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Uzumaki (2024)
This review is for the entire series which just ended and was incredible.
In 2019, Adult Swim/Toonami released the trailer for Uzumaki and it may very well be one of the greatest trailers of all time. Haunting music, small pieces of what the show would be about, and a release date of sometime in 2020. It was confirmed that it would be rotoscoped animation for the entire series.
Rotoscoping is a time-consuming form of animation where real-life actors are recorded making movements and then every single frame is painstakingly illustrated over which creates an incredibly surreal and beautiful effect. With 24 frames per second, one minute of rotoscoped animation is 1440 unique frames of animation. With four episodes with a total of about 140 minutes of animation - this would be 201,600 unique frames. Now obviously there are going to be shots where things are not moving, so it is likely that the original rotoscope frames for the show would be in the ballpark of 150,000 unique frames of rotoscoped animation.
Then the Covid-19 pandemic happened and the show went into development hell. For five years, Uzumaki remained not cancelled, but had no release date. There were several teasers, but there was a high likelihood it would be cancelled. The HBO/Discovery merger, which included Adult Swim/Toonami, saw dozens of great shows cancelled and people believed it was only a matter of time before Uzumaki suffered the same fate. Then in summer of 2024, a release date was finally given for all four episodes in September/October.
Let's get the animation issues out of the way because the way the community has lambasted this show is ridiculous. Arm chair animators who have no idea the amount of work that went into this show are giving it low scores and become the vocal minority of people who do not realize that without the changes in the final version, the show would have never been released.
Episode one is fully rotoscoped and this was likely finished prior to Covid-19. Episodes 2-4 are partially rotoscoped, however there is a decline in animation quality in a number of parts. Without these concessions, the show would never have been released. The animation is still very well done in the majority of episodes 2-4 and, though there are some parts that were obviously scaled back, the show still overall is animated better than the majority of animated shows.
The average viewer will not notice the animation changes in episodes 2-4 and it is so disappointing to see people not be able to see that the changes were needed to get the show out of development hell and released.
Uzumaki's plot, characters, setting, everything is 10/10. There is NOTHING ELSE like this show. It is incredibly original and absolutely haunting. It's a 10/10 show and I'm not going into the plot because I want the reader of this to go into the show without knowing much because it is just that good.
Uzumaki is a masterpiece, with part of the masterpiece being that it ACTUALLY RELEASED. 10/10.
Uzumaki: Episode #1.3 (2024)
Part three of the series hits its strongest narrative point yet.
To get it out of the way, the animation was more solid than episode two, but still not as fluid as episode one. It is no matter, episode three is incredible. This episode was easily the most focused as the majority of the episode took place in one location. The fact that they have been able to get so many of these stories woven together in a 130-150 minute mini-series is nothing short of incredible. There are numerous loose ends that are also tied together in this episode from the previous two episodes and it works really well.
This show somehow made it to reality against all odds and I am loving every minute of it. The final episode will be coming to wrap up this haunting, terrifying series and I cannot think of a better way that this could have made it from the manga into an animated series that millions of people will see and be pulled into the spiral.
Uzumaki: Episode #1.2 (2024)
Lower quality animation but still an excellent episode. It is a miracle this series wasn't cancelled.
Let's get this out of the way, there is a drop in animation quality as episodes 2-4 were done by a different studio with much less rotoscoping. There are animation errors and the pacing is jarring at times. Even still, it is a miracle that this show made it to release and episode two continues the creepy and unnerving vibe of episode one. I don't think many people realize how much the pandemic altered the arts and, while it sucks that this episode and the next two are done by a different studio and are not fully rotoscoped, this is what needed to be done to get the show released. The HBO/Discovery merger axed dozens of great shows and somehow Uzumaki spiraled its way out to release. This is still the best Ito animation adaptation and the show is still a top tier horror mini series.
Uzumaki: Episode #1.1 (2024)
It took half a decade to get here and it is marvelous.
It was five years ago. Five years ago when the teaser for Uzumaki was released. Colin Stetson's haunting Saxophone Screaming music and the disturbing imagery for the teaser left an unforgettable imprint; this would be THE Junji Ito animation adaptation that would finally do justice to his manga work.
Then the pandemic happened, HBO and Discovery merged, numerous shows were cancelled, and though several other trailers were released in the next several years, there was an unease that the show would never be released. Adding to this was a below average Junji Ito series released on Netflix two years ago which cast doubt on how good Uzumaki would be even if it did make it to release (this was not the fault of Ito, the animation and pacing for the Netflix series just did not work with the Ito's stories).
