation exists.
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The Boys (2019– )
9/10
Wacky, brilliant and gives a middle finger to the superhero genre
16 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The Boys is nuanced take on idealization and what power can do to corrupt you. It takes everything you know of superheroes and makes you terrified of it. It keeps you on your toes and then makes you jump with joy.

The series is about Hughie, who seeks revenge for his girlfriend being killed by a hero. After being found by Billy Butcher, he joins a team known as "The Boys" - with the analytic MM, a Frenchman who's off his meds and a little girl who's cute and psycho. The Boys use their wacky traits to the maximum to defeat Vought, the company that produces heroes, crushing their plans at every turn. Billy in particular wants to kill the most famous and popular hero Homelander, an obvious parody of Superman.

Things get messy when Hughie crosses paths with Annie January/Starlight, a new hero who's a member of The Seven. They're in love despite their opposing sides, but they never let go of the good they see in one another and she saves his life in the final episode when he believes she let him go. Being the only hero on the roster who has good in her heart, she suffers a lot for it, barely tolerated by her teammates sans the cynic Queen Maeve, but nevertheless persists.

Kimiko, a girl trafficked from Japan, who was made into an emotionless monster by Vought for their nefarious activities, finds out that even though she is seen as someone to be despised and deep in pain she is still worthy of being loved, and the person who teaches her this is no other than the Frenchman who makes LSD martinis. The Frenchman, deriding love as insignificant, sees the beauty in her. He makes her want to change for the better and move on despite her pain.

Billy Butcher is a Brit who's an a******* and his attitude is unapologetic and what leads the team. This man is the biggest prick and you still root for him because he's that brilliant. Seriously, if you enjoy the awesomeness and absurd, give this show a watch.
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KILL la KILL (2013–2014)
10/10
Shows the value of power and what believing in yourself can do
15 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Kill la Kill is a masterpiece that reiterates again the concept of genuity over perfection - when new student Ryuko Matoi shows up at Honnoji Academy, challenging the head Satsuki Kiryuinn, the whole school is out to get her. However, due to the fact that they believe in perfection and borrowed power rather than building themselves up and their own strength, they fail and Ryuko comes out on top. One of the most creative, fun and original anime I've seen in a while.
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The Powerpuff Girls (1998–2004)
8/10
My childhood
15 September 2020
I used to watch this show everyday as a kid. It was so relatable and I feel the main 3 girls perfectly capture what it means to be a kid. It explores their personalities and how their actions affect the daily lives of others as superheroes at the same time. And any show with a villain like Mojo Jojo deserves a high rating.
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Hereditary (2018)
10/10
This is how you do a horror movie, take notes
15 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Hereditary does what most horror films hopes to achieve but fails at - have interesting and compelling lore while being scary at the same time. No cramming information down your throat, no jumpscares, no unnecessary violence, no cliches, it's a pure psychological roadtrip to hell and back.

When Annie's mother dies, she doesn't know that during her lifetime she made a deal with the devil in exchange for wealth and riches, and her family are the ones who suffer for it. After feeling like she lost everything, she is targeted by the cult, who claim to be her allies in going through the pain but their inner motives are more sinister, and something she can't prevent no matter how much she tries. But she only realizes it after it's too late.

This film will shake you and it's something you definitely would not want to watch again.
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Parasite (2019)
10/10
Forces pro capitalists to face an uncomfortable truth
15 September 2020
Only one film in the world can do that and it's this one.
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10/10
This isn't a show, it's art about philosophy
15 September 2020
Take everything you've read about morality and honor, combine with Asian culture and martial arts, add some elements and you get Avatar. It follows Aang, an air nomad, who must awaken his secret powers after his nation is genocided by the king of the fire nation, a madman obsessed with honor and proving superiority. A man that drives his children two completely different paths of achieving honor in his quest to be on top of the world, siblings who's struggles mirror the deutragonist and her brother had they been evil about it. With a compassionate uncle, a girl who sees her blindness as an advantage rather than a hindrance and a cabbage obsessed man, both Aang and the prince of the fire nation rediscover what it means to have honor.
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8/10
The greatest show of its time
15 September 2020
I swear, this was the best show of its time, it captures the spirit of old Cartoon Network. Slapstick humor, flawed but sympathetic characters, absurdism in the terms of humor and unapologetic dark humor. This was my childhood.
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