The Strain Season Two: Fallen Light

Abraham and Palmer both prepare for the bidding war for the Occido Lumen meanwhile Gus and Angel recruitment some more help from the local prison.

I admit for an episode that is before the finale this one didn't have as much impact as I thought it would but I will say what I first liked about it. Firstly the best subplot in this episode was the one involving Councilwoman Feraldo and if I haven't said so before she is defiantly one of my favourite characters on the Strain and I hope she sticks around for a long time. She had some strong scenes where she butted heads with the mayor because she pissed off the rich of NY while having the support of the cops. In everyone of her scenes she makes me completely join her side of things with her dialogue and the way she takes action; like how she argues that it is her cops on the line fighting the vampires while the rich can't fork over a bit of tax. Palmer may think that he can manipulate her (which is why he seems to be supporting her) but no, no I thought, Palmer isn't going to control her so easily lol. The other best subplot was the one with Gus and Angel where they liberated the prisoners to join in Quinlan's army and gave us some tense action scenes which where the only ones in this episode. It is cool seeing Gus take charge because he actually seems like a capable leader but it was really awesome seeing Angel so badass when he shot one of the rouge prisoners at the end. With the way the episode ended we'll probably see them fight Abraham's group first before the Master and wouldn't it be really cool to see Abraham vs. Angel? Speaking of Abraham his alliance with the Ancients is an interesting gamble but I just want someone to get the freaking Occido Lumen already so we can see how important it is!

As for everything else this episode sees Nikki leaving NY and I hope this is the last time we will see her because I have hated her since she first came back. They never even bothered to make her likable or even fleshed out her character in any way; the only thing she has done is ruin Dutch's character for me. This better be the end of this romantic triangle for good because I am sick of watching Dutch obsess over Nikki when they haven't made us care about it and I want Fet back to his old self rather than brooding over his relationship with Dutch. Another disappointment is they fact that Coco has completely gotten over how she was healed and has fully embraced what she is a part of now with out us seeing a single second of it! What a waste of an opportunity, I wanted to see her reaction to the existence of vampires and how the hell did Palmer convince her to join him!? While that was a shame I liked the mention that Palmer and Coco need more of the White to survive because while this is some good new info I seriously doubt Palmer wants to have that threat constantly dangled in front of him. We might see him (maybe not in the finale but next season) make some moves against Eichorst or even the Master to get more White or be turned fully into a vampire. Finally the scenes with Eph, Nora and Zach where good like Zach having a nice emotional moment on the phone with his grandparents and the fact Eph finally may have found a safe haven for him. However it is the Flashbacks that really stood out because this really developed the relationship between Eph and Nora a bit more which has been neglected this season and it was really nice seeing Sean Astin as Jim once again.

Overall this episode did have some good moments but it really failed to build excitement for the finale which usually is the job of the one before last.

SCORE: 6/10

Highlights: Feraldo steals the episode
                   Prison breakout with Gus and Angel
                   Flashbacks

Let - Downs: Dutch and Nikki subplot
                      Coco accepting things already?
                      Feels like a normal episode rather than build excitement for the finale

The Flash Season Two: The Darkness And The Light

A new take on Dr Light

Team Flash must deal with the arrival of two more newcomers from Earth 2; Harrison Wells and Dr Light, the latter sent by Zoom to deal with the Flash.