Uzumaki episode one just aired 30 minutes ago and it was worth the wait. The show is incredible. The rotoscoped animation is incredible. The soundtrack is haunting and beautiful. The pacing is perfect; the show wastes no time in setting the scene for the show and keeps it's foot on your windpipe in the way only the best thrillers can.
This will be regarded for decades as one of the greatest horror series of all time and I cannot wait for the next three episodes. I cannot recommend this enough.
10/10.
The Boys: Dirty Business (2024)
This show is becoming a five season long Aristocrats Joke.
The Aristocrats Joke simply asks the comedian to tell the worst, vulgar, offensive, terrible story possible about a family performing an act in front of a talent agent.
I don't get this episode. I don't understand why we have more plot holes about how the boys can always sneak into places that should be more fortified than Fort Knox, why we still are so afraid to kill off ANY main character, and why we are continuing to see shows like this use sexual assault as "comedy". This was a pretty awful episode all around and seems like the writers just wanted to write the worst Aristocrats joke episode they could ("AND I JUST ATE ASPARAGUS!"...Ughhh) because the plot continues to wallow in mediocrity. The plot has just fallen off so much that this really is just about the shock factor at this point.
The Bear: Tomorrow (2024)
As a massive The Bear and Nine Inch Nails fan, this is just terrible sound design
So this is going to be a weird review as there are probably not a huge number of people with this issue and this episode, but here it is:
The episode has one song playing the entire time: Nine Inch Nails (NIN) "Together" from the album "Ghosts V and IV".
This song is part of the NIN Ghosts Series which is six albums of instrumental music. Ghosts I, II, III, and IV came out way back in 2008 and were the precursors for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to create the Oscar Winning soundtrack for The Social Network. Since then, the duo have created many highly acclaimed soundtracks and in 2020, during the pandemic, the duo surprised released a NIN double album for Ghosts V and IV.
Ghosts V and IV were well received and there have been NIN tracks in The Bear in previous episodes. I was excited to hear "Together" as the opening song for this episode...until I realized it would be the ENTIRE episode.
Together is a 10 minute long song that is already repetitive at parts, however it builds to a climax that makes the trip worth it. Tomorrow takes the song and does this:
Into piano part repeated 10x
Building piano part repeated 10x
Climax part for a few seconds
Into piano part repeated 10x
Building piano part repeated 10x
Into piano part repeated 10x
Building piano part repeated 10x
Climax part finally played in full
Into piano part repeated 10x
Building piano part repeated 10x
Into piano part repeated 10x
Building piano part repeated 10x
Climax part played again
Into piano part repeated 10x
Building piano part repeated 10x
Into piano part repeated 10x
Building piano part repeated 10x
End.
As someone who knows this song from front to back, It is MADDENING. I cannot understand why the sound director thought this would work and...if you don't know the song before this episode it probably is fine. I listened to this song for the past four years and know it very well and the sound direction drove me bonkers.
Such a weird sound choice, just killed the episode for me.
Blood of Zeus (2020)
Season One is good but season two is an absolute slog
This is by no means a bad show, it's rather good in many places, but overall seasons one and two suffer from bad pacing, tired character tropes, and lazy animation and sound direction.
The main problem story wise is that Zeus is a total piece of garbage. There is no redeeming him and the Gary Stu main character is just boring to watch. Seraphim is an interesting character, but the whole plot is just by the numbers and boring.
Animation is lazy and sound effects are often from stock sound effects used for the past 50 years.
It is not a bad show again, but it could have been leagues better than it is.
6/10.
Tuca & Bertie (2019)
The show just never came together like it could have.
This is in no way a bad show and I really believe that Netflix were horrific in the non-promotion of the first season. I was glad to see AS pick it up and...even with the two additional seasons the show just never gets to the greatness of Bojack. It is totally fair to compare these two shows and there are numerous similarities, especially both having a very un-even Season One. While Bojack started to become a masterpiece by season three, by season three of Tuca and Vertie, it became more apparent that the show would continue to be "We have Bojack at home" meme.
It is not a bad show. There are some really deep topics in the show and I appreciate this. It just never became something I was craving to watch like Bojack was. The argument of T&B not having enough room to improve after the season one cancellation falls flat when seasons 2 and 3 were also just above average all around.
