WandaVision (2021)

WandaVision is a 9 episode TV show, officially part of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As the title suggests, it focuses on Wanda and Vision, which is interesting considering the events of Avengers: Endgame. It starts off very weird as it takes on the tone of a 1950s sitcom, complete with canned laughter and presented in black and white. It’s hard to tell what is up with the plot or where it is going, because it plays the sitcom aspect straight.

Wanda and Vision are married and had just moved into their new place. Wanda is a housewife while Vision is a typical salaried man. It deals with mundane events like how Vision wants to impress his boss who is coming over for dinner, while Wanda has the neighborhood ladies to worry about. Both Wanda and Vision retain their powers but it is played down (i.e. no superhero stuff).

At least the writing is strong enough to carry the show such that it still manages to keep your attention. The sitcom style moves through the decades, so one episode will be in a 1950s style, then the next will be 1960s, complete with poorer image quality, then to 1970s with color. It has the typical sitcom humor with in-jokes that references the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It helps that there are oddities happening in the show, where Wanda and Vision both would feel something might be wrong but are forced to shrug it off. It helps that by the end of the first episode, it’s teasing the behind-the-scenes aspect of this weird premise and concept, so that you know an explanation and a big reveal should be forthcoming soon.

The big reveal comes in parts and the show becomes very interesting as a result one-third of the way in. It has an intriguing and mysterious feel to it given that the characters are also as confused as the viewers. Seeing it play it, while the characters are trying to understand it, makes it feel as if you are all in this together. It’s such a unique premise and it is impressive that it manages to make this whole sitcom thing work so naturally.

The sitcom elements start to slow fade away towards the end of the season, which is no surprise considering the real plot finally comes to light and shifts the focus away. The show becomes more focused, leading to a faster paced finale. Ultimately, this is a story about the rise of Scarlet Witch, diving deeper into Wanda’s backstory and her powers. It also shows off some of the more mundane, or human consequences, of the blip and the aftermath from Endgame. It’s these small touches that help make the show an integral part of the MCU. So while it is a slow burn and has nowhere near the same visual spectacle in terms of display of powers and abilities for most of the season, it surprises you in different ways, including some cool cameos.

The final episode and climax of the whole season is what you would expect from a typical Marvel movie. It’s got high production values with flashy combat, powers, and scenery. The villain feels shoehorned in right at the end since there wasn’t too much foreshadowing. That said, the performances of all the actors and actresses were excellent, every character felt genuine and convincing.

Overall, WandaVision is a very unique take. It has a slow and confusing start and the payoff in the end is so so. It’s not bad but it is not amazing either. Some of the characters can feel superfluous and the show relies heavily on nostalgia and being up to date with the MCU. It’s got high production values, especially for a TV show but the slower pacing of the medium can be jarring if you’re used to the lighter faster movies.

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For other reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

DJMax Respect V (PC)

DJMax Respect V is a port of the PS4 version with additional game modes and songs. This is a rhythm game and you can use either a controller or keyboard. Annoyingly though, the tutorial text refers to the keyboard controls, so it can be a little bit confusing. During gameplay, the onscreen prompts will show the proper controller or keyboard controls depending on which one you’re using. There are various difficulties, the easiest using only four buttons that map to two of the d-pad and two of the face buttons. The hardest difficulty will use eight buttons.

It has typical rhythm game gameplay and controls. On a vertical section of the screen, notes will fall from the top. As the notes reaches the bar near the bottom, you will need to use the button associated to that column. These note prompts are usually in time with the music. Additional prompts include ones where you hold a button down, or notes that you use the analogue stick instead. Unfortunately for newcomers, or players who haven’t gotten their muscle memory quite right yet, then it can be a pain to play in the beginning. The controls only show up at the beginning of the song and then fade away, so it can be a struggle to remember which button to press for which column.

The default note speed, which is the speed that the notes drop, is at the slowest setting of 1. Newcomers might not realise this but pushing it up will make the tracks easier because this will space out the notes rather than bunching them all up together. If you slowly increment upwards as you get used to a faster and fast speed, you’ll find yourself improving and your instinct will allow you to hit most, if not, all of the notes. You will need to find a balance given that a higher speeds, the starts start to have long tails and moves very fast so it may be even harder to view.