Does Tom Cavanagh knows how to steal the show or what!? It is a testament to his great acting skills that he can play a character who is the same yet different to who he was in Season One. I will first get out of the way with something I didn't like straight away in the episode and that was the beginning because what has happened to King Shark and Barry first reaction to Wells was completely glossed over. We have no idea what happened to King Shark, where they put him or if the CPD where even notified. Then there is the fact that the episode opens up with Barry having brought Wells to STAR labs yet we never saw Barry's initial reaction to seeing him again or whether he asked him any questions? Luckily this was overshadowed by the great return of Wells and I loved his interactions with the other characters and the reactions to seeing him. Like the fact that this Wells seems to be a lot more aggressive and ill mannered than the other one, having no problem speaking his mind or anger to other characters like Cisco or Jay. It was cool to see that Cisco, after admiring Wells so much last season, butts heads with him in every scene and is so annoyed with him that he calls him Harry lol. It was also cool to see him and Jay share such mistrust for each other; Jay not trusting Wells because of him profiting from the Meta Humans in Earth 2 (great to see some scenes with it) and Wells not trusting Jay because of how he has failed to stop Zoom and then having a right punch up with him!. Seems like Wells will still be playing a mentor role but the fact he also created the Meta Humans in Earth 2 makes me think he has a few secrets. One more thing though that bothered me with this subplot was the scenes with Joe like him opening fire on Wells straight away I just thought "what a prick" couldn't he be bothered to hear Team Flash's explanation and the fact he gave Iris a gun just really bothers me too.

What I badass costume!

As for the rest of the episode I really liked the character of Dr Light because besides being a new female Meta Human with cool powers it gives Linda Park a great twist to her character (she was underused last season). I enjoyed seeing her powers and costume a lot and her fights with the Flash because we got to see Barry use those cool speed mirages! What was also interesting about her character was that she wasn't really bad like Atom Smasher and Sand Demon, even Jay said she could be reasoned with, but it is her fear of Zoom that made her desperate. That is what I like about Zoom, he hasn't been in it yet much but his power and presence is instilling so much fear in people; for example we got some great scenes with Jay who explained his crippling fear of Zoom, this gave us a better insight into his character. Of course I am also loving the look of Zoom at the end with Wells kidnapped daughter; they did a truly awesome job of making his costume, his mask, look pure evil and again with help from the great voice of Tony Todd. A few more things to talk about is that I thought Barry's date with Patty was so well done and brought a lot of good humour in the episode with Cisco helping a blind Barry as his wingman. As I have said before Barry with Patty is way better than him with Iris because they have so much chemistry together and are a cute couple. Finally I am glad Cisco's powers are out in the open now and that he took the name Vibe and that we can look forward to him developing his powers more. I also liked the cameo with Kendra Sanders AKA Hawkgirl (Ciara Renee) and we got some good humour with her and Cisco but I'm not bothered about a relationship with Cisco because she is going on LOT soon with Hawkman and I am a Lisa and Cisco fan anyway.

"Soz but I don't do free interviews"

Overall this was the great first part of a two episode arc and did a good job of bringing Tom Cavanagh back as a regular and gave us more on Zoom. Oh yeah thought I'd add I noticed the Aquaman reference when Jay mentioned Atlantis and that was really cool!

SCORE: 8/10

Highlights: Return on Wells/Great new twist for Linda Park as Dr Light
                   More on Zoom
                   Great mixture of light humour that fit in well with the episode

Let - Downs: Glossed over fate of King Shark and Barry's first meeting Wells
                      Joe bothered me a lot

The great screenshots of these episodes where provided by the great site Screencapped. You can look for yourself from the link below;





http://screencapped.net/

Anime Review: Death Note (The Kira Arc)

Been a while but I thought I'd finally get round to reviewing an anime that I have had for years and is so iconic that I would have had to review it at some point; Death Note. Now if you are wondering why it says Kira Arc next to the title that is because I am splitting my Death Note Reviews in to three parts; The Kira Arc, The Yotsuba Arc and The Near and Mello Arc. The reasons I am doing this because each of these Arc are quite different from each other so I think it is only fair to split up the anime and give them individual scores, plus I can focus more on each one. The Kira Arc is the first part of the anime which consists of episodes 1 - 17, also I do own the entire manga series of Death Note so I can make comparisons to it. Spoilers because I will go in to detail about the plot and characters because like most of my reviews this is for people who have watched it already.

Death Note is about a young adult named Light Yagami a senior in high school about to go to college who is also a genius and excels in everything. However he is extremely bored and resents that the world is full of evil like murder, rape, war and crime in general. Someone who also shares is boredom is a Shinigami named Ryuk who lives in the decaying Shinigami Realm, to rid himself of his boredom he decides to drop a Death Note in the Human World. A Death Note is a tool of a Shinigami that allows them to kill a Human as long as they know their name and face but it can be used by a Human and who just happens to pick it up but Light. Light decides to use the Death Note to rid the world of everyone who commits evil and takes the name Kira so that everyone will know that someone is in judgement of them. Unfortunately for Light the police will not accept Kira and have even brought in the world's greatest detective L to hunt him down.