6/10.
Smiling Friends: Mr. President (2024)
Ah shoot, the series has it's first major misstep
Smiling Friends had a perfect season 1 (Not counting the Brazil gag episode) and the first episode that was released for season 2, Gwimbly, was arguably the best episode of the entire series.
Sadly, Mr. President is just a poor showing in every way. I don't care about the political satire, the episode is just not funny. The real life president character is disgusting and I could not stand to look at him. Besides that, it was just a boring episode. Nothing really hit in the episode. Not sure where the writers were going with this one. Hopefully the rest of the season will pick back up where Gwimbly left off and this season gets back on track.
The Jellies! (2017)
The epitome of a mediocre animated show
I watched several episodes of the show years ago as Tyler the Creator is an incredible musician who has branched out in many other directions. The Jellies! Is his attempt at writing an animated show where he is one of the main characters and, while there is nothing awful about the show, it just isn't funny or interesting enough to be worth watching with hundreds of other better animated shows that are better in every single way than The Jellies. The characters are lame, the plot lines are boring, the humor is flat. Look, this is not a 1/10 show, this is not High Guardian Spice, or EX-ARM, its more on the same 3/10 level as other sub-par animated shows like Velma and Chicago Party Aunt.
Blue Eye Samurai (2023)
This is the golden age of American animation studios
I went into this series with high hopes and it shattered my expectations. Yes this is CG enhanced animation and it works beautifully. The characters are all amazing, the show is dark while also having enough humor to help balance this. The main thing that sets this apart is how much better this is due to being animated by an American Studio. I was initially put off by having a Japanese location show in English, however the voice acting is incredible. The best thing though? No censorship. While there isn't any high level graphical sexual stuff like in adult anime, they are able to show fully nude characters, genitals, and there is no censorship of any violence. There is also no Japanese kawaii humor nonsense that makes so much anime unwatchable. 10/10 show, I hope we get another season in 2025.
Squid Game: The Challenge (2023)
Starts out decent enough but then becomes atrociously boring
The concept of this show makes sense and for the first two episodes it seems to be going well. There are the games from the show, the alliances are fun to watch, and the pace is ok. Then after that the show devolves into a terrible LARP Soap Opera garbage show with no redeeming qualities. The show is boring, very boring. I would have rather it been bad than boring, but the challenges are so terrible as the show goes on. BORING. Just nothing for anyone to watch and enjoy in this terrible show. Netflix just pumps out so much garbage now and wonders why people no longer care about Netflix original shows. 3/10 - Very poor.
Wobble Palace (2018)
Mediocre film of Gen Z dating stereotypes and highly unlikable characters
I saw this film when it released at a local small theatre in my area and promptly forgot about it until it popped in my head for some reason over the past week. I watched a bit of it to refresh my memory and it still is a pretty poor film with not much reason to watch it in 2018, let alone 2023.
There are some parts that are ok; I laughed at the Windows XP curtains and there was the really introspective part at the end where a young successful artist discusses the dozen or so young artists asleep on their floor. They talk about how there is so little way for anyone to be successful in this field and are essentially telling the co-main protagonist that they are woefully ignorant for trying to follow the quirky California artist arch-type.
Besides those, the main two characters just suck. Both are incredibly selfish and unlikable and I really do not understand the point of this movie. The "twist" at the end where both characters embrace while crying and say how much they want to break up with each other...get out of here.
4/10 - Largely forgettable and at times aggressively unlikable.
Castlevania: Nocturne (2023)
Solid continuation of the Castlevania Animation Show
I know nothing of Castlevania lore from the video games and only know about the series lore from the original Netflix animated series.
So lets get this out of the way, this is not as good as the first season of the original series and the OG series is a 10/10 as a whole. There is a great deal of slow buildup in Nocturne that can drag on at times, however the buildup is worth it and I greatly enjoyed this series.
The reason this has so many bad reviews here on IMDB is because of angry white people who are upset that two of the main characters are people of color and that white on black slavery is one of the main storylines in the show. It is the same reason that the Lord of The Rings show was reviewed poorly on here and anything in nerd culture that dares to have people of color or LGBTQIA+ folk in the show will have bad reviews simply because of this.
This is a fine show and this season is a solid 8/10, don't let the angry nerds on here dissuade you from watching this. It also has a season 2 already greenlit because of how well received this was in its first week of release, so don't always trust the peanut gallery that reviews shows on here.