The note maps are designed well because the notes matches with the music extremely well. As you correctly hit the notes, it will effectively complete the song. Conversely, mistime it, and it will sound off. Even once you get used to the controls, the difficulty of the game is brutal. Yes, it will train you to get better and better but even with the songs that have difficulties at half of the maximum, it can already feel intense and crazy with hot fast and numerous the notes are. There is a health bar that goes down when you miss notes and you will regain some when you hit them. Lose all your health and the track will end prematurely in failure. On harder difficulties, if you miss one or two, it can be hard to catch back up and get back into the rhythm.

The game can be lenient though in that you can hit the wrong note, but since it is not the note you were supposed to it, it won’t register it as an error. You can actually save yourself from breaking the combo by pressing the correct note as long as it hasn’t passed the bottom bar. You’ll need this in higher difficulties if you’re not good but even so it’s a small reprieve. And of course, your objective is not to even do this in the first place as you improve your skills.

There’s a combo meter that increases as you hit notes, with even higher counts once you hit fever (triggered by hitting max 100% notes, aka perfect timing). The combo meter carries over from song to song so it only resets if you break it by missing a note. It’s quite a good implementation as it keeps you going and playing more and more songs to reach a theoretically infinite combo. Finishing a song will give you experience points ot level up. Each level up to the 99th level will unlock a new song. Unfortunately, after level 30 or so, it’ll be a massive grind.

In each song, an animation plays in the background. You can turn this off if you wish and remove the distraction. If you manage to hit all the notes in a track, it’ll unlock the music video that you can watch at your leisure. This is a good incentive to replay tracks and aim for those. Of course, you’ll also get a ranking at the end. Still, with how ruthless and relentless the difficulty can get, you wonder if you can ever improve enough to attempt the harder songs without getting overwhelmed. It can be frustrating in this aspect as it feels like it biases towards more experienced players. Still, newcomers can keep playing the easier songs to slowly improve but it really depends on how much patience and persistence you have.

The game has a ton of content, even in just the base game. This game has seemingly infinite DLC but even without those, there’s so much to do here from the sheer number of tracks available. There are a lot of different difficulties that completely changes the playstyle given it actually adds additional buttons to press and need to relearn your muscle memory. There are over 170 tracks in the base game before DLC. Most of the tracks are Korean songs, with vocals or are instrumental, along with a scattering of licensed songs. A big chunk are songs found in the previous games DJMax Portable and DJMax Portable 2, along with new songs for this game.

There are several modes available, the main one is Free Style where you can play any songs that you have unlocked. Mission mode has you play through a playlist and fulfil specific objectives. They start off easy but quickly become difficulty. Air Mode is a sort of weird online mode that has you playing a song, but you will be able to see player comments. You can also just let it auto-play and type in comments yourself. However, by this point, all the player comments are either gibberish or pointless rubbish.

Overall, DJMax Respect V is a great rhythm game that has a ton of content. It has so much value and will keep you busy for hours. It is perfect for experienced players but there is a high difficulty curve for newcomers. Even the easier tracks can be difficult so you will need to practice practice practice in order to improve and be able to attempt the harder songs. The way to unlock new tracks, which is by leveling up, is fine at first but the rate slows down to a crawl after around level 30 and becomes too much of a grind.

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For other game reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

1)DJMax Respect V is a
port of the PS4 version with additional game modes and songs. This is a rhythm
game and you can use either a controller or keyboard. Annoyingly though, the
tutorial text refers to the keyboard controls, so it can be a little bit
confusing. During gameplay, the onscreen prompts will show the proper
controller or keyboard controls depending on which one you’re using. There are
various difficulties, the easiest using only four buttons that map to two of
the d-pad and two of the face buttons. The hardest difficulty will use eight
buttons.