The Death Note manga was written by Tsugumi Ohba who has only done Death Note and another manga I don't know however the anime was developed by Madhouse and I know quite a bit about their work. I know that Madhouse is really good at adapting serious manga in to anime with two of their most notable work in my opinion being Black Lagoon and Monster. It was also directed by Tetsuro Araki who directed Black Lagoon and would go on to direct two of my favourite anime High School of the Dead and Attack on Titan.

The series is a Detective/Psychological thriller with elementals of the supernatural because of the existence of Shinigami and a note book that can kill people. This first part of the anime mainly focuses on the mind games between L and Kira and seeing which one can outsmart the other and ultimately prevail. For a detective/crime story there are no big action sequences or shootouts because those aren't the type of people L and Kira are instead each one will make these elaborate plan to try and reveal each one's identity. This is the biggest draw of the series because when I first watched this it literally had me on the edge of my seat because L and Kira are such genius that you want to see who will make the mistake first because it will result in death for either one of them.

As for the characters Light is a really interesting protagonist since because of his genius level intelligence and the fact he possesses the Death Note he develops a God complex and feels that he is the only one who can lead the world on the right path. You do want to side with him because he is trying to make the world better however because of his God complex he has no qualms killing anyone who is after him or in his way be them L, the police just doing their jobs, anyone who finds out his identity or Death Note and he even considers kills his family several times. What I don't like about Light is his high level of arrogance and believing that he can never be wrong and I think that is intentional on Ohba's part because maybe he wanted to make some traits the audience won't like (after all he is the villain).

Now for Light opposite and you could say the real protagonist of the series because he is obviously the good guy; L or Ryuzaki as he likes to be called by others. L is one of my favourite characters because of his unique design, personality traits and intellect. He is like some mad, modern day Sherlock Holmes and just like him he can make accurate assumptions out of the littlest information. For example Light of cause is extremely careful in hiding the fact that he is Kira and to any normal detective there is no cause for suspicion but to L he nit picks so much of how Light acts and his personality that he believes that Light fits as Kira. L also provides a lot of light hearted and comedic moments which is what the series needs like the way he sits or his obsession with sweets.

As for the others characters Misa is really good as the Second Kira and the main reason she is designed was because Ohba wanted a cute girl character to work along side Light and for the most part he succeeded but she can be so over the top and stupid sometimes to the point of annoying. I do like her character but she sometimes seems more of a inconvenience created for Light's plan more than anything else. We also have the Shingami Ryuk and he is one of my favs because it is interesting having a none Human observing Light and making his own side comments. He also provides a lot of fun comedic moments because of his obsession with apples and that he knows less about the Death Note than Light. Finally we have the members of the Japanese Police Department who work along side L and while they are filled with likeable characters like Light's father and Matsuda but I feel there not as important as L and Light in the case. I understand why they are there however because you can't just have two super genius playing a cat and mouse game with each other, you need some more normal characters on the investigation and they do contribute because of L reluctance to show his face.

As for some notable parts in the first 17 episodes we have Light's dilemma in accepting Shinigami Eyes for half his life span which will allow him to see a person's name and life span. There are several moments when Light could really use those eyes but considers it out of the question because of the he does he create such ingenuous plans to get what he wants. Examples of this is the plan to get the names of 12 FBI agents for the real name of one of the FBI agent's wife. We also have the introduction of the Second Kira and a new Shinigami because its interesting to see someone with a completely different personality than Light possess a Death Note. Also there is Light's plan to free Misa from custody and I admit I wasn't sure how he was going to pull that one off and the plan continues in to the Yotsuba Arc.