What We Do in the Shadows: Exit Interview (2023)
Cmon writers, you had FIFTY EPISODES TO FIGURE IT OUT!
I really don't understand where the writers for this show were going with this. The season was great, the buildup for Gizmo becoming a vampire was four seasons in the making, and the writers manage to bungle possibly the most pivotal plot line in the show. I am getting so sick of shows resetting everything in the last episode of the season and not taking chances with taking a show in a new direction (The most recent example being The Boys which suffered the same issue in season 3). Why in the world did we not get a full on Vampire Gizmo for Season 6? If you want to change him back at some point late in Season 6, SURE that is fine, give us a bunch of episodes and then we can get invested in haveing him make the decision. Instead we had about 10 minutes and just a terrible cop-out. Not even excited for Season 6 now, I think this may have killed the show for me.
Futurama: Raging Bender (2000)
Horribly aged episodes like these make it tough to rewatch this show
I'm currently going through the entire series to prepare for the new season and, while I watched the show here and there in the 2000's, I never did a full watch of the entire series. This is a terribly aged episode due to horrific anti-trans rhetoric.
I'm sure the not helpful button is getting mashed dear reader, but hear me out. It is one thing to go back to shows from this era and see anti-LGBTQIA+ jokes and, while still hurtful, many of these are not exactly cruel.
The anti-trans part of this is especially cruel. Bender is on a successful run as a robot wrestler, but due to sagging merchandise sales the head of the company wants to change his wrestling persona to "Make everyone hate him, he will now be Gender Bender".
Just look at this for a minute. This goes beyond some of the lesser-cruel jokes (Zapp Branigans trans date having a "surprise" for him on the Valentine episode) and is just straight up "Anyone who is non-gender conforming should be at least despised if not attacked for daring to gender bend".
Yes Matt Groening and the gang did end up creating some really awesome LGBTQIA+ affirming shows later on in the decade and obviously this is time capsule from 23 years ago. But just imagine being a trans person during that time at school, work, etc. Knowing that millions of people just watched a popular show that says trans people should be hated. There were not less trans people then, there were less people who could openly be trans because of awful garbage like this episode.
The series is fine, the new season will be great, this drek however really should come with a disclaimer at the beginning so people can skip this trans hatred.
1/10.
Terra Formars (2014)
Poorly written anime series even without the censorship
This series gained notoriety when it came out in Japan due to the unbelievable amount of censorship that was applied to episodes. Massive black circles would cover huge parts of the screen to block almost anything what was violent. The feedback was that the show was literally unwatchable this way and the series was a complete disaster with this incarnation. The series would soon find its way to CrunchyRoll in a completely uncensored form and, while it does have some novel ways it uses the high level of ultra violence in the show, the writing is just awful and this really is one of the worst sci-fi shows I have ever seen.
The plot makes no sense. Bug people have taken over Mars and are now going to come to Earth to kill humans. No weapons can harm them so Earth merges high-level human fighters with various bugs that has a 50% chance of death when done. These bug fighters are now on the way to Mars to kill the Bug people before they come destroy earth.
The story makes no sense. If guns and other weapons do not work, why not create Terminator like robots to destroy these bug people? It makes no sense that the earth bug people would somehow be stronger than killer robots would be, it is physically impossible for any type of hybrid bug fighter to be more powerful than a fleet of killing machine robots.
Either way, lets remove that plot hole, the series writing is awful. No characters are likable, the weird announcer makes the series seem like some 1980's Ultraman drek, and it just fails to be anything than a gore-porn crapshow.
Strong recommendation to avoid, 3/10.
Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre (2023)
Disappointing mediocre animated series
This was a series I had high hopes for and was even telling friends about with the launch with the really well made trailer on YouTube. I watched the first two episodes and...it's pretty meh. It's not awful, but it really is a boring mess of a show that has no cohesion in each episode. Nothing was scary, nothing was interesting, just very boring stories with mediocre animation as well (the little kid dancing at the Seance was so badly animated, things like this stick out like a sore thumb).
Not sure who this is for, but as someone who loves horror this is just a lacking show with no real reason to watch.