1)DJMax Respect V is a
port of the PS4 version with additional game modes and songs. This is a rhythm
game and you can use either a controller or keyboard. Annoyingly though, the
tutorial text refers to the keyboard controls, so it can be a little bit
confusing. During gameplay, the onscreen prompts will show the proper
controller or keyboard controls depending on which one you’re using. There are
various difficulties, the easiest using only four buttons that map to two of
the d-pad and two of the face buttons. The hardest difficulty will use eight
buttons.

1)DJMax Respect V is a
port of the PS4 version with additional game modes and songs. This is a rhythm
game and you can use either a controller or keyboard. Annoyingly though, the
tutorial text refers to the keyboard controls, so it can be a little bit
confusing. During gameplay, the onscreen prompts will show the proper
controller or keyboard controls depending on which one you’re using. There are
various difficulties, the easiest using only four buttons that map to two of
the d-pad and two of the face buttons. The hardest difficulty will use eight
buttons.

1)DJMax Respect V is a
port of the PS4 version with additional game modes and songs. This is a rhythm
game and you can use either a controller or keyboard. Annoyingly though, the
tutorial text refers to the keyboard controls, so it can be a little bit
confusing. During gameplay, the onscreen prompts will show the proper
controller or keyboard controls depending on which one you’re using. There are
various difficulties, the easiest using only four buttons that map to two of
the d-pad and two of the face buttons. The hardest difficulty will use eight
buttons.

1)DJMax Respect V is a
port of the PS4 version with additional game modes and songs. This is a rhythm
game and you can use either a controller or keyboard. Annoyingly though, the
tutorial text refers to the keyboard controls, so it can be a little bit
confusing. During gameplay, the onscreen prompts will show the proper
controller or keyboard controls depending on which one you’re using. There are
various difficulties, the easiest using only four buttons that map to two of
the d-pad and two of the face buttons. The hardest difficulty will use eight
buttons.

1)DJMax Respect V is a
port of the PS4 version with additional game modes and songs. This is a rhythm
game and you can use either a controller or keyboard. Annoyingly though, the
tutorial text refers to the keyboard controls, so it can be a little bit
confusing. During gameplay, the onscreen prompts will show the proper
controller or keyboard controls depending on which one you’re using. There are
various difficulties, the easiest using only four buttons that map to two of
the d-pad and two of the face buttons. The hardest difficulty will use eight
buttons.

1)DJMax Respect V is a
port of the PS4 version with additional game modes and songs. This is a rhythm
game and you can use either a controller or keyboard. Annoyingly though, the
tutorial text refers to the keyboard controls, so it can be a little bit
confusing. During gameplay, the onscreen prompts will show the proper
controller or keyboard controls depending on which one you’re using. There are
various difficulties, the easiest using only four buttons that map to two of
the d-pad and two of the face buttons. The hardest difficulty will use eight
buttons.

1)DJMax Respect V is a
port of the PS4 version with additional game modes and songs. This is a rhythm
game and you can use either a controller or keyboard. Annoyingly though, the
tutorial text refers to the keyboard controls, so it can be a little bit
confusing. During gameplay, the onscreen prompts will show the proper
controller or keyboard controls depending on which one you’re using. There are
various difficulties, the easiest using only four buttons that map to two of
the d-pad and two of the face buttons. The hardest difficulty will use eight
buttons.

1)DJMax Respect V is a
port of the PS4 version with additional game modes and songs. This is a rhythm
game and you can use either a controller or keyboard. Annoyingly though, the
tutorial text refers to the keyboard controls, so it can be a little bit
confusing. During gameplay, the onscreen prompts will show the proper
controller or keyboard controls depending on which one you’re using. There are
various difficulties, the easiest using only four buttons that map to two of
the d-pad and two of the face buttons. The hardest difficulty will use eight
buttons.