Finally quickly mention the animation and soundtrack which are two of the best I have ever seen. Probably because of the lack of fast paced action scenes I quality of the animation for character designs, movement and overall look perfect such as Light's evil expressions and I really like how when a character is deep in thought the whole scene slows down and is in a shade of colour; Red for Light, Blue for L. For the soundtrack most of it is orchestral such as Kira's theme music which suits because of how Kira becomes a God - Like figure however my favourite one is L's theme. Also the voice acting is some of the best I have heard especially Alessandro Juliani as L.

Overall the first part of Death Note was a great start to the series and does a good job of establishing the characters and building them up. I recommend this anime but it might not be for everyone because you really have to be highly invested in each episode and you really have to pay attention to what is going on. Misa does let it down slightly because I find her a bit too much sometimes but that is just one small thing and she still is a good character.

SCORE: 8/10

Bleach Review: 554, Desperate Light

Now it is time for another review but this time I thought I would review the latest chapter of one of my favourite mangas; Bleach.

I will go over a quick summary of the events of this chapter and give you my thoughts of it; this will be full of spoilers for those who have not read it yet. It starts off with Bazz – B observing Chang Du being frozen solid by Toshiro Hitsugaya’s ice flower attack, annoyed with the fact that Chang Du took over the fight just to lose he walks away. It then cuts over to Toshiro who loses the hollow powers in his bankai before collapsing to the ground. After this we have a great shot of the four Sternritters who stole bankais during the previous invasion; Chang Du trapped in ice, BG9 with his helmet broken at the front and As Nodt and Bambietta Basterbine looking up at the sky while the bankais are taken away.

It then goes to Bambietta who does not care about losing the bankai and kills several Soul Reapers by some explosion technique. She says all this whilst thinking that he friends are behind her but then notices they are not before creating another large explosion. Shortly after this Sajin Komamura arrives, now sporting some cool looking armour but before they fight Shinji Hirako appears behind her and activates his Zanpakuto, Sakanade to invert Bambietta’s senses.

However while it seems to Soul Reapers are getting the upper hand, Yhwach comments from a top his throne that he is delighted by the fact that the Sternritter have lost their Bankais. They reason for this is explained by Bambietta that the bankai was getting in the way of their Vollstandig before promptly activating it. Seven Sternritter seem to activate their Vollstandig from the look of the fire pillars that are shown in the next shot. It ends with Mayuri Kurotsuchi commenting that this is bad for them while Kisuke Urahara gets a call from Ichigo Kurosaki.

I will start off by saying that this is a definite improvement over the last chapter which was basically a copy of the battles of Baraggan and Harribel in the fake Karakura town arc. Chang Du gets frozen in an ice pillar and BG9 gets blasted by Jakuho Raikoben, it was annoying that it was just the same. Still this chapter was really good because of Bambietta because I really like her character and it looks like we have a clue to her powers. The explosions she did make me think that her letter E stands for ‘The Explosion’ but I guess we will have to wait and see. Another high point was the teaming up Komamura and Shinji, sure they did not actually fight together but it is a start. Also I am glad we finally get to see the Vollstandig again but with other Sternritter. Of course the artwork was great; I think Kubo does his best work with the Sternritter.

However there are three points that do annoy me in this chapter and that was Bazz – B walking away when Toshiro had fallen. Toshiro is one of my least favourite Soul Reapers and I do not want him to live through these fights and Kubo keeps making up ways for him to live, Bazz – B had the perfect opportunity and he did not take it?

Another thing that bothered me is even with the use of the Vollstandig at the end there are still no real conclusions to the Chang Du and BG9 fights yet. Don’t get me wrong I have really enjoyed those fights but I want to see other Sternritter now.

One last thing is that if Yhwach is so glad that the bankais are all returned to the Soul Reapers then what was the point of stealing them in the first place? However I will forgive this one for now because the fact that it was blocking the Vollstandig was a really good reason (I guess Soul Reaper and Quincy powers just don’t mix) and because we finally get to see some more Vollstandig now.

In conclusion this was a solid chapter with a lot of potential for the next one; I just hope that the Soul Reapers do not come up with really quick ways to counter the Vollstandig like they did with the bankai stealing.

SCORE: 7/10