Imawa no Kuni no Arisu (2020)
Just a big meh for season 2
I enjoyed the first season quite a bit but season 2 really devolved into a series of stale tropes, characters with unbreakable plot armor, cheesy rom-com teen nonsense, and all in all it's just a mediocre ending for the series. I finished episode 6 of season 2 and was so bored I looked up the spoilers and...meh. I had thought that each of the characters may be dead and in some type of trial to see where they would go and I wasn't too off the mark, but it still was just a boring ending.
The first season was good but to have all these characters come back for the second season....bleh. 5/10. Could have been better.
Velma (2023)
One or two laughs from the first 3 minutes, but then it just goes down the toilet
I had heard nothing about this show until Charlie Moisty did a video on it and I decided to check it out. This is the same type of humor in other poor animated shows like Chicago Party Aunt, garbage Simpsons episodes over the past 20 years, etc. Etc...
The show is not the worst thing I've ever seen and it really does not deserve all the one star reviews (for a one star show look at High Guardian Spice or Ex-Arm); the animation is serviceable, the narrative is able to be followed, it doesn't do anything absolutely awful besides the bad humor.
3/10 - Very poor show that takes a beloved IP and flushes it down the toilet.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022)
Captures the 80's-90's Gloom Tech Anime style and is just incredible in every way possible.
The 1980's and 90's saw anime and animation in general become the incredible medium it is today. Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Evangelion, these were some of the pioneers of Gloom Tech animation - animations that took place in Blade Runner type futures where every type of technology is now available, yet humans still suck and all this does is create a high-tech dystopian hellscape.
Edgerunners is incredible and captures this vibe so well. EVERYONE is suffering in this show and the writers pull no punches in making sure that we know this. It's brutal, sad, and one of the best series I've seen in decades. 100% recommended.
Primal: Echoes of Eternity (2022)
Yikes...
Hoo boy...This was an abysmal ending to the second season and possibly to the entire series.
Quick recap - everything was amazing up until the final 10 minutes of this episode. The world building, the characters, the animation, everything was top tier. This has to be one of the worst finale episodes I've ever seen, and really it just all falls apart in the last 10 minutes.
Why on Earth would they have the final battle between Spear and Mega Fire Demon be so anti-climatic? It just felt so poorly done and this should have been an episode in and of itself, not about seven minutes of a pretty blah battle.
The end scene of Mira on top of Spear is one of the most cringe things I have ever seen. The dude has third and fourth degree burns on his entire body and we get a freaking sex scene!? Why did they just not have the sex scene the night before, it would have made total sense. It was just disgusting and so poorly thought out...have the people who write and animate this show even understand how nonsensical this was?
Terrible ending to a show that was flawless up until the last ten minutes of this terrible finale (even the weird one-off episode in the middle of season 2 was fine). Possibly one of the worst endings to a show of all time because this was a 10/10 show up until this.
The Legend of Vox Machina (2022)
Great show that borders on excellent at times
I found the show when looking for highly rated animated shows on IMDB and don't really know any of the lore around it. The show is really good, especially the first few episodes that set the stage for the season. I am all about adult animation shows that are not afraid to curse, have violence, and are also LGBTQIA+ inclusive!
Vox Machina does struggle from some stale tropes at times. The characters are all pretty typical (the comedian, the stoic, the big dumb nice ogre character, etc.) and many parts of the story could have used some fleshing out. Not enough background is given for some of the characters and, while this has 12 episodes of about 300 minutes total season one length, the show struggles with pacing at times.
I believe that the show is well worth a watch and am happy it was picked up for a second season.
We Met in Virtual Reality (2022)
A wonderful celebration of disability inclusion
There are so many negative reviews here and I believe many are missing the beauty of this film in showcasing how these applications support people with disabilities. There are numerous characters in the film with disabilities and it was touching to see a world that is so inclusive.
That being said, I loved the style but can understand if the style turns people off. It's glitchy and ugly at times, but there is something really cool about the entire thing taking place in VR.
This film also succeeds in really pulling at your emotional strings. Some of the characters are really relatable and I cried several times during the movie.
There are so many negative reviews here and I believe many are missing the beauty of this film in showcasing how these applications support people with disabilities. There are numerous characters in the film with disabilities and it was touching to see a world that is so inclusive.
M.O.D.O.K. (2021)
Poorly written and terribly unfunny
I was interested in this show as I enjoy some of the more mature themed superhero shows, however MODOK is terrible. The writing just isn't good and there are far better shows out there like the animated Harley Quinn that run circles around this crap.