1)DJMax Respect V is a
port of the PS4 version with additional game modes and songs. This is a rhythm
game and you can use either a controller or keyboard. Annoyingly though, the
tutorial text refers to the keyboard controls, so it can be a little bit
confusing. During gameplay, the onscreen prompts will show the proper
controller or keyboard controls depending on which one you’re using. There are
various difficulties, the easiest using only four buttons that map to two of
the d-pad and two of the face buttons. The hardest difficulty will use eight
buttons.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (2021)

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation is an anime based upon the light novel series. The first season was split into two parts, totalling 23 episodes, and an OVA that was released afterwards. It follows a jobless and reclusive mid-thirties man who dies in a traffic accident but is reincarnated into a fantasy world. He reincarnates starting from a baby (similar to The Saga of Tanya the Evil), retaining his memories and after discovering his magical gifts, he resolves to actually put in the effort in this life instead of wasting it.

As Rudeus, as he is named in this life, retains his memories even as a baby, it can be kind of creepy and weird since he has the thoughts and experience of an adult… but in the form of a young kid. The anime does address this and makes some humor out of it. It isn’t afraid to reference this whether it is explicitly or implicitly. An interesting take on the premise is that given that Rudeus was such a recluse in his original life, he’s still wearing the scars and trauma from it, so it continues to affect him now. Once his backstory is revealed and how he became such a person back then, you do feel pity for him, until he reverts to his “perverse middle aged guy” schtick, which just does not sit well when he has the appearance of a five year old.

It spends some time to build the premise, given that it doesn’t time-skip his toddler and youth stages, but already we are shown that he has an unusually significant gift, which is good and bad. Bad in that he struck lucky and being overpowered is an isekai protagonist trope, but good in that it’s always fun to see the protagonist overpowered. It takes a while to get going, as the early episodes slowly chronicles his early life, slowly building up his confidence to go outside, meeting new friends, and growing as a person.

The other unique aspect of the anime is its plot threads. Sure, it has the usual lines of the protagonist getting strong, adjusting to the world, and in general getting better at what they do. But on the other hand, it has some more down to earth events, things that you would not expect it to cover, from his parental relationships to family issues that feels downright too realistic for the fantasy genre. It seems no matter which world you’re in, there are some issues that will always exist.

Since Rudeus retained his memories, he has constant inner monologues, spoken in his adult voice, so there’s some dissonance. His dirty thoughts and consequential actions are the main source of fan service. Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, given he’s younger than ten years old, it’s a bit disturbing. It’s not helped that later on, he ends up pairing with others around his age, and considering that the anime goes further in its depictions than normal, this can lead to unsettling scenes that detracts from the better and more intriguing aspects.

The slice-of-life events continue on, and Rudeus, as well as the viewers, learn piecemeal some of the facts about this world that he is in. Just when you thought the whole season might be this meandering pace, it suddenly throws in a big curveball event out of nowhere, instantly upping the ante. The tone and content then shifts towards something more typical of the isekai genre. All of a sudden, Rudeus’s life is turned upside down, and instead of the relatively peaceful life that he has had thus far, he’s in constant danger in an unfamiliar surrounding, but at the same time, doing stuff that adventurers do.

The second half of the season feels completely different, and less serious at first. Rudeus forms an adventuring group, does a lot of what you would consider fun adventuring stuff, and even he admits he is enjoying it. This is despite the terrible things that he sees and experiences, as well as trudging through an unfamiliar land. Even so, when he finally reaches the end of that journey, it can be unfair that he is forced to bear a lot of blame and guilt. Yes, it can seem bad of him to seemingly have fun without a care in the world while others he knew were in trouble, but at the same time, he was also put into a precarious situation.

Throughout Rudeus’s journey though, despite having over 40 years of experience given his past life, he can still act like a child. Perhaps it is a result of him wasting his initial 30 years of life, but Rudeus can make some idiotic situations, or unable to fully grasp his current situation. He acts like a childish teenager without nothing in his mind but lust. So while he is technically mature for his physical age, he’s very immature for his mental age, and this has significant ramifications in his life. Several times, a situation could have been easily defused or resolved if not for his terrible plans that go awry or his indecisions that allow the situation to become worse.

The most unique thing about the anime is while it does have the big scale world ending stuff that happens to Rudeus, a lot of the problems that he faces is much more personal. Some of the best scenes this season are the very real feelings that one would face when dealing with their own family, fighting them, being angry at them, and reconciling with them. The way that this anime deals and resolves those issues is more mature than you would expect and evokes very real feelings from the viewer. That’s not to say that Rudeus doesn’t have the same kind of epic experience that a typical isekai protagonist would, because the final episodes of the season has a hefty amount of worldbuilding.

One of the best things about the anime is also how you get to watch the characters develop, grow up, and mature. Given that we literally watch Rudeus grow up, and with the second half of the season eventually focusing on Eris (pretty much confirmed to be his love interest), and Ruijerd, the trio forms a formidable party. Yet there is the constant theme of goodbyes to characters and having to move on just as you’re getting used to them, the anime manages to capture this very well.

The season also ends on a good, but not perfect, stopping point, as you can feel it reaches near the end of its arc but is not quite there. There was a significant development in the final episode, and it doesn’t help that it buckles the trend of having only good things happen in anime, with Rudeus discovering some sad news. The OVA is also nice in that it is an extra episode that slots in during an earlier arc, where it was significant enough that you’d feel that something happened, but not so much to derail the current arc.

Overall, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation is surprisingly good. While it can be weird at first, especially when you consider the premise of an adult shut-in suddenly reborn with all his memories intact as a baby in another world, it manages to blend adult and adolescent themes quite well. The story can be aimless at first, but after the sudden shift in tone and content from the middle of the season, it slowly builds from before in a good pay-off, going in a different direction than expected, especially when you get to see the characters growing up and maturing. The anime also buckles the trend of only having good things happen, as Rudeus and everyone else experiences their fair share of tragedies. The fact that the anime manages to resist making Rudeus overpowered to the point of curbstomping everyone is icing on the cake, making him much more likeable and relatable.

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Toy Review: Transformers Cyberverse Slug (Deluxe)

Review:  #758

Name:  Slug

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Cyberverse

Year of Release:  2021

Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 7)

Mold Status:  new

ALTERNATE MODE:

Slug is the final new mold in the Cyberverse Deluxe line and he is a Dinobot, transforming into a robotic triceratops.

He's heavily inspired by his G1 incarnation, but stylized in the Cyberverse aesthetic.  This is a fairly good mode and looks pretty good.

He's compact for the size, above is a comparison against TLK Bumblebee.

He's somewhat poseability but still fairly limited.  You can only move the legs, and open the mouth.

The robot weapons peg onto his back and they don't actually look too bad.

A solid mode overall.

TRANSFORMATION:

He's simple, as you can imagine, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun.  The back unfolds to form the legs, while the front folds back to reveal the head, and then you can pull the shoulders and arms out before snapping the torso back into place.  The torso actually requires a bit more steps than you'd expected as it rotates and extends.

ROBOT MODE:

Slug's robot mode is also very similar to what you would expect of a typical Dinobot, so there are no surprises here.

He has plenty of kibble, the main one being the dinosaur head on his back, but this is a feature of the character design so it's hard to fault the toy on this.

The head sculpt is fine, with Slug having a grimace.

In terms of size, he is a bit short, although despite the typical hollow limbs, he doesn't feel too light or cheap in hand.

In comparison to the only other Dinobot, Grimlock, they look okay together.  The main reason is that their shades of grey and gold are different, so they do not like a unified team.

Articulation is fine, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

Slug comes with two weapons, a gun and an axe.  Rounding it off is a fire blast effects part.

He can use the hold in either hand.

The fire blast effects part can peg onto the end of the gun.

Similarly, he can use the axe in either hand.

The ankle tilts are very useful in robot mode, more than you would expect.

A neat aspect of the figure is how you can combine the two weapons.  The axe slots into a groove on top of the gun, adding a third barrel and it actually looks very decent.

Alternatively, the weapons can store on his back.

A fantastic robot mode in the end.

OVERALL:

You might not be able to tell from the stock photos, but Slug is actually a fairly decent Deluxe.  He's still succumbs to the Cyberverse philosophy of cost cutting and simplified transformations, but for what it is within those limitations, Slug does well.

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